Richard Garriott’s AAA social media game

Here’s an interesting quote from Richard Garriott regarding his future “AAA” “social media” game, Portalarium.

“The power is in that you don’t have to make a decision to buy it, you play it by clicking on a link, nothing to pay for up front, no real installation and only if you decide you really want to play it will we decide how to eventually charge you money for it.” – Richard Garriott @ Fantastic Fest

[I read the quote to Graev over the phone and his response:  That’s what Demo’s are for!”]  Genius Graev.  Pure genius.

That’s the epitome of “free to play” and “microtransaction funded business model” right there.   He thinks that he’ll be able to “kick [the competition’s] ass pretty easy” since they’re using flash and java.  Surely he knows that there is no way to make a AAA game and have it be social media, let alone a microtransaction funded model, unless his definition of “AAA” differs from the inferred meaning that it will be of the EverQuest or World of Warcraft caliber. Granted, it’s not hard to beat the social media games right now — they’re not very good.

I would much rather see Garriott go back and try to remake the Ultima Online experience again.  He’s infamous now only because Ultima was so great and the rest of his career from there fell off pretty fast.  Why not go back and make an Ultima Online game and become Lord British again and gain back some of that clout?  I can’t think of one single downside.

Now that I think about it, with today’s technology would it be possible to make an Ultima Online type game — isometric view with perhaps slightly better graphics than the original engine — and have it be entirely online and available through social media?  Technically, and this is reaching, such a game COULD be called “AAA” by today’s standards.

  • @Matt: What is?

    @Pai: Worded poorly. He’s infamous because Ultima made him known and the rest of his career is tanking quickly.

  • I like to think Tabula Rasa was a great idea that hit a lot of branches on its way down the money tree, and I even more like to think that Richard Garriot is still capable of creating the wonder that was Ultima Online. The news that Richard Garriot was going to work on social media gaming gave me a nose bleed, because it forced me to associate Ultima Online, with its thievery, full pvp, and housing, to Farmville.

    Granted I played Tabula Rasa from closed beta to cancellation, so there’s still a vocal part of me that wants to punch the bastard in head for (literally) flying into space while the game with his name on it crashed and burned below. Tabula Rasa didn’t need a $30 million publicity stunt, it needed direction.

  • “AAA” what the heck does it mean anyways? It seems to me gaming companies are throwing this term around way too much. I wish it had some clear definition so we would really know if it deserved this title or not.

  • I think Matt meant Runescape, as in, what you’re asking for has already been made. I could be wrong, though.

  • I still think this genre gives too much clout to the early adapters that laid the foundation to it.

    Even John Carmack found himself under a larger developer/publishers roof. And seems content with it, no one is asking him to save us from the boring FPS games that get released every year. Why? Because he can’t.

  • Garriott…I think he just may have gone bananas. I doubt he is capable of making a succesfull modern version of UO. I am pretty sure that he wouldnt agree with some of us as to the strongpoints of UO and the direction MMORPGS should be headed…he learned something…unfortunately…

    I was as excited as the next guy when I heard he is making Tabula rasa..then I looked to see what it is about and was like…what the hell?

    He had his chance with TR and he blew it…I doubt he would want to remake UO…he probably ascended to a higher tier of consciousness and there is no place there for Ultima Online!

  • Yeah, we’re either going to witness a stroke of genius like UO or see that he’s been sipping the alien coolaid from outer space. I think it’s the latter, but at least the possibility is there since 1) we have the game guy that did UO and 2) it’s possible with the technology.

  • The whole quote from Garriot just feels creepy to me, almost like the meta-game and the eventual charging thereof is the focus here and not whatever the actual game is.

    They better settle on a business model soon and not just try to reel people in, misdirect them and then say “Oh what made you think it was free/cheap?”.

  • @Intruder313: Yeah, this is exactly why microtransaction/F2P games do not work. In the end, the developer is more interested in figuring out how to charge the player money than they are creating content and gameplay to keep players playing.

  • Poor Lord General British Richard, aka Dick is too far gone to come back. He’s freebased so much of his own coolaid that he has forgotten what gamers like and what makes a game fun. Have you listened to any of his interviews from the last few years? He’s makes Howard Hughes and Michael Jackson look normal.

    As soon as developers decide that they live up the hype surrounding them, they all go on these binges of what they think is creativity – Garriott thought he as Major Tom, Raph Koster went all Metaplace on us, and Brad McQuaid has his “Vision.” Shake yourselves guys and go back to making games like you are still a gamer.

  • WTF? Richard Garriott was only known for Ultima? And there were what only 9 or 10 Ultimas? And I guess Garriott isn’t known for Wing Commander or Privateer? Garriott was making awesome games when you were still sucking on your mommy’s titties.

