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

Richard Garriott is one of the hall of famer, all time great names in video games. A pioneer. A legend. Unfortunately, he tarnished his legacy with a last run at changing the online world, and he finds himself in the court of public opinion. The verdict? You decide. For me, he remains a man that literally changed the game, but tried one too many times. Still a legend, no doubt. But with a terrible end to what would otherwise have been an incredible story.
Other kickstarter to court videos:
• $8,368,023 Taken, 6 Ye...
• Fraud or Fail? The Day...
• $116,684 Taken, 4 year...
• $1,645,753 Taken, 7 Ye...
• $4,358,128 Taken, 5 Ye...
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#mmorpg #kickstarter #shroudoftheavatar

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@Shoegazebasedgenre0.]

sounds about right that the dude just use game to suckered his own fans 😅

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@user-tx4wj7qk4t]

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

[@timiniho]

@@user-tx4wj7qk4t Well these people did not want something like WoW or other major MMOs at the time. Definitely relevant.

[@user-tx4wj7qk4t]

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

[@timiniho]

@@user-tx4wj7qk4t 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.

[@user-tx4wj7qk4t]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@Dr.Quarex]

I was a Kickstarter backer and I remember the only thing that stopped me from putting down bigger dollars was that I did not want to be dead in the game, and once you got past like $200 your name would be on a gravestone or something and I thought that sounded incredibly bad for role-playing purposes, haha. Anyway, put me in the group who tried it out in like 2016 and thought it looked and played "fine" and figured it would get better. Honestly I did not hear it had come out until like 2020, which I figured had to be a bad sign. Also wow THIS VIDEO is how I found out it went free-to-play. I will say though they are still as recently as two weeks ago update in the game and emailing me about it... I had all their e-mail auto-archive starting in like 2015 so clearly they have kept up their end of the bargain in some ways most companies never do

[@coderaven1107]

ok thats crazy, thank you for sharing!

[@user-zh5lj1ec4k]

How much did you pay you fucking pric…?

[@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.

[@hi_tech_reptiles]

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."

[@TTS-TP]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@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 🧐

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@hr1meg]

Straight from the CEOs mouth..."the game is going nowhere." LMAO.

[@Killigma]

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

[@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.

[@knuckles7410]

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]

​@@knuckles7410you need to lie down for sure

[@exidy-yt]

@@knuckles7410 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.

[@knuckles7410]

@@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]

@@knuckles7410 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.

[@barefootwalk1798]

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

[@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...

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@yodawgzgaming4416]

What an amazingly thorough recap of this once core piece of gaming's history. I stopped paying attention to Garriott after Tabula Rasa was such a dud (played it at launch for all of a week, holy smokes was it bland and empty). I had no idea he had so far to fall after that

[@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.

[@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.

[@selohcin]

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

[@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.

[@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?

[@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.

[@tcan225]

@@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).

[@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.

[@jasoncombs3232]

He lives down the street from me here in Austin. His house is a castle with hidden passages and rooms. Ive always wanted to explore the house.

[@WaltuhBlackjr]

Wait actually?

[@nowayjosedaniel]

You've never been? Does he no longer host constant halloween and christmas parties like he did all the time for decades?

[@jasoncombs3232]

@@nowayjosedaniel I believe he sold the house.

[@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

[@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.

[@ShinraEm]

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

[@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.

[@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". ;)

[@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?!”

[@philo8035]

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

[@splitatorium]

LMAO imagine a dinosaur telling you he gonna lead you to the future 😂

[@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.

[@CatOperated]

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

[@Lawtumnx]

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

[@patiencezero-xc9zl]

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

[@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?

[@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.

[@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....

[@TheLoyalOfficer]

Well done - good pieces of research here and connecting of the dots. Such a sad story. And especially starting with the downfall, it seemed to me that they could have backed out or down at many different points and not had such a disaster.

[@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

[@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.

[@quinnzykir]

Spoonys old videos of the ultima franchise still holds up. They go pretty in depth

[@JediMB]

I remember hearing about this game back when it did its initial crowdfunding. I didn't have any history with or interest in Ultima, though, so I didn't get involved. I can't recall ever hearing anything about the game releasing or going free to play, though, so I can't say I'm surprised that it didn't find a larger audience.

[@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.

[@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 :)

[@ThePrimeMinisterOfTheBlock]

Chris Roberts was the legend behind Wing Commander III, one of the best 90s games

[@UltimaKeyMaster]

The fact that both Richard and Chris fell so hard so fast in the same time frame is disheartening beyond belief. I just binged longplays of Wing Commander and though I don't think flight sims are my type of game, they looked incredible for their time and their very serious movie quality live action cutscenes *featuring Mark friggin' Hamill* were among the best gaming had to offer back then. To see Chris go from Wing Commander to Star Citizen is heartbreaking.

[@Artsificial]

An excellent documentary, thank you!

[@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

[@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.

