Garriott's New Project Cooking Along

omeros writes "Looks like Garriott's latest project will have plenty of human support, as much of the creative staff from Origin has joined him in the hills outside Austin. They've just moved to a larger space. Also Jake Song, creator of "Lineage," will be working with Destination Games on their first title, "Tabula Rasa." Ultima fans rejoice!"

Comments

Much more informative article...

[AliasTheRoot]

here

Talks about who ncsoft are and what Garriot is doing with them. No mention of property deals for all you office space geeks though.

If you prefer to cut and paste then go here: http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/news/0,10870, 2808054,00.html

Garriott is irrelevant

[Junks Jerzey]

When Garriott started out, he was the heart, soul, designer, and programmer of his games. But for the last ten years, he's been tangential at best. That's not his fault; games with 25 or more people working on them tend to be so diluted that a personal vision cannot shine through. Remember, he _was_ Ultima, yet Ultima VII was such a horribly misguided mess that he apologized to the computer gaming world for releasing it. Ultima IX was all technology to the point that 95% of the development effort went into creating a 3D world...and it still fell short in that department. The actual gameplay and story were laughable.

So unless we're looking at something small, something created by a handful of people, something that goes off in a different direction, then we're being set-up for another big mess (Ultima IX, Daikatana, Messiah, etc., etc.). This is how it always is.

garriot and friends

[Stalcair]

well, I sincerely hope that this is the percursor to the old Origin coming back. IMHO, the biggest factor is not money, but ethics. I hope that Garriot and company learned and grew wise... not just learned one particular very specific lesson of 'Beware EA' or 'Don't sell your soul to EA'. The real lesson is, always allow yourself the freedom to innovate(TM) (hehehe, sorry couldn't resist) without being hindered by marketers and middle or upper management. Don't get me wrong, I think that those positions are needed, but I have noticed a very repetitive pattern of companies outgrowing themselves then major changes taking place (internally or by being absorbed or hiring some suits). Either way, it ends up with the marketers making business decisions not marketing, and the management micro-mismanaging in areas that they either no little to none about, or just are spread too thin.

If I could ask of Garriot one big thing, it would be "Please don't loose site of yourselves in the storm of business, please listen to that child inside you that wants to create, and please go back to more emphasis in gameplay, story/plot and immersion and then artwork will augment it all... Not pretty bells and whistles first and the whole gaming experience as an afterthought." OK, so it is not one thing and is really long.

I have faith they will find their way and become the group of gaming and game making fanatics that they used to be. Good Luck! (yet another thing making me want to move back to Texas)