$15,125,684+ Taken, 10 Years Developed, Complete Failure

[@gorganhorn6872]

He promised to deliver an experience unlike anything that existed. A game so cutting edge you can literally play it from anywhere in the world... all you have to do is close your eyes and imagine.

[@mydogbullwinkle]

While you're "playing" his game, he's boarding a space shuttle carrying a briefcase with all the stolen money to go hide out where the even the sweet arm of justice could never reach him: the ISS. You see, I think that was his grand plan, all along.

[@_Twink]

​@@mydogbullwinklelol "all the stolen money." News flash it was all spent trying to develop a game before there was the technology to realize it.

[@troodon1096]

@@_Twink I think that's the fair way to look at it. He wasn't trying to scam people; he just promised more than could ever be realistically delivered, but he honestly believed it could be. He wasn't a liar, he was just in over his head.

[@_Twink]

@@troodon1096 that's how I see it. He honestly tried, failed. Hate him sure, but they actually put an honest effort in. He wanted his vision to be real, he had one too. Still he failed because it wasn't actually possible. Sad but reality.

[@thorntonmellon]

@@_Twink It's like you didn't watch the last half of the video. He was proven to be an abject liar and con man.

[@OnlyKaerius]

I was a Tabula Rasa closed beta tester. What killed Tabula Rasa was one simple decision during beta, that had the testers in uproar, but were unheeded. Until that time, every player who participated in killing an enemy got the full experience for the kill, this lead to a camaraderie, where everyone was encouraged to help each other. The decision was to change this so only the player who did the most damage got the experience, changing the entire mood of the game from band of brothers to get away from me killstealer. Such a simple change absolutely destroyed the game.

[@teratokomi8731]

I think shroud was like that too, where kill stealing was the nature of the combat. Beta testers in shroud also raised hell about the shitty combat system and were ignored completely

[@Lina-ws3by]

balance & fun do not always go hand in hand. Games are fun, sometimes just leave it unbalanced

[@JMoore68]

That was one thing, and I agree. However, to me the BIGGEST issue was completely changing the game after years of development from a space fantasy game that looked and felt completely unique and turning it into a terribly rushed space shooter. I was in the alpha and early beta, and it was just soul sucking after following it for 5 years as a really unique game.

[@hilding2063]

who would ever play support in such a scenario? @@Lina-ws3by

[@arostwocents]

Wow how could anyone justify such an awful change? If you want competition include a PvP mode

[@Killigma]

Paying $3000 for virtual land will always be crazy to me.

[@blindlynx]

The man who spent 30 million dollars to go into space needed to be crowdfunded

[@nikdudnik]

Makes sense! He spent all his money to go into space. 🤣

[@subtledemisefox]

That's why Kickstarters from gaming "legends" like Keiji Inafune, Tommy Tallarico, etc. are less trustworthy than the nobody that's new to the industry.

[@Siilk70]

​@@nikdudnikpretty sure the video said he got back his money sueing the Korean company, but i may be wrong I'm still learning English

[@nikdudnik]

​@@Siilk70 life is a learning experience. I can't tell if you are right, I didn't watch the video.

[@stuartburns8657]

​@@Siilk70yes I think he got 28 million if I heard correctly

[@ButWhyWasTaken]

When a game project is almost out of money after raising over 10 million while also being in early access AND selling stuff for hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the ingame cash shop there are not alarm bells going off in my head, no there are air raid sirens going off in my head.

[@julius4858]

I mean, 10m isn't that much if you stretch it over the couple of years and have to pay multiple high level gamedevs. They all make >100k, some much more than that - get 10 developers, and you're down 1-3m every year in literally just developer salaries. No design work, no marketing, no CEO salary, nothing. And 10 is a small team.

[@radandpaisley]

10 million is sadly nothing when it comes to an MMO budget

[@AndresColumbus]

its the star citizen model lol

[@MorbidEel]

@@AndresColumbus SC is more successful in that regard ...

[@zuzoscorner]

Cough star citizen cough

[@Drakarys]

Richard's story is the epitome of “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

[@Dowlphin]

Fake hero then, though. People's character doesn't change nearly as much as people think. It merely gets exposed eventually through testing times.

[@ViralKiller]

well said @@Dowlphin

[@SuayipEdelli]

My heroes are the G's that made freeshards possible.

[@slizzardshroomer9666]

@@Dowlphin People can change. It's their instincts that always stay the same

[@htf5555]

its crazy. the man who made THE mmorpg, brought so low

[@JohnTheRevelat0r]

23:45 Hit the nail right on the head. As an early backer, I had that exact feeling: "why are you gatekeeping castles and plots behind USD walls? These things should be rewards for players that do great deeds, as they were in UO."

[@techpriest4787]

Seems they learned nothing from Diablo's 3 real-money action house...

[@AL-lh2ht]

You could say the same thing about the entire game industry.

[@Clandestinemonkey]

tell me you didn't play UO without telling me you didn't play UO. lol

[@chowjappa6470]

If u were around for this game, that stuff was in the game and earnable. Backers simple got perm places they didn't need to urn or pay for weekly.

[@mortox2k]

as the narrator in the video points out, developers get greedy and butthurt about third-party markets for their games. Even World of Warcraft went down this route with their WoW Tokens to combat third-party gold sales, or when Diablo 3 initially launched with an in-game real-money auction house. Garriott saw people were selling their original official-server Ultima Online landplots and towers, keeps, and castles for thousands of dollars on sites like eBay and decided that he would instead be the one to profit from that market.

[@kulman4295]

Some years ago I attended a presentation sponsored by my workplace, in which Garriot told us about his video game history, especially Ultima, as well as about his recent space trip. All I remember from this is that he clearly doesn't really care that much about games anymore (or at least is not involved in the development really) and that pooping in space is really difficult because of the lack of gravity

[@jackclark4598]

no doubt parts of it are incredible beyond belief but you're also kinda spending $30m to hang out in a v small lab & get in everyone's way for 2 weeks

[@kulman4295]

@@jackclark4598 he also mentioned there was unexpected smoke inside their ship on the way back. Seems like kind of a pointless way to die

[@gabrielmistergab1664]

@@jackclark4598 yeah he could had spent that money to fund his game instead of begging regular people for money

[@AbuHajarAlBugatti]

Oh so he is just another Bezos then.

[@ethan4237]

@@jackclark4598​​⁠​​⁠​⁠ That’s a pretty blunt way to look at a pretty unique situation. He grew up, on paper, with a father he viewed as a superhero. He was literally a NASA astronaut! Understandably, he wanted to be just like his hero and to follow in his footsteps. That dream was crushed at a young age, through no fault of his own and entirely out of his control. Even though that is a childhood that so many of us experienced, he stood a far greater chance of making it a reality. Now, however many years later, he has amassed substantial wealth through a passion project, he is able to experience his childhood dream. Something very few people have done before, which just so happens to be an out of this world experience. Not to mention how indescribable that trip/experience would be.

[@strawbarry7834]

I knew all of this from following his career since the 80's, but I just wanted to pass along my sincere appreciation to you Kira for giving a very balanced take on all of it. It's all too easy to point fingers and laugh, but in reality, Richard's story is a tragedy. He really *did* do great things a long time ago. But like many who peak early in life, he just couldn't avoid the temptation for "one last ride." And no matter the field, singers, actors, writers...99% of the time they crash and burn trying to re-live those glory days. It's a tale as old as time. So thanks for granting him the respect he deserves, while also acknowledging the person he ultimately (no pun intended) became.

[@1234kingconan]

Is that why he made a money shop asking for money for all these items and clearly basing the game around extorting his fans

[@SolidFake]

Nearly all people don't want to accept that luck and opportunity are the biggest components of success.

[@s4db0i]

I'm sure that's a great comfort to all the people he scammed lol

[@Idkwhtpsipto]

Yes I love how non biased his videos are

[@scavenger4704]

Respect? He'd cannibalize you and your family if he had the chance during a famine.

[@levelsandgear5644]

It's kind of amazing how unaware of all this I was. I was a huge Ultima Fan (Including UO) and really respected Garriott. Due to being older and having other responsibilities, I never really paid attention to this title. Watching this video, and as soon as the creator mentioned that you could buy titles and land in Shroud, it set off alarm bells. "Wait, they wanted land and the world to be formed and shaped by those in it, but are then selling the best stuff prior to its launch?" - Both can't happen. I also cringed when I saw Richard being involved in an NFT based game. Sad to see these people turned out to be grifters.

[@koralgol777]

Not to defend the grifters but I don't think many of them really understand what NFTs are and how it's perceived on the internet it's just another current thing to people that lost touch decades ago.

[@GonzoDonzo]

That was a crazy time heavily influenced by the crazy success's that crowdfunding games were achieving at the time. You had star citizen selling ships for thousands of dollars, tiny indie devs asking for 50k and receiving millions and many old school devs popping out of the woodwork who basically sold themselves purely on reputation from decades past. It was a gold rush and they all wanted a piece of the pie I did back this game and tried to play it once or twice when they released the first playable version for backers and it was clear that the game was going to be terrible even without them selling houses and land. The general gameplay felt extremely dated in every respect and super janky

[@portalmasterry6765]

I thought you were talking about Star Citizen! =)

[@Horvath_Gabor]

@@koralgol777 Hell, I'm pretty sure many of the actual grifters actively rugpulling NFT projects don't understand what they are, and just doing it because it's a painfully easy way to exchange online clout for money, without any accountability attached. When Logan Paul can rugpull multiple projects in succession and still have rubes willing to throw money for him, what exactly do we expect from the average, washed-out old online celebrities and so called "superstar game developers"? To leave free money on the table, when they could take it in exchange for the embers of their old fame? I doubt educating them about NFTs and the crypto-market would change any of that.

