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Spector, Garriott on Games

Posted by michael on from the invisible-hand-of-the-ion-illuminati dept.

Warrior-GS writes "GameSpy has two interesting interviews up. Richard Garriott of Ultima fame talks about leaving Origin, getting bought out by NCSoft and becoming a pitchman for a popular Korean MMORPG trying to make it in the states. He also mentions his new game, Tabula Rasa. The other interview is with Warren Spector, who opened up a bit on the Deus Ex sequel Invisible War, while also commenting on linear games, anime style games and what the future holds."

26 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Tabula Rasa by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Funny

    that was the way my teachers described my mind, especially during exams.

    1. Re:Tabula Rasa by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Here's what Garriott says about the name "Tabula Risa":

      There's a number of ways to interpret "clean slate." We originally picked that name less because of subject matter than the need to start over again. Interestingly, if you go into the way the game is designed, we didn't actively choose to have the fiction behind the game support that title, but the background tale we selected actually wound up fitting the name quite well.

      Interesting that the name didn't necessarily have anything to do with the actual product.

      --sex

      --
      Very popular slashdot journal for adul
  2. WHAT?!?!? by Sheepdot · · Score: 4, Funny
    Hold on a dag gum minute...

    You mean to tell me that the Deus Ex Sequel is going to come out BEFORE Half-Life 2 and Duke Nukem Forever?

  3. All good things come from .kr by stardeep · · Score: 3, Funny

    Popular Korean MMORPG? Just what we need! Not only will it have the brilliant gameplay of Everquest, but the great community of Battle.net!

    And it will make you many *GREAT OFFERS* to *ENLARGE YOUR PENIS* in a character set your terminal cannot display...

    --
    Sentimentality is merely the Bank Holiday of cynicism.
    - Oscar Wilde
  4. Name the Game by creative_name · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is naming games after the lives of the developers, per Tabula Rasa going to become a trend? Can we look forward to seeing Still No Date and Damn Soda on my Keyboard on store shelves soon?!?

    --
    Posting as directed.
    1. Re:Name the Game by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, we've had that for years. Quake (as in what developers did when they saw a real, breathing female,) Unreal (the prospect of sex in their lives) and Final Fantasy (the realization that, 50 years from now, the developer would die in his semen-soaked underwear, dreaming of a real woman..)

      Actually, ironically, according to Hironobu Sakaguchi (producer of Final Fantasy,) the game was named such because if it didn't succeed, it really WAS Square's final fantasy. :) But the game was popular, Square recovered, and all is well with the cosmos.

  5. Re:80'sthemesong.mp3 by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Funny

    "nana nana NA na NAAaa Na Spector Garriot. NananaNA NA NAAAAAAA!"

    That has got to be the worst spelling of the Inspector Gadget theme song I've ever seen.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  6. The silence continues... by briggsb · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure they'll talk about MMORPGs but will they ever address the long term effects of potions of healing? I heard theycause liver damage.

  7. Classic Ultima vs Online by aridhol · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've been a fan of Ultima ever since I got Ultima IV on my Commodore; I've since gone back and played the entire central series.

    I look at what they're marketing as Ultima these days, and have to wonder what the heck happened. Why did Blackthorne go from being a corrupted nobleman to being a cyborg? When did Britannia get all ultra-high-tech?

    I don't play online games. I like to go through at my own pace, on my own schedule, and complete a game. I don't want some 31337 kiddie to come along and screw up the game by being completely out of character or by cheating. And I don't want to pay extra to play a game that I've already bought.

    So my Ultima experience is limited to the "real" Ultimas. I'll never know what accident of history changed Britannia to a sci-fi nightmare. And I won't lose any sleep over it.

    --
    I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
    1. Re:Classic Ultima vs Online by Gaijin42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Britannia started out all high tech. It wasn't till 4 that it went fantasy all the way. In the early ultimas, there were space ships, lasers, etc.

      Blackthorn is a cyborg because of a plot line invoving Exedus. Which kinda makes sense, but only if you started with the early Ultimas.

    2. Re:Classic Ultima vs Online by DrCode · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree, and also have another reason for playing single-person games: I like being the hero. In single-person games, you get to save the world, solve the mystery, or defeat the evil pirate LeChuck.

      One game designer (forgot who) suggested that the ideal multi-player game would have far more NPC's than real players. That way, each human player could still be the center of attention, and get involved in complex plots, only occasionally running into other humans.

  8. hey kids! by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 4, Funny

    "becoming a pitchman for a popular Korean MMORPG trying to make it in the states."

