Garriot goes to space, pays for it by suing NCSoft

I don't know if anyone really cares, but I thought this is pretty funny:

Quote:

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Only a few short months after having launched Tabula Rasa in 2007, Richard Garriott discovered that he had been selected to live out his own sci-fi fantasy by journeying to the International Space Station. The trip, which occurred nearly a year to the day after launching his first massively multiplayer online game, cost Garriott in the range of $30 million. Now, the famed game designer may have found a way to pay for another trip to orbit.

esterday, Garriott filed suit against NCsoft in the United States District Court of Texas, charging his former employer with breach of contract and fraud that he claims cost him more than $27 million. According to the complaint, Garriott is now seeking $24 million in damages.
The charges stem from Garriott's departure from the company in November 2008. Though it was initially characterized as an amicable resignation, Garriott now claims that he was fired from his position at NCsoft, a move that resulted in him having to prematurely exercise a number of stock options that he was awarded when the Korean publisher purchased his company Destination Games in 2001. Two weeks after his departure was announced, NCsoft said that it would be shutting down Tabula Rasa, effective February 2009.

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There are a number of amusing bits about this story. First of all, considering how long it was in development (6 years) and the massive amount of money spent on it, Tabula Rasa sucked. It was definitely no Ultima Online, and I feel that Garriot's fame was a hinderance to the game's development, no matter how much it helped marketing, as it might have allowed him to rest on his laurels too easily and make others not give enough oversight or dissenting opinion.


Secondly, it does seem highly suspect that Garriot just all of a sudden felt the need to sue for over his unfair termination from NCsoft, especially in light of that $30 million dollar space trip, which his award would cover about 80% of.

Haha yeah see Garriot was a good game designer there for a while, when he wasn't trying to build the Eiffel tower with every single game.

But once he really had a good track record and fan base, then his games actually just ended up being a series of massive, expensive disappointments. Which is a shame, because I loved the Ultima series, at least up to U7.

I wish they'd make a decent first person modern remake of U4...sigh.