[@_Twink]

The lawsuit was frivolous and EA only ended up paying like 10k to a gaming museum. The people who sued got nothing because nothing wrong happened. He tried something ambitious and failed. This channel loves to cherry pick info and make everyone look like a badguy.

[@anonony9081]

At least this guy has a history of building games. Not nearly as egregious as the kickstarters that make millions of dollars based on nothing but a concept from somebody with no experience making games

[@Lemminjoose]

Theft is always egregious.

[@Requiem100500]

that just makes it worse

[@damenwhelan3236]

That's worse. He had the means to understand the cost and carried on regardless

[@section7173]

He never made _any_ decent game. His ideas were purchased by a studio which funded and supplied a competent team to create a game based on his ideas without worrying about the legalities of copyright and intellectual property infringement.

[@Remixersoloman]

A history of making games doesn't mean much if you take an extended absence. The world of programming changes rapidly, and skills learned in the early years are going to be almost useless when applied to a modern game.

[@zardoz8023]

He paid 30 million dollars to go to space, but he couldn't pay half of that amount to fund his own game... why take the risk when you have naive fans that you can scam, right?

[@everythingpony]

Wait what?

[@zardoz8023]

@@everythingpony he spend one week aboard the International Space Station, and for that he paid 30 million dollars out of his own pocket. That was before he made this game.

[@BileDuctBalderdash]

the ISS is inside the Earth's lower orbit not Space 😊

[@JimmyBoy9878]

​@@BileDuctBalderdashHow would that be possible? Where about in the world do you think it is?

[@BileDuctBalderdash]

@@JimmyBoy9878 why don't you look into it for yourself if you have problems believing others

[@DeriumandWifey]

The amount of money I gave to that Kickstarter was more than I want to admit. I had such high hopes for SotA, been playing UO since the late 90s and Garriott rug pulled us on promises it would be UO2.

[@1marcelfilms]

pwned

[@gnazkull]

noway man. i was only thinking of card shop life like a day or 2 ago. How random to spot you in the comments on this video

[@DeriumandWifey]

@@gnazkull hahaha that's so awesome!! What a weird place to meet.

[@raylopez99]

I had no idea games were so expensive to make, especially if they have "retro" graphics? Did the narrator say one crowd sourced game ended up costing $600M or did I mishear?

[@LCInfantry]

@@raylopez99 Star citizen

[@RoseKindred]

Kinda shows that even those who are part of the industry can still fail. How can a "nobody" who launches an MMO on KS expect to succeed?

[@wolfdwarf]

Because that nobody will be The One to break the mold. /s

[@heartless_gamer]

When a lot of these initial Kickstarter MMOs hit there really wasn't an "off the shelf" game engine to grab so most of what we are seeing with these crowd funded MMOs failing is getting lost in building a game engine that is years behind what gamers expect now. A "nobody" can realistically get started now and grab Unreal Engine 5 and make an MMO. There are small teams making all sorts of amazing games. I full expect to see some "nobody" MMOs in the near-ish future.

[@sergiokaminotanjo]

well you dont expect to succed as much as you can expect to succed in a casino, it can go well or it can go bad thats why you have to do what you love

[@Caydiem]

By knowing what he's getting into. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain that 2 million isn't anywhere close to the budget needed for an MMO.

[@snart2195]

I think the key term here is "MMO." It's the combination of massive funding needed and niche market appeal that makes an MMO based on new IP almost impossible to launch in 2023.

[@GarlicKing101]

I pledged around 300 bucks when the Kickstarter started, left a positive review in early access state, exactly hoping that over time, the game would improve. Haven't started the game since 4 or 5 years As one who played UO since its very start and still does today every now and then, it's sad to see the fall of Richard

[@rileylabski]

I'm a UO player and still play on the official shards, subscription and all. I *wanted* to like SoTA but it was clearly doomed to fail and I'm glad I didn't invest any money in supporting it. I'm just enjoying riding out the "Golden Years" of official UO at this point, SoTA was really disappointing for a lot of UO players.

[@ryancordle3625]

Using the freetoplay currently. Glad I missed this Kickstart I loved UO from Beta until third dawn.....didn't turn that mode on at all lol

[@lingricen8077]

Erm, regardless of the success, spending 300? mate wtf is wrong with you, why would you admit to this, you could have taken a trip, you’re sad

[@tottorookokkoroo5318]

Why leave a positive review if the game isnt good?

[@GarlicKing101]

@@tottorookokkoroo5318 I wrote that review in very early access, back in 2016 Meanwhile, I can't be arsed to change it tbh

[@6581punk]

TBH, some people just aren't up to the job once a project gets to a certain scale. If you were a bedroom coder then you aren't necessarily going to be much good at managing a team of 100+ people.

[@JordyValentine]

I agree, but someone more competent may realise they're out of their depth (as you point out yourself) and thus instead hire someone who is capable, rather than trying to fumble through management

[@metazoxan2]

A large part of the issue is the mistaken perception that by being an experienced worker and knowing what it takes to get things done, you and then qualified to lead others to do the same. While this is half true the problem is a skilled worker is not always a skilled leader. Add in to the fact evolving tech means that by the time they become a leader the techniques and scale are no longer comparable to what they have experience in ... and this kind of issue happens a lot.

[@lorddrayvon1426]

"OK sir, what are your qualifications for this job?" "Uh, I can code in binary and program Snake." "Perfect, you're now the lead developer of Nintendo."

[@AL-lh2ht]

He literally ran some of the top RPG development studio for a decades. Him knowing how to run a company and manage people was not the issue.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@JordyValentinehe literally spend most of his career in in management for decades. He literally one of the most accomplished developers ever in the industry. What your talking about has nothing to do with the situation.

[@khornebread4802]

I used to play this game, but finally quit sometime last year. The purchase and reselling of little modification to 0 modification store-bought assets, the absolutely mind-boggling balance decisions, the tossing out of much needed fixes just to add in pop culture references as digital items, to the leader developer thinking that ever decision he's made is amazing and Shroud is a gem in the rough (this is the same guy that switched to working on the NFT game, and many of the updates for Shroud got "mysteriously" smaller), and finally much of the player base defending almost everything the remaining developers do with unrequited fervor. Seriously, I will not be surprised if I see a few of them in the comments attempting to defend Shroud. Thank you for covering this: While my time in Shroud wasn't all bad, I am glad I finally quit for good, and I hope that the tiny playerbase that remains moves on to better games deserving of their attention.

[@berenvalari]

I wish I never backed it lol. Money down the drain. I never even really got a chance to play it but the few samples I did take didn't draw me in.

[@decemberferret]

@@berenvalari same here, i spent about 12 hours across a few months, cuz it was just.. dead and boring

[@StarCadet]

Chris pretty much stepped aside and put Ravalox in charge. Ravalox is a long time player and community manager who is learning to dev. Chances are high that if he ever gets to a compentent level, he will just jump ship to another studio.

[@poppapiltch5601]

​@berenvalari at least you learned a lesson

[@poppapiltch5601]

I wonder how much Ravalox spent on this

[@bloodqc]

There's something gross about a space-traveling millionaire begging for money instead of assuming the risk himself.

[@balloonpoop]

Why take on that financial risk if you don't have to? There's a reason he has lots of money.

[@CoercedJab]

I mean why use your money if people are gonna willingly volunteer their own?

[@jimmyjakes1823]

@@CoercedJab Exactly. Only suckers put up their own money. No one would care if this guy went bankrupt and had to sell his house because the game wasn't a hit.

[@AC-hj9tv]

Bro is real cringe

[@diamondsmasher]

I would say there’s something gross about a 78 year old billionaire begging people for campaign donations rather than funding it themselves, but hey, some people are gullible.

[@DK-sk4cv]

UO is still the only game that felt like I was living an alter ego in a fantasy land where alliances, politics, trade, player housing, risk and reward with everything in between made the world feel alive and unique. Great times.

[@satazs6195]

Try Wurm Online

[@TheJrr71]

I often feel genuinely homesick for UO 😢

[@PLB-gp2hd]

Mortal Online 2 is the only true Ultima Online successor we have or will ever get. Almost every feature, skill, spell, mechanics, ect is basically copied from UO but in unreal engine 5 with gorgeous graphics and much much better gameplay. I'd suggest it to any UO oldies feeling a itch. Thank me later.

[@DK-sk4cv]

@@PLB-gp2hd Thanks for the heads up, have heard of it but never tried it, but will definately give it a go!

[@DK-sk4cv]

@@TheJrr71 You and I both brother.

[@pr0ntab]

The problem is he achieved his dream (going to space). I think that just fundamentally changed him from a dreamer striving towards a legacy to someone just struggling to hold onto it.

[@hyperteleXii]

It boggles the mind that the man got to experience the astronaut effect, only to devolve into a scammer.

[@HappysFunPalace]

The problem is mismanagement of funds lol

[@Chibanah]

Nah he got rich too early with Ultima, he got used to being wealthy and he just wanted more and more money. Nothing really new here, he is just a typical greedy guy, who wants even more. NTF game? Typical mindfinger move to his fanbase, similary how DrDisrespect god to huge, he thinks he can whatever he wants even doing idiot NTF games. Typical douchebag move, when you are so rich, you think it is not even problem anymore to lose a part of your fanbase.

[@kohl1999]

Maybe Richard was taken in by nostalgia, just like all of us who played his games. Perhaps he thought of the days when it was just him or a small team making amazing games. The problem is, games have evolved massively, along with player expectations. He will always get credit from me for being a pioneer; for going there first, both with CRPGs and (largely) with MMORPGs (yes, there were technically some before UO...). But, it is just a different world now. The industry took what people like Garriott made, and brought it to the next level. I would like to think he wasn't malicious in his intent, rather, he was just in over his head. Maybe I am being too generous and forgiving?

