Petition for EA to offer Richard Garriott producer position...

[Zosimus]

Not to disagree Woodsman (by the way, I agree with almost everything you post), but to add on to this post... I follow RG's stuff too and believe he's got more in mind with social gaming than just pumping out BritanniaVille.

Like the three eras of gaming... the first two eras developed, refined and matured. Social gaming is still in the development stage of it's era... it hasn't refined and matured yet. Social gaming is in a crude, exploratory time... much like Meridian 59, MUDs and even UO back in '96 through '98. Just as those games created the genre, EQ and WoW raised the bar and redefined the MMO genre... just as GW2 and SWTOR are expected to be the 3rd gen MMOs that raise the bar and set a new standard.

RG sees social gaming as going to back to simplicity to draw casual gamers with some basic MMO design elements thrown into the mix. Like crafting, interaction, reliance and player created content... things that RG excels at. He believes that social games today are sorely underdeveloped, but with proper design and today's & tomorrow's technology... he can create social games that rivals the best MMOs, that would be the second stage of the social game era.

100% agrees with everything you said.

Even though RG believes that social games of today are underdeveloped they are still raking in a ton of cash. Can they be better? I agree they can and should. Technology advances always pushes the envelope what developers can do. IMO it's more going back to RG early roots in what he liked/loved to do with the early Ultimas.They can be better with more technological advances from that time..

While RG can now develop better (hopefully) social games with his company and him having full control he may achieve his goals and dreams in what he wants to build. With TR costing NCsoft 100 mil in developement and being rebuilt 3 times in it's making it was a struggle for him. Between a company wanting a finished product after 7 years in developement it wasnt good for him or NCsoft. Social gaming for the casual players is where alot of future developers will move into. It wont take years for some social games being built a they are in MMO's.

Nok also made an excellent point about GW2 and SWTOR. They will change the face of MMO's this decade.

Let me add..... NCsoft 100 million lost was big news on how a company can make mistakes making a MMO. EA has put 300 million into STWOR so this is huge for EA to get it right.

 

[Evlar]

I voted no... simply because I wouldn't wish EA Games on anyone.

I can understand RG's attachment to Ultima, but surely he's got better things to do than pimp himself to EA?

The state things are in with UO, he'd need much more than a magic wand to fix what's fundamentally broken with the game. I really don't think an item frenzied replacement for Sims Online was part of his "vision".

Personally, unless they start again from scratch, I don't think it'll make an ounce of difference who the new producer is.

I'm still happily playing UO, just not on any of the "official" shards. I'm having a blast with PvP, have rediscovered some great RP communities and am having fun with players who's time isn't dictated by greed or selfishness.

It begs the question... who ruined UO? The players or the developers?

You decide

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

I agree this is the case on most shards. But I know at least one shard who's EMs have a zero tolerance policy for swearing and acting up. They (EMs) are respectful, polite and stern. And they have implemented some pretty decent tools for dealing with griefers. Some of the events are clever and challenging in other ways than just mass monster bashing. So I think it can be done without intervention from higher up. Just a little observation and training.

How do these EMs handle this kind of behavior, beyond simply asking the offending part(y/ies) to stop? What if the person doesn't stop?

 

[Shiznit Bo'Bourbon]

I dunno if it's been said yet, but while Garriot might like to do something with the Ultima franchise again, being the producer on a mostly forgotten billion-year old MMO is a position far below his stature.

He'd never take the job and it doesn't pay enough to get him. He's Richard Freakin' Garriot, he'll go start his own company and make a game. He won't come down and punch the clock at whatever EA broom closet UO and DAoC are being operated out of these days.

Also, yes, Raph Koster was and is a ****ing crank.

 

[Woodsman]

RG sees social gaming as going to back to simplicity to draw casual gamers with some basic MMO design elements thrown into the mix. Like crafting, interaction, reliance and player created content... things that RG excels at. He believes that social games today are sorely underdeveloped, but with proper design and today's & tomorrow's technology... he can create social games that rivals the best MMOs, that would be the second stage of the social game era.

You put it better than I did, so agreeing 100%.

He doesn't need a massive team either - I think the main round of Portalarium funding was under $4 million. Even then if there are mistakes made, they can be overcome, unlike a MMORPG that's rewritten like TR. Then again, he won't have to face that - he'll get to do what he wants, without having some executive making him rewrite anything.

While RG can now develop better (hopefully) social games with his company and him having full control he may achieve his goals and dreams in what he wants to build.

I think this is what he has wanted for years. I think it's bugged him from the first time he was forced into releasing a game early or having to scale back a game because of limitations - time, hardware, or even the software tools, or at the worst case, having to rewrite parts or the entirety of a game because some executives don't like it.

There won't be any middlemen between he and his fans. No office politics, nobody taking the money from his games for completely unrelated games. If the game makes $10 million, he can sink that $10 million back into the game if he wants.

It's kind of exciting to me to watch, because he's got full control of everything. I'm looking at Portalarium's job offerings and I'm interested. Social and mobile gaming right now kind of reminds me of the early shareware days when a lot of small companies and 1-3 man operations were going full tilt and able to do what they wanted to do. They had hurdles that RG doesn't have in 2011 such as reaching out to people since you couldn't cheaply advertise online or spread worth of mouth online (BBSes ) and mail order (and floppies) could be expensive. I could tell friends about a game over the phone or a BBS back then, but then I'd have to send them the floppies through the mail or they might have to spend money on connection/long distance charges.

Now I can email them a link and they can be at the developer's website and downloading within literally seconds. It's easy to see why Garriott is excited about all of this.

 

[Viper09]

I dunno if it's been said yet, but while Garriot might like to do something with the Ultima franchise again, being the producer on a mostly forgotten billion-year old MMO is a position far below his stature.

He'd never take the job and it doesn't pay enough to get him. He's Richard Freakin' Garriot, he'll go start his own company and make a game. He won't come down and punch the clock at whatever EA broom closet UO and DAoC are being operated out of these days.

Well said. Fully true. He'd fair a heck of a lot better just creating a new MMO. Maybe like UO2? lol