[@sylvietg7063]

Ultima Online was under development much longer than indicated, if you think about it. The asset pool at launch was from Ultima VII and VIII. If you look at Blackthorne, Island of Kesmai and MegaWars - the latter two had documented protocols talking about how to do map caching and exchange, monster positioning, etc. with low bandwidth for significant numbers of players. If you look at the release version of Ultima Online, it had a cut scene but effectively no other actual story. The maps were from Ultima VIII, and the character assets were slightly updated versions of the Ultima VII and VIII character assets. Creatures, likewise, were Ultima VII and VIII assets. The mechanics were Ultima VII mechanics. So, they had a working game that was already balanced - for a sufficiently loose usage of the term - and they just had to figure out how to network that. I don't want to trivialize the problem, of course, it was significant. But it isn't like they were starting from zero on any of it. Origin, at the time, was publishing the Wing Commander series and they'd already been experimenting with multiplayer before UO, because it was a common request for Wing Commander and Strike Commander. If you look at UO ten years or so later, it's a radically different game from what it was at launch. Shroud is the game UO was at launch, roughly, with an added RMT shop.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

Since we're on topic of dev time for MMORPG's, an interesting tidbit: Dark Age of Camelot was made in 18 months by 32 people on a 4.2 million dollar budget (2024 equivalent of 7 million budget). That's how incompetent AAA has become. MMORPG's are nowhere near as difficult to make as people think. If anyone doesn't believe me, just look at Project Gorgon or Runescape. Both were made by only 2 people, and Gorgon may have only been made by a single developer for the most part (his wife is the 2nd, and I don't think she touched the programming or design, although I could be wrong there on the design perhaps.) This just makes it even more inexcusable as to why all these Kickstarter MMORPG's failed.

[@warhammer8230]

It's sad that he lived in nostalgia and trying to relive that sensation. He has become outdated. And someday, the same thing will happen to us. We will become obsolete. we will be left behind by the progress. Mankind's neverending desire has proven to be fatal at times. Sometimes I wish time would just freeze and we can enjoy the moment

[@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.

[@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.

[@ImpmanPDX]

Ultima Exodus was pretty wild. It was tough to figure out as a 6 year old, but I got the hang of it to a certain degree. The moon cycle teleport system was tough, but nothing tougher than killing the king lol. Ultima Quest of the Avatar was spectacular. It was by far my favorite, and the avatar system I think was the basis for the modern RPG alignment mechanic.

[@jacob9538]

Ultima Exodus is definitely my favorite NES game of all time. I've still never beaten it, even though I've been playing it on and off for about 30 years lol (no longer have an NES, but I download it every few years or so via mobile phone emulation). Overall one of my top three favorite games of all time, along with Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES) and Final Fantasy VII (Play Station).

[@jeremyhall7495]

Great video, thanks! Good analysis!

[@WorLadCiz]

This documentary you have made and produce is out of this world good, Ash. I could listen to you forever and never get tired of it.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

It's really not that good. 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.

[@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.

[@ragnartellevson1870]

Makes me sad to think about Ultima Online. I miss the way that game made me feel, and would kill to experience something like that again.

[@wowitsshit9734]

1997-2000 best UO forever gone

[@bigbrother7304]

About to play some SOTA.... Appreciate all the backers that never bothered to try the game.

[@Wellis8039]

11500 hours in game for me. Hello fellow avatar :P

[@bigbrother7304]

@@Wellis8039 Dang! Only about 3400 for me now... I have some catching up to do! :D

[@Wellis8039]

I started in 2016. Had so much fun. I don't play much anymore though.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

I backed it, played about 20 minutes. Never had the chance to give it a chance. Too unpolished.

[@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

[@EvaDraconis]

Beautiful production value on this video Kira good job!

[@parallaxe1]

After having played UO for ages, I became a backer of the Knights pledge when SotA had their KS campaign. Your report reflects perfectly the constant lies, false promises and ever increasing monetization and nickel-and-diming by Richard Garriott and Portalarium. The loss of money is not even the worst part; it's the bitter moment when you realize that one of your once heroes just lied to your face all along and tricked you like any random villain.

[@SargNickFury]

THis.....THIS LAST sentence! spot on!

[@1intecrist]

I don't care whatever anyone says; Richard Garriot created some of the first computer role-playing games, and rapidly expanded the game tech with each iteration, ending up with one of the first graphical mmorpgs out there. He also seems like a chill dude, even after all of his fumbles and miss steps, so he's got my respect :)

[@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.

[@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.

[@OhhhNeil]

His father looks like he would like to tell you about the tradegy of Darth Plagueis the Wise

[@bssutton27]

Ultima 2 was my first PC game played on an Aplle IIe

[@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.

[@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.

[@onenote6619]

So basically the story of Star Citizen with less money.

[@AdamS-argonwow]

I spent $550 on this back when it was on Kickstarter mostly because of Ultima Online. In retrospect that was clearly a horrid reason and a terrible mistake but nostalgia got the best of me. UO was my first MMO and I was around 13 when I started playing it, it was a great escape and I made many friends so the thought that the guy who made that MMO was coming up with something even better sounded great to me as I had burnt out on WoW and none of the other MMOs out there managed to keep my attention for more than a few levels of content. By the time it was actually released I had completely forgotten it was a thing and that I had blown money on it. I'm not even sure when I finally got it and logged in but I do remember my immediate disappointment in the game, I never even got around to using all the crap I had gotten from donating because it actually impressed me less than other MMOs ever did and by that point MMOs weren't really my thing anymore anyway. TL;DR nostalgia made me waste $550 on a crappy game.

[@Gaze73]

I didn't know UO still exists, it looks like shit. I wouldn't play it even 20 years ago.

[@nowayjosedaniel]

It's not your fault you were scammed. I don't blame you for backing it for $550. It was RG. Among all the kickstarter scams, he was the most trustworthy. And ironically, he was the only kickstarter scam that actually released a real game. All the others are pure vaporware. Just look at Mark Jacobs & Camelot Unchained or Star Citizen. Even worse, unknown devs like City of Titans are so horrible that we genuinely need the government of their state to investigate them for massive fraud, and put them in prison. What City of Titans has done is downright illegal. At least Pantheon & other kickstarter scam MMO's went the route of "We'll release a non-MMO game then, to avoid criminal charges!" City of Titans didnt even do that.