[@skepticalextraterrestrial2971]

@@kohl1999 Yeah, being a single developer hacking together early 1980's games is a vastly different skill than organizing a team to develop a complex MMO. You would think UO/Tabula Rasa experience would have helped him, but at the same time they did show that he was not very good at this sort of thing. Was it an honest failure or was he just paying himself a fat paycheck? I don't know.

[@nikidelvalle]

I always love when a video takes me through a story I had no idea had been happening and makes me as mad about it as if I had been there the whole time.

[@USMCArchAngel03]

I got completely suckered by this game. Bought a high priced package (a few hundred bucks). But this is also the game that finally taught me to never give money to another kickstarter project.

[@RobotMasterSplash]

I put $100 into Mighty No. 9...for a version of the game that never came out. I keep the fake "collector's edition" physical box that can't even hold a game on my shelf as a permanent reminder to never be fooled by the hubris of "industry leaders".

[@ndpndntvar]

goodjob boot

[@HansFriedrich532]

You're gullible

[@JohnTheRevelat0r]

I also funded this project, but majorly because I had no problem sending some money his way as thanks for all the years of absolute fun I had playing UO. Sadly, I got the feeling that it would flop as soon as the first playable demo came out. It just lacked the feeling. However, it did not spoil early support for me because I was also an early access supporter of Rust and The Long Dark, two games that did extremely well over the years.

[@cetriyasArtnComicsChannel]

That's sad to hear though I don't back such large projects. I still to books or small projects that is mostly completed

[@barefootwalk1798]

Gotta hand it to Garriot: He managed to accomplish the one thing that makes rewatching SpoonyOne's Ultima retrospective even more sad.

[@SerratedSkies]

"In 1975, Richard was exposed to computers" MAN WHY'D YOU SAY THAT LIKE IT'S A DISEASE

[@sweatshopkids]

Would you say it's a........virus?

[@Boogie_the_cat]

sadly, he never was able to find a cure, and he lived his whole life as a carrier of the dread illness, causing it to spread to his friends and family. he still to this day tests positive for 'British Micro computer' syndrome.

[@daviddines479]

Perhaps because computers werent ubiquitous in 1975 ?

[@arostwocents]

​@@daviddines479Exactly - most in 75 were years away from being exposed a computer. It was very rare at that point. Kids today 🧐

[@Man_Aslume]

​@@Boogie_the_catI heard computers expanded to a pandemic Hope we get a cure

[@exidy-yt]

This hurts me on a personal level. The moment I first loaded up Ultima III on my brand new Commodore 64 at age 13 a major direction in my life's path was opened and with Ultima IV, firmly asphalted and lined. I considered Richard Garriott a personal hero and role model. I even followed Garriott into working at Electronic Arts Canada, where we all played Ultima Online during downtime until EverQuest took the MMORPG into 3D. After the cancellation of Ultima Online 2 and Lord B. leaving to go work with NCsoft it was never the same. A downward spiral of suck for my one-time hero. I suppose the old adage of 'Die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villian' really does fit the man, since he's now embraced 'TEH BLOCKCHAIN' even harder then he did microtransactions in SotA. Sigh. I think I'll go lie down now.

[@BlueBeam10]

You gamers don't understand business people and the concept of trading trust vs cash grab, or "monetizing trust". A capitalist understand the value of trust and customer loyalty because it takes years if not decades to build it up. Once they have this "asset" which is customer's trust and loyalty, they don't want to sit on it. They see it as value they can sell. So they'll work on a dodgy project (scam) than only one with that baggage of trust can pull off. Once they have taken all the money possible, they say sorry goodbye and rinse and repeat as long as there is some "trust capital" left to sell out.

[@TR-707]

​@@BlueBeam10you need to lie down for sure

[@exidy-yt]

@@BlueBeam10 Sorry, I still cannot see Richard Garriott that cynically. Maybe that's my weakness, but so be it. He's still Father of The Avatar to me, flaws and all.

[@BlueBeam10]

@@exidy-yt Well it doesn't make him hitler or anything but it's okay sometimes to part ways. It doesn't erase the good old time, his "achievements" or the fun you had with his games... it just turns a page to it.

[@VonOzbourne]

@@BlueBeam10 Unfortunately the thing you business people don't understand about game people is that it's usually the other way around. It's not that the legacy of reputation is simply cashed in for quick monetary reward, but carted out as a reason to trust that person in their next creative endeavour. The irony being that if monetary gain was the main goal, there are better ways to go about that than the games industry, and if they just stuck to putting out a good product, the results would be more prestige and a larger bank account than any scheme would garner. As well, these stories of creatives failing to deliver are more often than not, a matter of ineptitude over malice. Money has a habit of going out the door in the course of normal business and maybe you spend a bit more than one should on salaries and building leases and office furniture and equipment. Employees, in-house and external contractors will require to be paid, and we can't forget about taxes. They didn't "take the money and run", they just didn't realize how quickly they could burn through it all and when the pitchforks come out, they do have to run, but by then, there isn't anything left to take.

[@yesterdaysrose5446]

OW GOD this hurts. Richard Garriott is one of my favourite game designers of all time, and the Ultima series innovated much of the CRPG genre for decades to come. What happened?

[@Blisterdude123]

Times change. And the visionaries of the past don't know when to let go and move on.They become relics, and can't seem to resist tarnishing their own legacies.

[@sadturtlesoup8832]

​@@Blisterdude123Most of these guys could have retired on the empires they built. Instead they kept reaching for glory. Then found out that gravity is a bitch and so are player expectations.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@sadturtlesoup8832WTF does this even suppose to mean?

[@nokkturnaldev]

@@sadturtlesoup8832 I mean, or they just enjoy what they do and want to keep doing it lol

[@brettbr815]

​@@AL-lh2htI dunno learn English first and maybe you'll know

[@koc2648]

He spent 30 million to go to the space station for 12 days. That should tell you everything you need to know about him.

[@ThirtytwoJ]

cant take it with ya. Paid a lot of yearly salaries for that vacation.

[@dnebdal]

I don't know - if I had that sort of money sitting around, and I had just left (or been fired from) my job, would I consider space tourism? I can't honestly say no.

[@TheCheeseMovesSideways]

​​@@dnebdalfair enough, it's your money and space is cool but if you have THAT much money in store then why kickstarting in the first place? Why not fund your game independently? He's just scamming people and that's a fact you can't deny

[@dnebdal]

@@TheCheeseMovesSideways What's the timeline there? If it's "fired, space, oh I don't have a lot of money left and want to do a game but don't have funding" then whatever. If he actually had a lot of money left and decided to do a kickstarter to isolate himself from how the game did, or if he splurged on the space thing while raising money, then yeah that's scammier.

[@RoyalPain_isaG]

I mean who do not want to go to space. it's the ultimate frontier.

[@whimsofmim]

It needs to be shouted from the rooftops. RICHARD GARRIOTT WAS MERELY THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ON UO. Most of the actual game design came from Raph Koster (and others), NOT Dick Garriott.

[@lancebaylis3169]

@whimsofmim Similarly, Ultima 6, Ultima 7, Serpent Isle, the Ultima 6 spin off games and both Ultima Underworld games were designed primarily by Warren Spector, who later went on to create Deus Ex. I truly believe Garriot was just a figurehead by this point. He collected the checks, but his personal involvement in his creation was minimal. Those games being so good is IMO almost completely thanks to Spector.

[@krunchie101]

Once you realize he hasn't designed a game since the 90s this gets even more silly.

[@TheBaldr]

I've heard both Richard Garriott and Ralph Koster speak at Game Development conferences. Garriott is a great UI and software designer, but he isn't such great a game designer. Koster spent his youth creating his own board games, by the time he entered the industry he had years of experience in game mechanics.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

To pretend like Ultima Online isn't an Ultima- game, is absolutely insanity. If you were talking about Camelot Unchained & Mark Jacobs, I'd agree. But you're talking about a wildly successful first MMORPG that RG was lead on. Derp.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

@@TheBaldr "The guy who innovated, creating the entire crpg genre, with 8 titles in a row that were huge successes, and then started a second genre making crpg's MMO's, is actually not a great game designer. Trust me bro I heard him talk one time." Absolute depravity of intellect. How do you function in life with such a disability?

[@reptilez13]

Richard was always an eccentric enigma, probably savant/genius in some way. Its almost like a gamble just interacting with the dude. Even his games that were good felt that way - like they could have gone either way. And they did.

[@kaipacifica1289]

It seems Garriott -- and other legends -- are chasing an industry that has grown exponentially since the height of their exploits. They could go back to their beginnings and make modest but fun games (ie Caves of Lore or Avernum), but instead chase blockbusters at a size and scale they've never experienced... looking for that "jackpot" that will again raise them into modern gaming royalty (or line their pockets with gold). If Garriott were to take a page from Spiderweb Games -- making small but great RPGs -- I think there's a high probability he'd make money and keep his reputation... but... it seems Garriott loves the casino more.

[@kaipacifica1289]

@@Adol666 If Garriott made Moonring, Skald, or even something akin to Avernum or even Valheim (very small team games) I think he'd still be seen as both visionary and relevant. But chasing a AAA space that is technologically so far beyond where he found success just feels like an aging legend taking another trip to a casino and getting lost along the way. I worked for a brilliant producer (in another medium) who saw a lot of success in the 70's. He was "lost" trying to chase after what he thought were modern tastes, but found success (again) in returning to projects similar to his early work. The audience was still there for his work... but they wanted his work... not what he thought was big, flashy, and "modern."

[@TrowGundam]

I know Tabula Rosa wasn't the greatest game, but I enjoyed playing it when it first came out. Only reason I didn't play more was I was in college and working full time, so just didn't have the time to do so. By the time I had the time again, the game was gone.

[@JohnnyKusiga]

Yea I enjoyed what little I tried during some tests but had a laptop at the time that barely got 10fps so wanted to wait til I got a pc instead of play it but ended up closing before that happened.

