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Garriott Brothers Return to Gaming

Posted by michael on from the sulfurous-ash-and-black-pearls dept.

rhaig writes: "According to the Austin American Statesman, The Garriott brothers, Richard and Robert, the creators of Austin's Origin Systems Inc., are back in the gaming business. The pair scooped up about 30 recently laid-off Origin employees to staff their new Austin-based online game company, Destination Games."

4 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. A long trek back to the top by bartle · · Score: 4

    Garriot certainly did some ground breaking stuff. His Ultima series brought a whole sense of realism and proportionality to RPGs, practically every item in the game could be interacted with in some way. At the time, it allowed for some very interesting and sophisticated gameplay.

    Of course, for games today such concepts are a given. The ideas that put Garriot on the top are now regularly implemented. He's all but starting over from scratch, whatever he accomplishes won't be able to coast on previous successes.

    But on the other hand Mr. Garriot certainly strives to tell a good story, something many of the semi literate game designers don't prioritize anymore. I'll be curious to see what he comes up with, he has a freedom to design games that many of his peers must envy. Hopefully he'll come up with something truly unique and different.

    1. Re:A long trek back to the top by vhold · · Score: 5

      I'm not so sure that those concepts are a given. The trend I've witnessed, adventure games in particular, is that the players have fewer options then ever. When text based input interfaces were all but totally eliminated in favor of icon systems, games that were once expected to take weeks to finish could now be clicked through in a couple of nights.

      Even the Baldur's Gate games, with a huge detailed world full of objects doesn't have the kind of object interoperability that the Ultima games had. Even if a lot of the possibilties that were opened up seemed mostly useless (making bread), it was the fact that it was possible that led to a more involving experience. I think that the game everybody is looking at right now to bring a lot of that back is Neverwinter Nights.

  2. Destination games... by Luyseyal · · Score: 5

    From Origin to Destination. I like it.

    Easily amused,
    -l

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  3. My Origin Experience... by BadmanX · · Score: 5

    If anyone would like to read about my personal experience working at Origin, it's on my web site at http://darkbox.pentagod.com/soulcage.htm.

    Badman