Post by Morreion on Jan 31, 2017 11:53:53 GMT -5
Richard Garriott: the man, the myth, the mischief
On the publication of his autobiography, Polygon talks to one of gaming's most celebrated creators
On the publication of his autobiography, Polygon talks to one of gaming's most celebrated creators
You're probably thinking of Garriott as that fella who wrote the Ultima games and then bought a ticket to space. But his stock of reminiscences go far beyond merely helping to shape video games and visiting the International Space Station for a fun fortnight. He's explored the Titanic. Hiked the Antarctic. Built amazing ghost houses.
Garriott is not the sort to hole himself up in a mansion like some 21st Century Charles Foster Kane, secluded with his greenbacks and his toys. He's out there, living it large, splashing about in the joyful puddles of existence. It's enough to make the rest of us feel a twinge of envy, perhaps even a nasty lick of resentment.
After all, how many of us can say, "my dad was was an astronaut." Yet even as he acknowledges the good fortune of his birth (in the book's opening paragraphs) and an upbringing of marvellous privilege among America's scientific elite, it's impossible to take away his achievements. Being Richard Garriott has taken a lot of effort, and plenty of knocks...
Tolkien + D&D + scientific upbringing + emergent computers = kid who makes a video game. He sold it in a zip-bag from the computer store where, as a teenager, he earned pocket money. One copy ended up in the hands of a Californian entrepreneur who was desperate to make a killing from these newfangled games. The game was published and Garriott was suddenly, nauseatingly rich.
He wasn't very happy with that first game, so he made another, and called it Ultima. He and his business-minded brother got together to create a company called Origin. The Ultima series is now regarded as central to the development of role-playing games, right up to the seminal Ultima Online (1997) which did as much as any other game to pave the way for MMOs...
As the avatar Lord British, Garriott has also enjoyed a second, digital life. He tells some revealing tales of his time as an inhabitant of Ultima Online, where he was, to all intents and purposes, a living god. Like all good anecdotes, there's a neat twist to his apparently limitless power and the hubris this engenders.
He also gets a kick out of surprising players. All his games have some variation on the theme of releasing an innocent from bondage, only to find that the innocent is surprisingly, violently ungrateful.
This love of tricks played out in his long-standing Halloween hobby. Each year he'd spend an unholy amount of money reforming his home into a ghost mansion. People would line up to "enjoy" the experience. Garriott reports cackling along with his team as intrepid visitors literally wet themselves with fear.
Garriott is not the sort to hole himself up in a mansion like some 21st Century Charles Foster Kane, secluded with his greenbacks and his toys. He's out there, living it large, splashing about in the joyful puddles of existence. It's enough to make the rest of us feel a twinge of envy, perhaps even a nasty lick of resentment.
After all, how many of us can say, "my dad was was an astronaut." Yet even as he acknowledges the good fortune of his birth (in the book's opening paragraphs) and an upbringing of marvellous privilege among America's scientific elite, it's impossible to take away his achievements. Being Richard Garriott has taken a lot of effort, and plenty of knocks...
Tolkien + D&D + scientific upbringing + emergent computers = kid who makes a video game. He sold it in a zip-bag from the computer store where, as a teenager, he earned pocket money. One copy ended up in the hands of a Californian entrepreneur who was desperate to make a killing from these newfangled games. The game was published and Garriott was suddenly, nauseatingly rich.
He wasn't very happy with that first game, so he made another, and called it Ultima. He and his business-minded brother got together to create a company called Origin. The Ultima series is now regarded as central to the development of role-playing games, right up to the seminal Ultima Online (1997) which did as much as any other game to pave the way for MMOs...
As the avatar Lord British, Garriott has also enjoyed a second, digital life. He tells some revealing tales of his time as an inhabitant of Ultima Online, where he was, to all intents and purposes, a living god. Like all good anecdotes, there's a neat twist to his apparently limitless power and the hubris this engenders.
He also gets a kick out of surprising players. All his games have some variation on the theme of releasing an innocent from bondage, only to find that the innocent is surprisingly, violently ungrateful.
This love of tricks played out in his long-standing Halloween hobby. Each year he'd spend an unholy amount of money reforming his home into a ghost mansion. People would line up to "enjoy" the experience. Garriott reports cackling along with his team as intrepid visitors literally wet themselves with fear.