[@Beercenary]

Same, I enjoyed that game as well.

[@Fishster]

Me too, it was quite fun.

[@PersonausdemAll]

Rosa? 😂

[@PiousSlayer]

It was genuinely ahead of its time. It would dominate today.

[@corgibuttz2550]

Ohhh I'm ready for this one. As a guy who grew up watching his dad play Ultima IV and V on our Tandy 1000, I held this guy up on a pedestal. I got UO as soon as I was able, begged my mom for a credit card for the sub and played for years. I thought the man could do no wrong in video games. I gave his space themed game a try and it was... ok but moved on quickly. I got SotA as soon as it released on steam and holy shit, it was wretched. This guys credibility has been in pure free fall for years since.

[@sadturtlesoup8832]

Some people just don't know how to quit when they're ahead. He had built an empire. Ultima had and still has a following unlike many games of its time. The dude could have retired right then and there. Instead he just kept reaching for glory, and subsequently found out that gravity is a bitch and so are player expectations.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@sadturtlesoup8832it’s a bit cringe to call him a failure for making another game.

[@AL-lh2ht]

@@Nighterlevhe made the game. He did what he said he was going to do. Making a “bad game” is not a moral sin. And more so literally the video shows the reviews were mixed so objectively it’s not considered a bad game. He kept putting in other peoples mouths.

[@Chuckler127]

This is a common pattern I see throughout the gaming industry (both computer and tabletop) when it comes to designers who are deemed as "pioneers". Well, I've noticed this pattern that the "pioneers" who were the first to bring games to us old folk are rarely able to adapt to the refined standards over time.

[@ExarchGaming]

Kira is kind of being a little disengeinous, he's relying solely on the steam numbers, despite the fact that the game has it's own launcher you download from their website. That won't show up for population numbers, as the game couldnt run with only 600 people playing

[@jason_samosa]

There’s a lot of channels in this genre, but I really think you’ve hit a solid balance of quality narrative with a personable style. Subbed!

[@damearstor2120]

You cared enough to type out a reply​@ZCHD36CKJFR57VKK7RFK

[@felixfox8810]

If we'd do a list of all those hot shot game devs from back in the days and see where they stand today, the results would overall be quite heartbreaking. I guess money and fame at a young age, doesn't really help creativity and work ethics and staying relevant in such an ultra-fast changing, tech-based business is much harder than expected. Obviously not an excuse for fraudulent behaviour.

[@luckyfk3452]

@ch-yq5yn Was he a hot shot dev back then though? I think he was always more of the business minded of the bunch.

[@truedox]

Even if you could time travel those hot shot devs from back in the day at their prime and put them in present day they still probably wouldn't succeed. Standing out now takes either massive amount of luck or investment.

[@JohnBLZ]

At least we still got Julian Gollop.

[@GraveYardShif7]

The easiest people to corrupt with money are those with a little morals and values for themselves. I've seen it with KZbinrs and Streamers who become millionaires. They become arrogant, no longer care anymore about others and only care about themselves. Good examples of this are Ethan/Hila Klein, Hasan Piker, Steven Crowder, Donald Trump, Democrats, Republicans and Alex Jones. Even most of those who are poor are easily corruptable. Greed is a Human weakness. Lord of the Rings. Great Movie.

[@wasd____]

The problem with putting too much faith in "hot shot" game devs is that the game that made you a hot shot back in the day is just an obsolete game that doesn't even meet basic expectations and standards now.

[@dmug]

Never heard of him or played Ultima or an MMO, but well done documentary. Kickstarter has been a trail of broken dreams and I find the fails endlessly fascinating. I don’t think many older devs go in thinking of a get rich scheme but vastly overshot the problems and costs of modern game dev.

[@juliajs1752]

I think many old-school developers just don't understand what a vast undertaking it is these days to deliver AAA. Kickstarter is great for what is was meant for - small-scale creators who just need a boost to get things done. But once you're talking about something that monsters like EA and Blizzard and Ubisoft need years to create, Kickstarter is more likely to be the wrong place.

[@jackrose5077]

Same. Never heard of any of these things but it’s a shame none the less that so many people got screwed.

[@KirelRed]

I ran a guild of roughly 100 players and we were friends/rivals with other guilds during the tabula rasa timeframe. Call it maybe 1000 players altogether in our group of guilds. At least 100 of our collective was in the TR beta. And we were all in. We were ready to move away from WOW and into Tabula Rasa. But that one change that they made late in beta, changed everything for us. Changing xp from all who connected with the mob getting full xp to only the person who gets the kill getting xp, just killed the game for us. I don't think a single person played it on release.

[@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p]

Not remotely relevant. Wow and every other major mmo did the same

[@timiniho]

@@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p Well these people did not want something like WoW or other major MMOs at the time. Definitely relevant.

[@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p]

@@timiniho one consistent fact of life is that literally everybody just wants WoW. Every MMO that isn't wow dies

[@timiniho]

@@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p Yeah not arguing against that, definitely. But on the flipside, MMORPG as a genre isn't exactly booming these days, everyone doesn't want WoW - anymore at least.

[@AndreiGeorgescu-j9p]

@@timiniho classic wow was the largest numbers wow has had since MoP. They do want WoW. Just actual wow, not whatever retail is

[@ed0985587]

UO was lightning in a bottle. It's like when a band comes up with a killer song that defines a generation, and then tries to recreate that magic over numerous albums thereafter and eventually fizzles out. That being said, I'm not sure why it's so hard for game companies to create a new game like UO. The recipe is out there. They just don't seem to have the desire to tread through the muck.

[@masterinsan0]

I think there are two major factors at play which make games like UO hard to replicate. 1) The gaming industry has changed so much since the mid-90's. Not just in terms of the developers and publishers, but also the players. UO is a game that only really works, IMO, when you're awed enough by the novelty to work your way over its _massive_ learning curve and difficulty. The bar is so high for games in 2023, though, that releasing a game which would "wow" people that same way - to get them to overlook the huge wall and get invested in the world and experience - is nearly impossible. It can still be done (I think most people agree Elden Ring is an example of such a game not in the MMO space) but few teams will get the investment necessary to achieve it, because: 2) As the industry matures, publishers are less and less willing to take risks. Much like the movie industry, publishers prefer to invest big on safe bets from known and trusted teams instead of experimenting and potentially having massive flops on their hands. However, games like UO can only be made from risky, full-hearted passion projects. With few options for funding, those projects often turn to crowdfunding, but as was discussed in the video, MMOs require an absolutely disproportionate amount of funding relative to other genres. It's (again) nearly impossible to crowdfund an MMO which could combine the risky passion with the budget to achieve something truly interesting. "Nostalgia" isn't what made UO successful in 1997, because at the time it wasn't nostalgic. It was state-of-the-art and (mostly) unprecedented. Hell, _the internet itself_ was unprecedented at the time. That fact, and the novelty it brought, certainly can't be discounted when you're discussing the success of early MMOs. Every part of the idea of exploring a persistent online world - the persistence, the online nature, and the fact that it was a whole world - was new and fresh. But today, it's nostalgic. What does a game like UO even look like, starting from scratch in 2023? What is something so new and fresh and exciting that just getting onboard feels like an adventure itself? IMO, that's probably what has drawn so many of the older guard to NFTs/blockchain. I bet each of them originally thought of the internet the same way we thought of NFTs. "This seems like it could be the next big thing... or a complete flop." They were already old enough at that time to evaluate it (the internet) much more critically than, for example, I could. I was 8 when I got online for the first time, and 10 when EverQuest (my first MMO) came out. To me, it was all magic. To them, it seemed (probably) like potentially unsustainable hype, but exciting nonetheless. I dunno, sorry for the rant, but I thought it was an interesting topic to explore.

[@chabꟊ]

@@masterinsan0the closest game that could achieve this in the current age is ashes of creation.

[@PeterSedesse]

Part of the reason it can't be recreated is just the Internet itself. I played since 1998, and here is the difference.. in 1998, you explored dungeons, you barely knew what was in each dungeon. There weren't maps online. There weren't dps meters or boss strats. Something is too hard, bring a friend, you want to get to the bottom of a dungeon, bring 20. It was also a no-drop game, meaning you got gold, but then had to buy the best weapons from players who devoted their time to crafting. There weren't loot tables you could look up and see what creature you had to kill to get upgraded boots. I quit playing UO when they turned it into a drop game rather than crafting based. It removed the feel of a real economy, and you ended up just camping monsters and ruining your eyes trying to compare 8 stats on each item to see if it was an upgrade. I'm not sure it can be recreated because if it became popular, then there would quickly be websites that told you the most optimal way to increase your dps and which creatures you should farm to optimize your gold farming. There is bliss in ignorance, and that cannot exist in a popular game unless you want to gimp yourself

[@Wobbothe3rd]

Ultima Online was considered a DISASTER when it was released. Back in 1997 many people said at the time that UO was a scam and criticized Gariott on similar terms as today.

[@ed0985587]

@@Wobbothe3rd Ya you’re absolutely right. It was basically created nearly perfectly by accident and had bugs galore, the client was horrible, etc. Some private servers have taken that and have done a good job at taking those flaws polishing it into what feels like the next generation of UO (although Classic UO will always have a soft spot for me).

[@rizar1982]

I kickstarted this game, played 2 hours in all... I really wanted this to work!

[@mercenarygundam1487]

Money well spent?

[@rizar1982]

@@mercenarygundam1487 well... of course not, but I think I wasted money on more useless things. At least I can look at the box and the cloth map :)

[@bigbrother7304]

You should really give it a try, it's improved 10x fold since the KS days. At least login and sell me your rare stuff :D

[@mattt3555]

I think I put like $30-40 into it at one point it was on sale. I actually put about 100 hours into it. It wasn't necessarily bad, but it definitely suffered from a lack of community compared to Ultima Online.