    Would you like to live in the shadow of nuclear war? Haven't you always fascinated about frolicking in a demilitarized zone? Well, have we got a game for you!

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
    Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
  9. Re:Deus Ex 2 looks pretty good. by Hilleh · · Score: 3, Funny

    In other news, it appears that many people enjoy breathing oxygen.

  10. Lineage 2 website by Bonker · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.lineage2.com/

    This is the 'New' version of the Korean game. It's in early beta phase, but has a steady following. Character models are *gorgeous*.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
  11. Re:Cool. by All+Names+Have+Been · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think that this game, Tabula Rasa, is going to be a best seller. Look at it. It's made by a guy with a solid reputation (He brought us Ultima!), and by combining that with today's cutting-edge graphics technologies, It's bound to be good. I don't play any games like this, but I know people who do, and I'd bet they'ed sink thier money into this. Rock on, Richard!

    I think that this game, Daikatana, Is going to be a best seller. Look at it. It's made by a guy with a solid reputation (He brought us Quake!), and by combining that with today's cutting-edge graphics technologies, it's bound to be good. I don't play any games like this, but I know people who do, and I'd bet they'ed sink thier money into this. Rock on, John Romero!

    I know, I know, you were joking.

  12. Re:Cool. by Reedo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I honestly can't tell if that's sarcasm of not.

    If not, then you must not have heard about Ultima 9? Made by a guy with a solid reputation (Ultima!) and was heralded by Origin/EA for it's cutting-edge graphics technology. It released and was one of the biggest disasters in recent memory. It was so buggy that Origin remastered the game with all the patches and sent them out to registered users who bought Ultima 9. They also shut down the message boards shortly after release because of the massive amount of complaints.

  13. Deus Ex by T-Kir · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I started playing Deus Ex again this past week, and apart from it crashing constantly (either my 9500 Pro/Catalyst 3 drivers/DirectX 9) the other thing that struck me was how more real the game felt with all the political stuff going on now, just swop the Liberty statue with the Twin Towers, the extra laws being brought in to combat terrorism, et al.

    Very scary indeed :(

    --
    Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
  14. The Ultima Collection by pHatidic · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Ultima Collection, available from eastore.ea.com all of the single player Ultima's except for the last one, number nine. They also through in Akalabeth.

    Caveat Emptor -- Several of the games do not work properly on modern systems do to memory incompatibities. IMHO, the only Ultima really worth playing is U7, which now works perfectly do to the new engine made by Exult. However, Ultima's 4-6 are also very good if you have the time and patience to get them working (U4 worked fine for me except the sound but I could never really get U5 & U6 running correctly)

  15. Re:I hated his Ultima 1, first release, it had bug by SoftwareJanitor · · Score: 4, Informative

    His second major product, was Ultima 1 for the Apple II.

    Correct, I remember it well. Spent many too many hours playing it back in the early 80's.

    It was written in Pascal P-Code I think, As was Wizardry 1 by another author.

    Wizardry was indeed written in Apple Pascal (UCSD), but Ultima 1 was mostly written in Applesoft BASIC, as anyone who has perused the cracked copies that floated around the 'warez' circles back in those days could tell you.

    Chances are Ultima 1 would have been less buggy had it been written in Pascal than in BASIC.

  16. Akalabeth! by feed_those_kitties · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Wow, does that bring back memories.

    Spending hours on my old Apple ][, trying to avoid the 'a thief stole some food' message...

    *sigh*...

    I found one spot in one dungeon where using a magic attack would double all your stats. Do that several times, and you'd become a killing machine. I remember attacking with the bow, and killing things off the screen...

    *sigh*...

  17. Garriott's Halloween Haunted House by mr.henry · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Richard Garriott used to open his Austin house to the public for a pretty spectacular Haunted House. As I recall, people camped out front for days to make sure they got one of the limited spots.

    I always thought that was cool of the guy. I think he's moved out of that house and into a "castle" on some serious acreage, not too far from his old place.

  18. Deus Ex by Teckla · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you're a gamer, and you haven't played Deus Ex yet, do yourself a favor and GO BUY IT. RIGHT NOW.

    I've seen it as cheap as $10 in the bargain bin (jewel case and CD only). The boxed version is only $20.

    Deus Ex rocks. So much so, that I'm basing my next PC purchase on when Deus Ex: Invisible War is released.

