Tabu..wait... Richard Garriott back from the dead

[Stephen Zepp]

I want to be a Lord British fanboi again. God knows I want to see someone dethrone WOW, and back in the day, you'd think RG would be the man to do it. I fear that he's become too much of a businessman, though.

I don't think it's him, but rather, the climate. In his heyday, just launching a game was a big deal. And everything was so new there were no real rules. You COULD literally make a big selling game out of your garage, maybe even program it yourself.

Nowadays that's still maybe possible in lower-order casual online and mobile games. But you won't be launching an MMO by yourself, so you need to convince people to work with and fund you.

WE know well who he is and what he's done. But the better ya know/of him, the more outside the core target demographic you are 

Jumping to the head of the line by hitting quote before I finish the thread, but not really true.

Minions of Mirth (that game that not many actually liked very much when I first linked it last year) is a 2 person shop (1 programmer, 1 designer who happens to be his SO I think) is up to approx 40k sales (or more, my numbers are from memory, and dated for sure).

The guy is literally the poster child of indie game devs--and I honestly don't think he's human (or at least sleeps about 2 hours a week).

Now of course the question is, "is this an MMO", and I don't mean to derail that badly, but I did want to pop up that sometimes it still can be done indie style.

[SnakeCharmer]

Now of course the question is, "is this an MMO", and I don't mean to derail that badly, but I did want to pop up that sometimes it still can be done indie style.

Do you mean Tabula Rasa? Or Minions of Mirth?

(I feel like that should be highlighted green, but.....)

[tkinnun0]

Does anyone else find text this small hard to read?

[Merusk]

Shame, because I bet those lucky guys that got in have some hilariously funny screenshots and stories already.

I certainly hope not, because that wouldn't bode well at all.

Actually, it bodes the same as every other MMOG launched or betaed, good or bad, that Waterthread / F13 posters have been in. Some will like it, some will hate it, all will mock its flaws.

Mocking flaws is a given. Hell I'd be disappointed if it didn't happen.  However, when I hear "hilariously funny screenshots and stories" I expect flying tanks taxiing to victory, not graphical flaws, minor errors, balance issues and the bugs you'd expect in a beta.  The former is a bad sign, the latter is just crap that may or may not get cleaned-up prior to release, but won't hurt for long.

[sam, an eggplant]

The game is under NDA, so this discussion won't be going anywhere. All I'll say is please don't read too much into one offhand comment, we do mock everything, and betas exist to expose the broken stuff.

[Vinadil]

Does anyone else find text this small hard to read?

Yes

[tkinnun0]

Yes

When people write in small font, they really should make it worth the trouble, like so: |'l|.l |:i.|. |l|'l|' l:|':i |ll|', l|;'l: |l|i|! !!!!!!!!

[Venkman]

Jumping to the head of the line by hitting quote before I finish the thread, but not really true.

Wow, January :)

Anywho, the problem here is one of context. Would RG really work all by himself on an MMO being funded (and still funded through major redesign) over a four+ year period by a major international publisher? TR is the product of a heck of a lot of time and money, and that's not coming from some Photoshop jockey alone :) This is much more "real game built through normal development pipeline" than "pie-in-sky built on quadruple mortgage and max'd credit cards".

Can indie MMOs be done? Absolutely. I've spent no small amount of time in ATiTD and Eve even in the latter's earliest days. But putting "RG" the brand and "NC Soft" the publisher onto it for the Western market ups the ante considerably.

[Secundo]

TR is the product of a heck of a lot of time and money

It is?

They have certainly spent time making it but my impression of the budget is that it is rather small.

[Amaron]

TR is the product of a heck of a lot of time and money

It is?

They have certainly spent time making it but my impression of the budget is that it is rather small.

TR's financial funding is probably extremely high going off certain comments made by NCSoft people.  Even with stuff like AA flopping NCSoft is still making money hand over first despite WoW stealing some of their pie.  I can't find the article anymore but the Korean CEO Tack Jin was talking like NCSoft was focusing on TR for it's sunday punch.   He was basically defending how much money is being spent on it still.  So if the Korean CEO of NCSoft has to defend how much money is spent on TR then I can only imagine that it's a very large sum of money so far.