[@angelarch5352]

Note that these $10,000 pledge funds are chump change compared to what we have pledged to Star Citizen... which sounds like a very similar situation.

[@lingricen8077]

You know no ones forcing you to pledge? Seriously, people like you pledgers have a way of just losing money. If not this, then you would definitely have lost it to some other scam. No sympathy for you

[@dangerszewski9816]

Frankly, I was a beta tester and day-one player of Tabula Rasa, his "first" attempt at recapturing his success: I saw then that he didn't really KNOW what actually made his games a success, it just happened that his personal vision and the zeitgeist coincided in such a way he made a cultural touchstone and a seminal genre game. He did good at making games but all of that generation have never been able to recreate their success: Sid Meyer is probably the only one who made multiple games as good as his first, the rest of that crop of iconic and well-known names? what have ANY of them really done since? Game design is an art and a science and like all arts and all sciences it advances over time, they're just behind the tech curve now.

[@kolai1987]

I never played any of his games, but from this story it appears to me that he simply stopped progressing or pushing things forward after Ultima, based on his subsequent work - like he lost his passion to innovate and push things forward.

[@bucbuc472]

Meier is a big disappointment too.

[@bl8388]

He's like an M. Night Shyamalan. Several great films and so many cringy (Lady in the water), or just boring films.

[@bojcio]

I've beta tested Tabula Rasa also. I honestly don't think I've spent more then 10 hours on the game. It sucked. I was really disappointed.

[@Nemethon]

"what have ANY of them really done since?" - Star Citizen from Chris Roberts is really impressive. Even though it's not finished, it already has more content than some games that are considered "final". ;)

[@TheGrimGary]

Missed out on: Ultima Online 2 (Dead nefore arrival after a showcase due to EA not wanting to compete with itself, it was also not really accepted by fans since it was almost a complete departure from Ultima Lore), Ultima 9 which essentially killed Origin Systems soon after, which lead to RG's departure and that is also when I met Richard at E3 1998 in Atlanta (the singular year it was held there). I had actually supported Shroud of the Avatar. However, even before it was finished; it became soon apparent it was a game that 1) Didn't know what it wanted to be and no one could tell you clearly what it was supposed to be. 2) Like Star Citizen which it's own kickstarter was going on at the same time, they found more money in selling properties for players than the game itself. After release, no one was playing except a few die hards (which always happens). The game was pretty dire from the ground up, through all of it's iterations. Then it was forgotten. Then I saw a couple of years ago Garriot trying to sell an NFT based property game with Ultima like theme's which made me lose all respect for the man.

[@icsg7287]

sorry I've to, *lose

[@tsalVlog]

I knew him as a teenager; lived up the street from him. He was different before money got ahold of him.

[@brianjc720]

@@tsalVlogYeah he sounded like a genuinely passionate guy before all the money.

[@TheGrimGary]

@@icsg7287 Fixipated lol

[@balancebreaker1561]

Money kills passion

[@johnsansker7064]

This is exactly why I don't do early access games anymore. Last one I made the mistake of getting into was this RTS that claimed to be "a spiritual successor" to "old school C&C". It is a real time strategy game, this is pretty much the only thing it has in common with the old series.

[@HeisenbergFam]

Its a shame how people abuse the kindness of strangers who want to help only to give a middle finger to those who helped

[@AL-lh2ht]

He made the game. What more did you want? It go out compete WOW?

[@RicardoSantos-oz3uj]

He make the game. He fullfilled his end.

[@Right_Said_Brett]

@@RicardoSantos-oz3uj Eh, not really. The backers didn't pledge their money for a micro-transaction filled, Pay-to-Win game model.

[@theheresiarch3740]

I actually quite liked Tabula Rasa. It was a unique setting at the time, with some unique storylines and decent combat. Then it got Korea-fied in its last few patches by making even trash mobs into ridiculous damage sponges, reducing XP and other rewards, and turning the grind up to 11, at which point the already modest playerbase was driven away and the game died entirely.

[@thedoge9590]

Yeah I never realized it was made by the same guy who made ultima. I bought tabula when it first came out and I enjoyed it. The combat was a nice change to the usual right click sword combat the other MMOs had. I miss the time when MMOs were popular and there was a large variety of them to pick and play, nowadays it's mainly just WoW and a handful of Korean style MMOs.

[@rash9488]

Tabula Rasa was a favorite of mine. Had the CE with the art book and dogtags, etc.

[@jjoshaugh]

Another Tabula Rasa guy here. Loved it.

[@bojcio]

To each his own I suppose. I couldn't get myself to play Tabula Rasa. It was just too mediocre. Having played multiple MMOs at that point, TR just seemed like another grindy average MMO with pretty much nothing to it. I also remember the aiming and targeting being a weird mix of FPS style and lockon and it being really janky and unintuitive, could just be my memory though, could have also been the beta.

[@Nightykk]

It also did have that massive issue of coming out right as TBC was at its peak, and Wrath was but a year away.

[@Catonzo]

Developers very, very often mistake "Open, free roam world" with "I don't need to balance the monsters, give random caves, easily scaling world and practically next to no writing". It is staggering how many of these developers actually just think that a massive sandbox is enough. Both for offline and online gaming.

[@memitim171]

I've played so many that don't even really have sand in them...I feel like I'm telling a 3 yr old not to put a fork in a plug socket when I have to say things like "An empty world with a few randomly generated quests does not a sandbox make"....How can it be that someone (especially the ones that name drop UO and SWG) actually needs that explaining to them? 🤪

[@jakeparkinson8929]

the only reason ultima online worked was because simple graphics means you don't have to create several 3d animations and assets, and the other reason is because there wasn't anything quite like it at the time the game was still active. Examples of simple graphics with compex gameplay: - SS13 - CDDA - Rimworld - Dwarf Fortress - Zomboid - Underrail ... You get the idea. Sprites are much easier to slash out in a short timeframe, hence why ultima online was able to be tangible in the 90's given its feature set. if it had tried to be 3d, it would have taken until 2002~ to be finished and would have already look outdated by 2000 standards; especially when games like half-lifes sequel was around the corner. I dare you to find anything as mechanically advanced as ss13 or CDDA that is entirely in 3d.

[@niallrussell7184]

there are plenty of indie 3d / small dev games out there, but it needs to be stylised to avoid the super photorealism AAAs are going for.. Valheim, Albion Online, etc.

[@Omegka]

@@stevenross-watt8640 To be fair if you dont know wat SS13 stands for there's 0 chance you know what space station 13 is anyways. I think it's safe to use acronyms if you would have to explain either way.

[@overlordmae9090]

@@Omegka You can't google ss13 but you can google space station 13.

[@Omegka]

@@overlordmae9090 did you try googling ss13?

[@rathernotpick7183]

@@overlordmae9090 but you can google ss13 and space station 13 is the 1st thing that shows up?

[@mhc706]

Man the first ten minutes is like hearing the greatest American dream coming true. Sadly it turned into a man who couldn’t stop working and just enjoy what he has earned, and like so many others it backfired

[@AL-lh2ht]

Not really backfired. He just made a mixed reviewed game. Making a bad game is not evil.

[@NavidIsANoob]

@@AL-lh2ht What about the undelivered Kickstarter promises?

[@iloveanothermanswives4278]

@AL-lh2ht Watch until the end. He became a crypto grifter.

[@Tom_Quixote]

The american dream is scamming other people out of their money.

[@Rasip]

As someone that watched the Tabula Rasa meltdown first hand, you got some stuff wrong. He was still working when he went to space on vacation. While there the company fired him, released a fake resignation letter claiming it was from him, and announced the game was shutting. Afterwards the stock price tanked and his contact required him to sell all his stock at the much lower price after he was released from quarantine. Most of the court settlement was the difference in stock value.

[@Runeinc]

This game has been in development for so long, I remember when Spoony talked about this game and did an interview with Richard Garriott.

[@DeadManSinging1]

Back in ancient times when Spoony still did videos (I know hes done some lets plays on other peoples channels lately but hes still pretty quiet)

[@scottydu81]

“Richard Garriot, what Hell hath you wrought?!”

[@lifebait4226]

Ultima Online to this day is still the only game to ever make me feel like I was someone else, living out my fantasy world life and creating new stories each time I log in. . If a game like this could ever be made again my life would be over, thank you Lord British for failing so I could live.

[@Unknown_Genius]

5 months late, but.... It could be made - the sole issue is that it'd either be rather "boring" by today's standards in terms of Gameplay or rather said: Not for mainstream people as there's no clear guideline, no clear goal - and therefor: No real reason to play it for most and no reason to make it for those that have the money. There's the possibility to create it like it was back then (with the same graphics obviously as all was more simple) - but at that point it's honestly pointless as people could just return to the original for the same effect (unless you got a real, real passionate team of developers which further fine tunes every aspect of it for years - which could potentially kill it as well as... we know that communities are easy to split even on the slightest changes).

[@sufficientphrase7769]

Yep. The culture expected to support it has just changed too much

[@electryc03]

Yeah, wife and I both played, made our first online friends that would continue to Neverwinter Nights. I have a lot of friends I've met over the world playing Neverwinter Nights. UO opened the door to that. I don't regret playing that game. It was good times.

[@hansjorgkunde3772]

Well i invested 10€, the reason was simple, it was a thank you for the many hours i played Ultima series and Ultima Online. I looked into the development a couple years ago and it was underwhelming. The selling of 'manors' for plain money did not bode well. I found it appalling and moved on. Btw, Star Citizen use the very same financing model. Selling ships for hard cash. And it will be most likely just a bigger case of fraud than "Fraud of the Avatar".