    -Teckla

  19. Re:80'sthemesong.mp3 by Dynedain · · Score: 3, Funny

    "nana nana NA na NAAaa Na Spector Garriot. NananaNA NA NAAAAAAA!"

    That has got to be the worst spelling of the Inspector Gadget theme song I've ever seen.

    And as every child of '80s knows, the Inspector Gadget theme song is either sung with "doo do doo do" or "bom bom bom", NOT "na na na"

    --
    I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
  20. It's been awhile... by vsavatar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I haven't heard from Warren Spector in a long time. I used to have phone conversations occassionally when he was at Origin and Looking Glass. Back then me and a few others were trying to put together a gaming project of our own, and Mr. Spector was kind enough to give us some thoughts on how to go about doing it, what was required, what some dos and don'ts of the industry were, and the like. He was always pretty cool and I really admired most of the games he produced in addition to the fact that he was never too high and mighty to take some time out and chat with the little guy about the business and how to succeed. Richard Garriot is a lot like Warren in some ways. He was always very down to earth, I loved the games he produced (especially the Ultima series), and I was supposed to meet him at Dragon*Con in '97, but with all the work being done on UO he wasn't able to show up. It's unfortunate that he had to resign from Origin, but I can fully understand it with the way EA raped the company and changed it into something that RG had never intended. It's nice to hear that both these guys are still around and kicking. Maybe there's yet some hope for more good games to come out.

  21. Some of Garriott's comments are just bizarre to me by WesternActor · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And as Ultima 8 got into scheduling trouble, as every Ultima always did, rather than make a decision as we had in the past to hold the game until it was polished, we began to cut things out to stay on schedule. And we cut and we cut and we cut and the game that was finally released was not only shipped early even for the cut version (and therefore buggy), but also had its guts ripped out as far as being an Ultima.
    and
    So, Ultima 9, throughout its development, was the bastard child of Electronic Arts and suffered from that lack of support. But we persevered anyway, and I think it came out pretty well. There were some areas I wish we could have taken the time to make better, but considering the rocky road of internal support it had, it actually turned out quite nicely.
    I guess I pretty much have the opposite feelings about his games. I thought Ultima VIII, for all its problems, was at least interesting and playable, and it kept my interest right until the very end. I didn't think there was much of anything worthwhile about Ultima IX at all, and I gave up somewhere near halfway through. It seemed to take great job in subverting everything that had made Ultima what it was for almost two decades.

    Nothing in that game seemed to resemble anything I was familiar with, and I'd played all the Ultima games (including both Ultima Underworld titles, Savage Empire, and Martian Dreams). Ultima VIII was completely different from what had come before, but it had to operate under a different set of rules, because it took place in a different universe/dimension as far removed from Britannia as Earth was. Ultima IX could utilize no such excuse... It just made no sense, and was boring as heck, despite being graphically superior to... well... almost everything.

    I agree with Garriott about Ultima VII being the Ultima of Ultimas, though. Those were the days!

    --

    --Matthew
    "If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
  22. Timely Review of Garriot /UO by beacher · · Score: 3, Interesting

    EA/OSI is staging their latest publish to the servers right now, and there's some bit of a scandal there.
    EA was offering a new landmass to the playerbase, only if they ordered through Gamestop, EBGames, Amazon, or EA's own store. The new client was to ship on the 11th. What EA sisn't say was that they were going to dump all of their packages at UPS's Louisvilla Air hub at 2AM, ensuring that the packages got delivered that day. A lot of people are crying foul, but it really doesn't seem to matter..... The servers haven't come back up yet (they said it would take 4-5 hours.. it's been about 12 now..) One of the servers has come up and I've seen turtles **** faster.
    They have changed a bunch of merchant and housing rules in order to generate more subscriptions and it just keeps getting worse and worse. They don't fix the nastier bugs and they ban people that accidentally stumble on bugs (There's a tile that you can step on and send a broadcast message - Fixed? Not that I know of. Bannable? You betcha - Can they lock something over it so nobody steps on it? Sure! Why don't they? No idea)

    Garriot said it - "And as Ultima 8 got into scheduling trouble, as every Ultima always did, rather than make a decision as we had in the past to hold the game until it was polished, we began to cut things out to stay on schedule. And we cut and we cut and we cut and the game that was finally released was not only shipped early even for the cut version (and therefore buggy), but also had its guts ripped out as far as being an Ultima."

    They have no interest in fixing what is wrong, they keep introducing new "features", and their customer service has been offshored by people who don't play the game and english is their second language.

    Real frustrating knowing that your pixel crack is been cut with noise...