It could be a similar situation to EA picking up Mythic and pretty much throwing money at them left and right in order to make something that can compete with WoW.

[Secundo]

When a CEO is defending his budget decisions it is usually because he can't show much result.
I imagine they spent a shitload on that rainbow unicorn version of TR, which got canned. But after the remake I haven't seen anything that indicates a big budget.

.

[Cheddar]

They must REALLY want me in the beta- got another e-mail asking me to play.  So I guess I will, tonight.  Its that or beat off to gay porn.

[Miasma]

Its that or beat off to gay porn.

LotRO? *cheapshot*

Correction. I'm going to work on things. I'll have news about a forum sometime next week (hopefully early next week). Please don't bug me about it. :)

I guess they aren't going to let us have one?

[Alkiera]

Having a private forum would be good.

Why is it that the only thing worse than a game's live forums, are a game's beta forums?

--
Alkiera

[caladein]

Why is it that the only thing worse than a game's live forums, are a game's beta forums?

Fanboys reduce your faith in humanity more so then blabbering idiots? I mean... at least for me they do.

[Miasma]

And on that note any idiot who goes through the effort to type "Toodles" in every single fucking post he makes should be dragged out into the street and shot.  People could at least put that garbage in their sigs so that when you turn off all sigs you don't have to see it.

Why is it also that the most annoying pricks are the same ones that feel it necessary to post on every single page of every single thread like so much intarweb diarrhea?

Not that I'm in the beta or read their worthless, very low activity, fanboi-riddled cesspool of a forum of course.

[Venkman]

Worse... I know exactly who you're talking about... insanity.

I don't think we need a TR forum here. No particular reason ;)

[Nonentity]

Guys, you are all missing the point in this thread.

Richard Garriott is a TABULA RASA SPACE MARINE.


EDIT: WHO IS ALSO LORD BRITISH LOOK AT HIS NECKLACE

[Miasma]

Holy crap.

I guess the next step is to sell his castle and turn it into a futuristic bunker.

[Righ]

EDIT: WHO IS ALSO LORD BRITISH LOOK AT HIS NECKLACE

That's General British, soldier!

[Lantyssa]

General British needs to fire his tailor.  You'd think he could afford to make it look like a uniform and not a costume.

[Venkman]

Filefront article from E3. There's a few glaring mistakes in it.

[Mi_Tes]

Someone forgot to tell him that neclaces stay INSIDE the jacket.  Besides the snaky neclace is the design of shoulderpads anyway, so why bother.

However, what makes the outfit is the cowboy boots.  Perhaps they match the neclace?

http://www.playtr.com/news/archives/2007/07/post.html

[tazelbain]

Truly, he is a fancy lad, if I have ever seen one.

[HaemishM]

Why can't he just make games and stop dressing up like a goddamn nancy boy? He looks like he fell off the set of a Roger Corman movie.

[shiznitz]

That uniform insignia looks like he was burping an infant.

[Furiously]

Does anyone else think he looks like Chris Elliott?

[HaemishM]

Yes.

[Miasma]

Actually now that you mention it he really, really does.

[Secundo]

I think it's cool that he has the guts to do these things. I wish more people would(including myself).
The world would certainly be more dull without true originals.

.

[Lantyssa]

I have no trouble with people dressing up.  I do it.  My problem is with a person who owns a castle but cannot afford a decent enough tailor to not look worse than the lousy costume put together by a crazed fanboy.

[Mrbloodworth]

Does anyone else find text this small hard to read?

yes.

[Sky]

I have no trouble with people dressing up.  I do it.  My problem is with a person who owns a castle but cannot afford a decent enough tailor to not look worse than the lousy costume put together by a crazed fanboy.

Castle v.1 isn't exactly the most authentic place. Cool for a house, cheesy for a castle/manor. Heard he's building another one, though.

[Nija]

I've not paid attention, but did they show the awful state of the game at this year's E3?

[Venkman]

It was at E3, but there was no bad press about it per se. This is not the E3 anyone was looking for though. That happens in October (EforAll). If they do the business-E3 again next year (I have my doubts), I expect even less useful information to come from it.