[@8bitwiz_]

"I found it appalling and moved on." And never looked back? Yes, at that time they were trying to raise money to build a thing. And it's built. And then nobody cared because they didn't like what it looked like while it was still being built, and couldn't be arsed to take another look to see what it looks like when they aren't trying to raise money. Even free-to-play, nobody will take the time to check it out, and will ignore it based on all the trolls who also saw what it looked like during KS, or who were angry that it wasn't exactly what they thought it would be (often wanting a 100% pre-Trammel UO2). But I also wonder what will happen to Star Citizen when it's their turn to rip that bandage off. And it's a much bigger bandage now, at least a whole thigh.

[@Blisterdude123]

Garriott should have just gotten out of the game after Ultima 8 and 9. Maybe even before. Or at the very least, moved on to other things. He's the poster-boy example of someone who used to be ahead of the curve being so far behind it you can't even see it any more.

[@AnalyticalReckoner]

As Outkast says, "Baby boy, you only funky as your last cut"

[@thelegacyofgaming2928]

No genius was he. Just a man who got lucky, and didn't know how to quit while he was ahead. Shame

[@friedmandesigns]

@@AnalyticalReckoner Epic, perfect distillation of all of this. Andre and Big Boi know the engagement game. ;)

[@friedmandesigns]

@@thelegacyofgaming2928 _Many_ devs instrumental in/to major digital gaming empires the past 30 years weren't, then, by your definition, "genius" -- just "lucky." Does a virtual game(s) legacy require genius? A ton have just been the right moment and marketing, and quitting before they ran outta cards.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

He unfortunately wasn't involved in Ultima 9. Oddly enough, if you play Ultima 9 in 2020+, you will be perplexed why it failed. It's literally Oblivion/Skyrim a decade ahead of its time.

[@TTS-TP]

I have friends that were part of that kickstart. They really felt like their dreams were ripped from them. Slowly, and painfully

[@patiencezero-xc9zl]

This is why "geniuses" are more often a product of serendipity and chance than vastly superior intellect.

[@alexnorth2452]

There comes a point in every persons life when they have to accept that its time to step down, a time to accept the legacy they left instead of trying to add to it, its clear he still has ambition, but lacks the capability nor the funds to reach that, time to accept reality and fade into memory

[@Dowlphin]

Might even be related to midlife crisis. But also to denial of the fact that they were riding the wave with the wind in their back, so to speak, and now they are in hardmode, by own contribution.

[@CatOperated]

Another thing about British vs NCSoft is his claim they forged his resignation while he was in space.

[@philo8035]

By the time the star citizen lawsuits come the owners will have already walked away with tens of millions of dollars.

[@TheGabrielbowater]

I bought this at full price around release and played it for 30 hours or so having an okay time as a somewhat jank oldschool rpg. I never saw another player the whole time though despite being online the whole time. If they hadn't driven people off with that gross real money realestate business I can see it having found a bit of a niche, the combat system was interesting and the world seemed really huge

[@chowjappa6470]

No, it's nothing like it was sold. No one's saying it couldn't of been a "meh" game if some random ppl made it. But it had his name on it and it was suppose to be MUCH MUCH more

[@albusplaustrum06]

Me and my wife played Tabula Rasa until the servers came down. I knew of Lord British from Exodus III on Commodore 64 and had no ideal he was still making games. She had no idea who Lord British was, her gaming started at the first Doom game with her dad and didn't start to get in to rpg style games until many years later. Her getting into rpg style games (Star Wars Galaxies actually) is basically how we ended up going from coworkers to friends to married. Crazy times.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

SWG & Ultima/TR bringing people together. That's the beauty of video games, especially MMO's. Wonderful story.

[@djgizmoe]

I was one of the early (and thankfully not hardcore) Kickstarter supporters of SotA (Ultima IV had left a very strong impression on me back in the day). I did try it out early, but yeah, it did seem like an alpha build at the time and the monetization was laughable. Thanks for the video, as I had just been wondering what happened with the game. Ah, Lord British, how the mighty have fallen...

[@mbarker_lng]

What stings is he was my gaming idol; I grew up playing Ultima. I was lucky enough to get into the industry in 94 and thought about how I wanted my career to be like his. But after leaving Origin he 'lost his touch'. And he didnt leave on the best terms- you've skipped over the outright disasters that were Ultima 8 and 9; quite a letdown after the epic landmark game that was Ultima 7. The modern version of Garriott is like his evil twin or something; his legacy could have been right up there with Miyamoto from Nintendo, but its gone to ruin.

[@oyayemayafaro7307]

Thank you for adding context re: his departure from Origin. I read the sub-heading in the article screenshot stating her "got the royal heave-ho" and that sounded like someone who was all but voted off the island

[@11DNA11]

Same dude. My gaming idol aswell. Love the Ultima series to no end, but i hate the fact that he turned from Lord British to Lord Blackthorn :(

[@werpu12]

Actually and even his role in UO is questionable since it was the expertise of Raph Koster who knew how to pull off an MMRG which basically made it a success. Also the entire kickstarter was promising a single player game with some multiplayer content (sort of a party like system Larian is doing) and 3 weeks after the end made a swift turn into Garriotts next attempt of trying to be the next big MMRPG!

[@mbarker_lng]

@@werpu12 Good point. Its been a while but IIRC he was halfway out the door before UO really got rolling. I played UO but I'll always have a grudge against it because it absorbed the team that made Crusader:No Remorse/Regret and that killed off the 3rd sequel which was to feature mutliplayer. I loved Crusader. If you search deeply on the web, you can find a single screen shot of a prototype of it running with 4 players shown.

[@werpu12]

@@mbarker_lng UO absorbed lots of teams, basically the original Ultima 9 was slaughtered at the altar of UO as well. Gamerwise UO was the pinnacle and downfall of the Ultima series.

[@clearspira]

I would recommend Noah Antwiler's series on Ultima. These games started out so full of promise.

[@MiniDallas000]

Spoony?

[@ikwilgeenkanaalzeur]

Yes the spoony one, great insight in the Ultima series.

[@scottydu81]

Spoonsworth! Almost impossible to discuss Ultima without him

[@Lawtumnx]

Paused and laughed hysterically at 10,000$ but "travel expenses not covered"

[@Aelwyn666]

I seriously considered helping fund this game but decided against it. I'd forgotten about it until I saw this video pop up. Thank you, it's nice to know what happened and is happening currently.

[@DarthLego46]

I did not back the Kickstarter, but I kept it on my Steam watchlist. I was worried it might be too old school for my taste, so I wanted to see what people who liked the game thought about it first. Never did I think that it would be unloved; I have even met a fair few Tabula Rasa fans. So the actual reception to the finished product took me by surprise.

[@teratokomi8731]

I was in the beta test for this. A friend of mine was even working for them as a voice actor. The game looked really good, but they screwed up. The combat system was rubbish, the beta testers told them it was rubbish but developers become indignant and dug in, doubling down on their crappy combat system, so everyone over time lost interest and quit before the beta was even finished.. The funding was not why this game failed. The developers themselves drove it into the ground....

[@maverickf6787]

Creating games is scary. Being a solo indie developer, I fear for my work, developing a game for 2 years not knowing if all of my hard work dedication and pation will be cursed and insulted, viewed as a mess of meshes or a scam. Might be why I havent released it yet and work harder and harder on it to try and perfect everything

[@trollscream8607]

What type of game are you making?

[@uuuuNB]

There will always be people cursing and insulting video games, even really great ones made by industry professionals, so don't sweat it. No one will hate your game if it's bad. They will hate it if you act like a greedy pig though, but since you're an indie dev and not under the yoke of suits that shouldn't be an issue.

[@Swaytekk]

Just create completed games and stick to your mission statement

[@maverickf6787]

@@trollscream8607 Its an Single-Player Third-Person RPG setting in a medeival Fantasy era. Yes its a bit vanilla in terms of games but its a type of game ive always wanted to make.

[@maverickf6787]

@@uuuuNB Yes I do agree with that and thank you, tho there are also indie devs that create quick and easy games with teemplates just for quick and easy money, also fear for that, people looking at the game and thinking this is just some guy doing this for quick money no effort

[@OkerlundTV]

I apparently have 10 hours in this game but don't really remember much of it. I do remember me thinking the game was fine (I was never part of any of the hype, I found it after it had gone f2p and knew none of the backstory). I actually loved the idea of an offline single player mode in an MMO. I looked at it on Steam and it still gets monthly updates, but no idea how big they are. I am actually going to reinstall it to see how it is these days. Great video, as always. I didn't know about, really, any of this.

[@AL-lh2ht]

The issue of it a lot of the video as vague nonesense. He kept doing the “some people say” fallacy declaring all the fans as angry when that is not really true.

[@admiraltonydawning3847]

@@AL-lh2ht Some people say it is not really true.

[@bambino133t5]

@@admiraltonydawning3847 This guy is a dead head white knight. Nothing you say will sway his lies.

[@naomha]

It's a cool fact that if you watch any of the older interviews or read the old articles he's full of the possibilities of the future and what it'll bring. He's still unsure of himself but he's honestly trying to create something great. Fast forward 20 years and you find a man that's past his point of relevance any longer and seriously upset with that fact. He's trying his hardest to remain relevant but AT THE SAME TIME he's willing to literally ROB any gamer that has put their trust in him. At this point in his life he's trying to hold onto whatever riches he's managed to clutch onto and his home. Thing is, his name doesn't care anything any longer except nostalgia. The fact HE calls himself "Lord British" still and expects anyone to give me free leeway is LONG gone past. I feel bad for him. He did create the MMO genre. He DID create the Ultima series and for that hundreds of thousands of gamers will be thankful. He's fallen into a category of game developers that keep trying but failing. Hard. Richard Garriot, Ken Levine, John Romero, Warren Spector, Glen Shofield, Peter Molyneux, etc. These are all literal icons of the genre but, man, do I hate reading or seeing the things online about them any longer. Still sad to see System Shock isn't going to be Warren made any longer.

