Is Richard Garriot out of touch?

I think RG is more of a gamer and more aware of whats going on from a birds eye view than most developers. He has experience and has proved again and again against doubters what makes games fun.

He has said in a few interviews he's played WoW a lot and he doesn't think its a bad game, but he often sites the quest hand holding as something he doesn't like. He might not have max leveled every triple AAA MMO title currently out right now, but you can bet he knows about all of them and what they have done right and what they have missed. He has detailed knowledge of the way people play and more experience in online RPG building than almost anyone in the industry, how could you say he is out of touch?

Most talking heads of companies that do press are just artists in shading the truth. RG has been as candid, unscripted and open as any person I have seen promoting a project in any medium. I find his ideas fascinating and someone who has vision, and foresight AND experience is rare for any creative talent. He has the Rep to back this up as well.

 

I actually think it's most contemporary games designers that are out of touch..well..should I say out of talent.

A huge amount of designers these days are either being supposedly taught in collages by teachers who don't really know anything or they have been promoted from QA cos they can't do anything else. Not often in the past 17 years of working in the industry have I worked with a really talented designer.

I can count all the good ones on one hand.

There needs to be higher standards in design these days or all we'll get are more cookie cutter games. At least Mr Garriot has experience to know a good design and that experience is what I hope will make SotA an excellent game.

K

 

http://www.portalarium.com/images/docs/Words%20Taken%20Out%20of%20Context.pdf


May want to read this.

 

If you are a "game designer" who spends his or her day on message boards taking shots at RG , you might suck.

If you think when RG says that MOST game designers suck that he therefore must be talking about you, you might suck.

 

^^^This^^^

This is just a troll thread, in my opinion.

 

There's tons of great things about Shroud that entire news articles could be written about. Instead, half a dozen websites write inflammatory articles about something RG said in another publication's interview to garner hits. VG journalism at its finest.

Despite every other editorial article saying **** like "every video game designer sucks, including Richard Garriott"

 

That NeoGAF poster would have to prove they worked at Origin before I would take their post very seriously. I'm not saying they're lying, I'm just saying if you're going to slander someone, you'd better have proof to back it up. Hearsay and rumor are as common on the internet as they are in a grade school lunch room.

 

I don't know if SotA will work, especially how it is so intertwined with a core story like early Ultima games.

But it is a fresh approach and despite Tabula Rasa and the like, we know he can write a good RPG as was proven by the Ultima series. If it's an RPG I can play through with my friends, that sounds very alluring to me. The added online features make it more interesting.

I would rather take a chance on SotA than play some rehashed stale triple A game that takes no chances and maybe adds a couple of new features. If it turns out to be terrible, I have only lost the value of my pledge. But it could end up being something very special.

It's the same reason I take a chance on the indie titles that show up on steam. Not all of them are great but there are a lot of gems that I have really enjoyed.

 

I admit I never played Tabula Rasa, as I'm not a fan of sci-fi RPGs, which is what it looked like, I think people didn't like the 'look' and assumed it was not good.

Tabula Rasa was innovative based on something I read about it,

In Tabula Rasa the NPC monsters didn't just stand there waiting to be slaughtered, they weren't just fenced in cows, they actively did things, the NPC monsters had goals and missions, if you killed them during X mission they would retreat, if you failed at killing them during X mission they would progress and occupy your city, they had stages, not just in the city and outside the city, they had progression strategies they were not dumb NPC monsters, they actively played a role in the story of the game <----- This I have yet to see in any MMO, this is very innovative, not to mention the new symbol based language Garriott invented for the game, that also was pretty amazing, but lets take a look at the current top MMOs;

World of Warcraft; NPC monsters with fenced in cow mentalities waiting to be slaughtered, as dumb as it gets.

SWTOR; Ditto.
Diablo 3; Ditto.

I don't even need to go down the list, I haven't played Elder Scrolls Online, I haven't played The Secret World, I haven't played a good number of MMOs out there as there are a huge number, and they all have 1 thing in common, the monsters are very very very dumb, they are sitting there waiting for players to interact with them, they aren't actively doing anything other than maybe walking in circles or walking the rounds, they aren't smart, they aren't programmed to be smart and they aren't programmed in a smart way.

Innovation is what Garriott does, but the average crowd are too dumb to see beyond the graphics or the setting (Including myself), they don't see the complexities and don't appreciate the groundbreaking new ideas and technologies and stories and languages and NPC AI interaction, there are people who claim Final Fantasy and Zelda are amazing franchises, but few people realize that these games were directly impacted by the Ultima series.