  • I can’t find anyone saying that Ultima was all he made. Ultima Online was his claim to fame. It’s what really gave him the clout to attempt other things, and the only reason people are paying attention to him. It’s a great reason, though. That’s why he’s infamous now. He fell from grace and now I’m wondering how he’ll attempt his next big thing.

  • We’re all judged by the mantra – what have you done for me lately. When I was younger I was good looking, and probably taller, but it doesn’t mean squat now.

    Regardless of his prowess of making games, he has turned into a black hole for investment dollars threatening future investment funding by his reckless squandering of peoples’ trust and money.

    bah whatever, hero or goat, he has a long climb back to the top.

  • Well when you talk about Ultima Online then the name to state is Richard Vogel, Raph Koster and Star Long. Those were the Soul of the game.

    I was on some press events with Richard Garriot where we as GMs kinda guarded him on the life servers, while he was demonstrating the game to the press. It was kinda shocking to see his poor knowledge about “his” game. Mostly he spent ages to show them fishing…

  • Oh, and Tabula Rasa was very interesting and different in its first incarnation that Garriott tried to go with (that NCsoft rejected). So he still has creativity in the MMO area.

  • @Morreion: And then he pulled the plug on it because he felt like it. Which is why I don’t have much faith in him now.

    He’s just another in a long line of one hit wonders that are trying to ride that fame for as long as possible. However, I disagree with Keen on Mythic. Warhammer may not be as good as DAoC, but what RvR game ever will be? It’s just like sequels. The original is the best and the rest ride on it’s coat-tails. If you go through life expecting everything to be just as good as the next you will always meet with disappointment. Hype can only be hyped once, and then it becomes old.

    As gamers today, we’re far too narrowminded in our views on what a game should be. We want it our way or no way. We don’t want innovation, we want the past. We want the feeling of the old days. Instead of the rush of tomorrow. When we take a step back, and respect something for what it is, only then will we be able to move forward.

  • Calling Richard Garriott a “one-hit wonder”, or acting like UO was the only thing of note he did is just ignorant. I can’t see the point in what he’s doing now, but please, know your history.

    Also, you can’t remake UO – it’s time has passed. It’s still there for those who want to play it (and they updated the graphics), but no remake of UO is going to catch what the players who ask for this want. I also note the irony of complaining that all companies do is copy each other in previous entries, then asking for a direct copy in this one.

  • You’re wrong if you believe UO can’t be remade and be a success in the right environment. 99% of the players today have never even played a game remotely like UO. The game would feel entirely new while remaining old.

    While Garriott wasn’t a “one-hit wonder”, he certainly became a household name simply for UO. That’s just how it is.

  • Garriot had one major hit in UO, and then a few smaller successes later on. That’s a direct classification for a “one hit wonder”. He had one thing that made him known to everyone, and then he really didn’t continue to do so hot. Which, guess what, means he hit once.. and then didn’t really do that again.

    Anyways, a remake of UO isn’t going to work. That’s my point. We keep demanding things that were done years ago. What’s the point in that? Do you really want things to remain stagnant? Do you really care about innovation? Or do you just care about how you, on a personal level, felt when you used to play these old games? You can’t have both. You can’t demand the past and then expect us to move forward. That’s not how it works. You learn from your past. You don’t copy it.

  • UO worked precisely because it was the first graphical MMO with a ‘big’ IP that launched and allowed a lot of player freedom. What is the key lesson that UO taught a lot of future MMOs? If you allow players freedom, they will abuse it. “The right environment” isn’t going to exist again.

    And again, Garriott’s contribution started with Ultima (let’s ignore Akalabeth, k?) – one of the first PC RPGs and the start of probably the oldest original IP PC RPG franchise that’s still active – and continued through his Origin Systems studio, of which the Wing Commander franchise is probably still the best known non-Ultima title. (BioForge was another Origin Systems favourite of mine, but not as well remembered.)

    The reason that people got excited was not because it was Ultima ONLINE – ‘graphical MUDs’ has been around for a while – but because it was ULTIMA Online. The franchise had a huge number of fans and they were excited enough over playing in the Ultima world they they’d even pay a subscription fee on laggy servers to get involved.

    Just because the first time you heard of Lord British was during UO, doesn’t mean the man was an unknown before then. Ultima had a large fan base and the top of that IP was always Lord British / Richard Garriott. Arguably he was a ‘household name’ among PC RPG players long before UO was even conceptualised. (No computer game developer is a true ‘household name’, to the point that your grandmother could actually mention one. Unless your grandmother dated Richard Garriott.)

  • “Now that I think about it, with today’s technology would it be possible to make an Ultima Online type game — isometric view with perhaps slightly better graphics than the original engine — and have it be entirely online and available through social media? Technically, and this is reaching, such a game COULD be called “AAA” by today’s standards.”

    Not just possible, already done: http://www.runescape.com/