[@tonyaduvall49]

UO will always be my favorite MMORPG no matter what. The game was ground breaking and still has one of the best housing concepts imo. It's a shame this was a failure it could have been something amazing.

[@xeldinn86]

I was too young and didnt play it however I really loved Asherons Call back in 2000-2001

[@bambino133t5]

Open-world PvP, full loot and everything an RP'er could dream of. It was great. Trammel killed it for me. I moved to free servers, but the best ones died.

[@caesaria]

you can play an actual modern replica UO - look into Shards of Britannia.

[@tonyaduvall49]

@@caesaria I have heard of it I watch a youtuber play it. I have seriously considered it. I sold my stuff to my nephew long ago though. lol

[@florianizer]

As someone who has been playing UO since the 90's I had no doubt in my mind SotA was going to be a failure. Ultima Online is still considered by many to be the greatest mmo, but even by Richard Garriott's admission the features that made UO great were often despite his intentions. It's funny hearing Garriott tell stories about how he used to go around and actively stop people who were pvping too much because there was just no expectation for pvp back then. He accidentally created the perfect blueprint for an mmo, and after all these years I still don't think he fully understands how. The tragedy of this story is that Richard Garriott is absolutely right about the issues of modern mmorpg's and how previously successful designs are blinding devs to what is possible. It's just that LB isn't going to be the person to show us.

[@DarkAlex1978]

Totally agree. I started my experience with UO and I had a lot of fun. Then I tried World of Warcraft and my god if was (relatively speaking) boring: grinding to level up, doing the dungeon, repeat. Other players even explained me how my character was basically useless to team up with until level 50, because dungeons below such level were not worthy the time. Complete madness imho, it was the game playing you and not the other way around. In Ultima as I said I had much fun, it was a true adventure. In my early days due to a glitch I fall off a cliff right into the sea, basically stuck there: the entire server population gathered into a massive rescue operation and in the end they managed to pass me a spellbook, a rune and reagents to finally cast the "recall" spell. 🤣

[@florianizer]

@@DarkAlex1978 Haha, I love hearing stories like that. I had lots of fond memories from WoW too, and while I didn't hate the game, it always felt like it was leading you by the hand to the next goal it wanted you to accomplish. Since UO didn't have any artificial goals it felt like a true open world, and very few mmo's have even attempted the same.

[@Bill-lq1kz]

28:53 small critique - not all "companies" are required to have a "CEO" at least not in the United States (depends on the state and the entity type). Looks like Polatrium is/was a corporation, but is/was incorporated in Texas. Texas corporations are only required to have a president and a secretary for its corporate officers.

[@reptile7]

Backed this project during the initial kickstarter after Roosterteeth did a podcast episode with Burnie and Richard. I knew of Ultima from when I was younger and was looking for an mmorpg closer to a starting point (games like WoW or so overly documented its not as fun for me to discover things). Man was that a waste in the end. Haha Random bit: I started at Amazon when the game physically released and ended up filling orders before I as a kickstarter backer had ever recieved my stuff. Got my physical rewards a month later, missing items and no support from Portalarium.

[@mercenarygundam1487]

Just like RT itself

[@reptile7]

... yeah, unfortunately that shell of a company is still hobbling around.

[@Valkirth]

situations like this remind me of the quote "You die a hero or live long enough to be the villain", this is why I never kickstart a mmo, they are vastly harder and extremely expensive to make especially with the sheer scale that is needed to succeed.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

This is a myth, actually. MMORPG's are no more difficult in hardness or expensive to make than any other game. We only have to look at indie MMO's to see this is true. Runescape was made by 2 devs in their garage. It's one of the biggest classic MMO's of all time. Project Gorgon was made by essentially 1 person, with the help of his wife (so 2 max, except pretty sure the single guy did all the heavy lifting himself). Those are just two of the most popular. There are other MMO's made by 1 to very small teams. There's surprising a lot of them. Not sure the team size, but Realm of the Mad God couldn't have had that big of a team. It's unlikely. GRAIL online too, and that was huge back in the day. For the expensive, I have to mention Dark Age of Camelot. It was made in 18 months by 32 people with a 4 million dollar budget, and that game was MASSIVE. 3 realms, 40 classes, 12 races, and full 1-50 content, dungeons, raids, end game for all 3 realms and the frontier. 18 months. That's under 2 years. And during Beta, the game was fully playable and ready to go. Back then, Beta's were what would now be considered 2 years post release. These days games are released unfinished and Early Access is a massive scam.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

DAoC's 4.2 million budget & 18 month release window is unbelievable, but that's what happens when you actually know what you're doing. It's really not as hard as people think, if you're competent. Adjusted for inflation, that 4million in 2001 is still only 6-7 million. Can you imagine AAA taking only 32 people and making a MMORPG with only 7 million budget in just 18 months? Yea, it's unimaginable. That's just how bad it's gotten. Corporate Greed & Incompetence.

[@SiriusMined]

Star Citizen raised 600 million dollar? That's insane. Especially given how little has been produced. A lot of people got taken for a ride.

[@willk7184]

Really great video, thanks for covering the whole story and background as well. I would add that for those of us around to play them at the time, Ultima IV and VII were also quite revolutionary in their own ways.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Ultima V was my personal favorite.

[@3one7crew]

It baffles me how Utlima IV still feels truly unique to this day.

[@galahadkoa1]

I grew up playing the later Ultima games, beta tested Ultima Online, and played that for the first seven years. Richard Garriot was a legend at the time and the Ultima games were fantastic overall. The first sign something was off was the mess that caused him to leave Origin after UO was released. After this, over time he slowly became his persona Lord British and the ultimate example of a legendary developer becoming a product of his own ego. Tabula Rasa made me suspicious. It wasnt a fantasy game that I would want to play and he was already arrogant so I didnt go anywhere near it. Shroud of the Avatar interested me a bit because of the nostalgia I had from the old Ultima games and UO, but Garriot was so arrogant by this time I was never going to play the game. His ego and money have corrupted him and his ability to do anything worthwhile like he did long ago. I would love a new Ultima game or even a modern UO2, but he wouldn't be capable of doing either of these anymore even if he had full control of the product.

[@bojcio]

There could be no UO2, or if there was, it would have to be completely different than the classic. Not just the gaming industry, but the world is literally a completely different place. Imagine telling gamer kids that someone has an actual ingame skill to steal stuff from their inventory, or that there are no instanced dungeons, or that they can be PKd anywhere at any time, looted completely, their body cut up and their named head displayed somewhere... The things that made UO brilliant are things that would never work these days.

[@laz0rbra1n]

you can pride yourself of a sixth sense!

[@pldcanfly]

And that my friends is why nobody should give a damn about "star"-developers. Every company that is like "we are former blizzard-employees that worked on wow vanilla" or smth like that, should not get attention by the sheer fact of that. Even the most visionary developers can deliver crap, so you should always judge the product by the product and not the people behind it.

[@Dewderonomy]

I backed SotA after Garriott wrote his piece on "The Ultimate RPG", talking about a gaming experience with little-to-no HUD and an immersive game world. Played UO for 20 years, more than half of which was pre-Trammel, and never could find that open world sandbox again. SotA was an absolute cult. I got in with folks who were outspoken and critical of the game, and several of us dealt with hackers and doxxers from the "leaders"/mods of the community. It was insane, reminded me of the psychopaths in the RP communities on UO back in the day lol. By the end, it was clear that this wasn't a scam, but an abject failure that tried to monetize way too many of the wrong things. I am certain a bulk of the funding was from money launderers, maybe up to and including them lol

[@Clandestinemonkey]

Why people always making up stories about shit they did in UO? There was no 10 years of pre-trammel UO. They added that shit very early on.

[@Dewderonomy]

@@Clandestinemonkey Never heard of free shards then lol

[@LetoAtreides82]

What is Trammel? Did a quick google search and it doesn't seem to be a game?

[@TotalCowage]

@@LetoAtreides82 Early UO allowed full player killing, and corpse looting to the point that if your house key was on your body when you died, your killer got your house and everything in it. A tiny amount of players loved that, and were either in their teenage formative years, or have never had any real power or influence since and remember those days as the best of their lives and obsess about it 23 years later still... however the main complaint given for people cancelling their accounts, even before the genre had taken off, was player killing. So, to protect the game, in April 2000 the developers split the world into two facets, Felucca where the old rules still applied... and Trammel, with consensual PvP only. 80% approximately of players immediately switched to Trammel for gameplay, and the total player numbers continued to slowly climb until 2004. And the industry, apart from maybe one outlier in EvE Online has avoided full PK/loot since. (And even EvE has high security systems to stop newbies immediately being ganked and quitting) Dewderonomy above isn't a PK arsehole as such, by the way, and he's telling the truth about the cult like harassment around SotA; I had to make multiple police reports and eventually take Portalarium themselves to Arbitration Court due to them directly supporting someone who had turned the subreddit into nothing but rape and death threats towards my family. Anyone critical of the game attracted similar psychopathy because some invested so much of their personal sense of worth into their faith that Garriott was going to make them feel young and important and excited again... and yet all the game was, was a bait and switch designed to hook Ultima nostalgics and then lead them into paying insane amounts for add ons to "keep the dream alive". 10 years later, and people still don't have their kickstarter rewards, episode 2 of 5 is only vaguely in development (for a given fudge of the features) and the player numbers are down to 30-50 online at any time. But still, you see cultists and obsessive trolls trying to deny basic reality; just as some have been declaring the next full PK game would humiliate Trammel UO for 23 odd years now.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

The problem is that "The Ultimate RPG" already exists. It's called tabletop RPG, where the only limitations are the imagination of your GM and yours. No computer game can match that, no matter how complex it is made to be like.