 

This is the best quote from that thread;

"Consider how little Skyrim deviates from Ultima VII and how little WoW deviates from UO."

 

Anyone who thinks WoW is anything like UO has never played UO, unless they changed UO so far beyond how it started, it isn't the same game. With EA, it is a possibility.

 

I think they are saying that Wow took basic concepts that were in UO, and just ported them over without innovating them, without upgrading them. That overall Wow did very little that was "new" with the exception of making things much easier for the non-thinking player to just power level their way to max level so they can join the endless raiding for gear endgame. I guess you can join the PvP instances, jump around whacking buttons and rack up points where you can go buy More Gear!

 

I think WoW was a descendent of Everquest, not UO. UO was a skill based system, WoW/EQ class/level. UO didn't have quests, but WoW/EQ did. UO had a simple combat system for melee, but WoW had the hotbar specials attacks with cooldowns (not sure what EQ had in that regard). WoW was gear centered, but gear in UO was not as big a deal.

 

Agreed Owain. MMOs generally followed two paths. The first path was more of a sandbox style, kicked off by Meridian59, followed up with Ultima Online, and then games like SWG, EVE, and a few others. These games your actions tended to impact the whole community, whether its a robust economy, open world economy, or political systems.

The second path MMOs took was the EverQuest style game where you performed quests over and over again to get to max level. WoW, LOTRO, and most other MMOs followed this path. These games your actions generally just impacted yourself (daily solo quests) or a small group of players at a time (dungeon grinding). Economy, political system, and PvP were tacked on and not well developed. This was by far the most popular choice for MMOs as evidenced by WoW's success.

SotA is going down that first path it seems. Item decay/loss, robust crafting system, local economy (no global auction house), seiges that you must break before anyone can enter a village, etc. The stretch goals are very encouraging. At this point in most game development, the stretch goal would be "Create 2 more 10 man raids with epic gear grind" instead of "interactive musical instruments."

 

This GREAT new interview with shows just how IN touch he is: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/03/25/garriott-talks-shroud-of-the-avatar-story-questing-and-mechani/

This guy is one of the few developers who actually deserves to be called a legend. Don't diss my Lord British! grrr

 

I would propose that many of those who consider themselves gamers are out of touch. Gamers have become complacent with the 'arrow of your head' mentality RG touches on a few times.

It's okay, you don't have to try very hard, everyone gets a trophy now.

I truly hope RG stays true to his vision and his statements he has made in his videos, as I think he is right on track.

Hopefully the squeaky wheel of internet wont sway him too much as this project moves forward.

 

This thread caught my eye, but I have a different take then the OP.

To start with I'm not a developer or the experience RG does. My comment is only my opinion based on playing multiple MMOs since 2001.

In my experience I've done both PVP and PVE, starting both back with a MUD called "Mortal Realms"
The one thing I've noticed is that PVP has gone downhill A LOT. But also PVP isn't real big anymore either. I know I was very excited when Mechwarrior Online was announced as it was a pure PVP game. But got bored of it real quick.
Mosty of my friends were avid PVPers until developers started getting lazy and not setting up PVP well so that now griefing and ganking is considered part of PVP. It's a shame to see PVP co down the crapper like that and also why it's losing popularity.
I jumped on board hoping that they come up with a good PVP system but all my other friends fear this will just be another gankfest. As an MMO PVP is only a part, there is more of a social aspect now then before. You can't meet and interact with new people if your stuck in FPO or SPO but people don't want to endure another frustrating ill conceived game.
Listening to RG talk it sounds like he's stuck in the good ole days of PVP before the griefers and gankers took over.

But I'm of the wait and see mind, hoping I just didn't throw away a heck of a lot of money.

 

"Listening to RG talk it sounds like he?s stuck in the good ole days of PVP before the griefers and gankers took over."

Okay where did RG do a 180 on this? I've heard in his interviews that he acknowledges the huge unexpected problem UO had with PvP, particularly calling out the griefers and gankers. He straight up said that it hurt the game. The only information I've heard from RG on SotA is that the PvP will be "meaningful" in the sense that it will contribute to the story and personal growth of your character. It's not a full loot open world gankfest. You'll choose to partake in a part of the story that opens you up for PvP (running contraband across the land). It's all voluntary.

Where did RG change his mind? I might have missed an interview somewhere.

 

He is not out of touch just "touched in the head" for starting another great adventure that will more than likely take up 15 for years of my like. Hooraah!. Here we go again. It's is about time!

 

15 for = 15 more