[@senkai4]

The production quality on this is insane, and I imagine this must've been sooo much research. But I enjoyed this video a lot, taught me things about MMO history I had no clue abt! Ty Kira for another blessed crumb of content :)

[@Wolfsheim23]

Geez considering his father's great connections in NASA, you'd think he could have negotiated that price down to maybe 10 mil?

[@nowayjosedaniel]

How would his connection with NASA have anything to do with the cost of flying into space with Russia?

[@linamishima]

As someone that was involved in the UO community in the late 90s and early 2000s, nothing was more enlightening than the contrast between Raph Koster’s blog posts about the early development of UO, and Richard Garriott’s boasts to the press. Koster has always remained professional and avoided directly calling out Garriott, however it is extremely clear that Garriott cares more for fame and telling grand stories, than actual history and player experience

[@EvaDraconis]

Beautiful production value on this video Kira good job!

[@ShinraEm]

Just found your channel! Absolutely fantastic. Im now subscribed and binging while at work

[@Fishpasta4]

You either retire young or live long enough to see yourself become EA

[@nowayjosedaniel]

I mean even if SotA was an outright insane level pyramid scheme scam, it still makes them look like Ghandi compared to EA/Ubisoft and their evil & incompetence. Star Citizen may be the only scam that can even be on the level of EA, based on fundraising volume alone.

[@sirkojac]

I worked with Richard and Robert at NCSoft and you glossed over a lot. It was truly fucked up and the Judge was pissed at NCsoft at the end.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

Yea. he completely skipped over one of the biggest lawsuits in gaming history. NCSoft literally tried to horribly illegally rob RG while he was in literal outer space. It was insanely illegal. Like they must have thought it was a great idea while on cocaine high or something bc of how insanely illegal it was. RG winning the lawsuit was extremely obviously gonna be the case from Day 1 of their illegal actions. Simply stunning. He also doesn't mention the fact Tabula Rasa didn't fail: IT WAS A PROFITABLE GAME. NCSoft is a publicly traded company. You can download their quarterly reports from when Tabula Rasa released until it closed, and see it made them millions in profit. They closed it down bc the lawsuit, bc of manipulating their stock value, and the fact NCSoft were apparently insane criminals who were probably terrified of seeing themselves goto jail or get fired for their insane lawsuit loss.

[@ThePrimeMinisterOfTheBlock]

Well timed video sir. Baldur's Gate 3 was released a few weeks ago, and it's the groundbreaking RPG that this Shroud was supposed to be.

[@Carewolf]

Well Shroud pivoted to being an MMO almost immediately. I remember I invested early and within months I regretted it as the focus changed to being an MMO

[@GarackTheMad]

I'm curious if an MMO Kickstarter done by experienced dev with a realistic high price tag could even get funded. I wonder if the goal would even be reached, even back before people were burned by the scam/mismanaged/under delivered kick-starts of the past few years. The scale of an MMO on the hardware backend combined with the needed feature innovation to be competitive seems like an MMO is not a practical candidate for crowdfunding.

[@sickoslater]

Crowdfunding fundamentally was never supposed to be for any large scale game. The amount of money needed is just way, way too high, for a product that will take years, with it actually legally being considered a donation, with no obligation for them to even give you the finished game or your "rewards".

[@StarCadet]

I think this is something a lot of people skip over. The amount RG was asking for and certainly his initial design seemed to indicate a single-player core game with maybe some coop features. Had he stayed with that, he really could have delivered something along the lines of Ultima X. I would say 70% of resources were spent on the multiplayer aspect. He could have generated money with expansions and the same digitial-assets for sale model. I don't know if just got greedy or if he allowed feature-creep to set in.

[@DigitalProphet]

I liked Tabula Rasa, or rather- I liked its potential. Too bad it never really got off the ground. It was released in a state that could most charitably be described as "unfinished," but in reality was a complete broken mess in the mid-to-late game, with things being patched in as players were arriving at that level and wondering where the game had gone.

[@brentogara]

"Greed and Vanity" *So many* modern games are exactly this. Which is why I no longer play games that haven't been out, and playable, and show to be working for several months at least. A very sad state of affairs, but you have to protect yourself from these vultures.

[@Arcademan09]

This one's tough because Garriott legitimately cares about the industry and has legit talent, maybe as a consultant or an ideas guy he could easily thrive in the industry

[@Kamau1865]

I don't know enough about him to disagree. But it seems he put all meaningful features for Tabula Rasa behind a pay wall, and now is focused on NFT and Crypto games. His priorities don't appear to be safeguarding his legacy, serving his fans, but more of a grubby attempt to add more dollars via nefarious means, when he has already been gifted quite a lot.

[@Noclaf555]

​@@Kamau1865go play ultima 7 flat out amazing game, the game biz passed him by that's OK, he made a sucky game most kickstarters games had issues

[@nowayjosedaniel]

@@Kamau1865 "But it seems he put all meaningful features for Tabula Rasa behind a pay wall, a" You apparently don't even know anything about Tabula Rasa at all, so why are you even saying anything? Tabula Rasa was a subscription based MMO like every other. Nothing different there. Wtf. His focus also is not NFT's. He had a NFT project where he wanted to innovate again in the industry. Then he closed the project down - likely bc he discovered NFT's were stupid.

[@IDONTGIVEAFLUXify]

I think one thing people forget is how in a way making games was much easier back in the day. A lot less competition and the industry was so new, so many things had simply not been created yet so when you make a game it's very easy to innovate and make something good. This can create a cult of personality behind these people, they innovated so much and did so many good things back in the day, something backed by them seems like it will clearly be a success. These same developers of the past don't have this luxury now, you have insane levels of competition and innovation is no longer simple because with how big the industry is so much has been done, tried and tested.

[@r4in407]

you can see it on his face throughout the video how his mentality shifted from "let me see how I can improve this" to "let me see how I can not appear to be a loser"

[@IDONTGIVEAFLUXify]

@@thetrollofus6137 They literally were, some extremely well known and big games of that time were coded by a few people in under a year. Look at Ultima, he developed the game in under a year with help from one person while he was also taking college classes and it was considered ground breaking and cutting edge. Compare that to Baldur's gate 3 for example which took 400 people 6 years to make. Or compare to a much more simple game like Stardew Valley which took 5 years to make. Back then you had such little competition and game making was so fresh you could innovate so easily. If you could code and had passion, you could make a good game. Now everything has been done before 1000 times so making a good game is so much harder. Combined with much more complex coding and testing needed. You can not in the modern age, make a game in a few months and have it be groundbreaking in just a few months like you could back then.

[@BMoser-bv6kn]

It's very true standards were far lower back then. It was far easier to stand out that way. Still, it can't excuse making games that are bland empty brown and grey voids of nothing. An easy-breezy game whipped up in PICO-8 over a week or two has more fun and passion put into it than these virtual real estate markets pretending to have a game stapled on the side will ever have. The point of one is to make a game. The point of the other is to make a quick buck and scamper off to the next thing.

[@LivingwithPerks]

The solo/offline play option killed the MMORPG part of Shroud.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

Absolutely not. It was awesome, and what all MMORPG's desperately need. It also would be extremely healthy for all MMORPG's because it would actually make sure that 100% of the people in every server would want to socialize and group, even if it meant fewer servers. For example: Right now you have 10 servers with 2000 players apiece, but 90% of the playerbase wants to solo and play by themselves, so no one groups. With a solo/offline & "singleplayer online" option, those players don't ever even get in any server. So you only have 2 servers with 2000 players apiece, but 90% of the playerbase wants to group and play with others, so it's the healthiest MMO around.

[@Astradi]

So he transitioned the game ownership to a puppet company to avoid legal action against his first company. Now that the license belongs to "someone else", culpability becomes that much harder to hold against him specifically.

[@AL-lh2ht]

Not really. It was sold to a business partner after years of Richard having little to do with anything with the company. But nice conspiracy though.

[@harfharfful]

@@AL-lh2ht Chris literally said on stream once that they were ditching Portalarium to get out of contract with an HR company. Avoiding legal responsibilities, such as to SeedInvest and the SEC, was the main driver. Otherwise, by bother ditching Portarlarium? Why not just the people who want to quit, quit? That's one bit that the video gets wrong. Portarlium wasn't sold to Catnip games. The *assets* were (SOTA). Portalarium is a defunct/closed company now.

[@lessthanlogical]

The game still looks like a solid base for something great, even in 2023. Another team could have picked this up and made it serviceable and profitable. It's a shame that it didn't happen.

[@bambino133t5]

There were a few community members trying todo just that.

[@CaptainXJ]

@baduino I think you summed it up well. If this guy wants to do a video about Kickstarter failures, he should do "Underworld Ascendant"

[@lessthanlogical]

@@CaptainXJ Kira does good work on these pieces. If that's an interesting story, I am sure he will look into it. This is certainly not his first rodeo.

[@Clandestinemonkey]

There are the vestiges of an actually good and unique MMO buried somewhere in there. The game was developed by Starr Long who actually is talented. It has a unique and interesting skill system and some great world building and flavor. None of the good things about the game are polished, however and they never will be.

[@bigbrother7304]

It is, and I wish that would happen! I still play and have 3000 hours in the game. It's freaking great.

[@selohcin]

"Forsaken Virtues" Yes, I'd say he really lived up to that name.

[@MichaelPohoreski]

*NOTE:* 2:41 Showing IBM PC graphics (when they *didn't even exist until 1981 when the IBM PC was released* ) instead of the original _Apple ][ graphics_ is a little disingenuous.

[@briangeorgebowes]

oh no....I played ultima 2 3 4 and 5 and seeing Lord British show up on your channel is :(

[@wastelanderone]

Oh hey I kickstarted that game and totally forgot about it

[@RetroTekGuyAU]

I actually spoke to Richard briefly on Twitter about this game. I asked him if he had any regrets and if he could do anything different. He said he has no regrets, The game didn't fail it just didn't have enough funding or crowd interest. I didn't necessarily agree with what he said 😂