Richard Garriott anticipating SotA design -- in 1996!

I ran across this interview with Richard from 1996. I about fell out of my chair at the discussion at the 2:25 mark. It's so awesome I must transcribe it here to preserve its awesomeness:

"One of the things I'm thinking about right now is actually combining Ultima X and Multima II in one game. I'm interesting in doing what I'll call an 'epic story game,' but in a multiplayer environment, whereas Ultima Online now is more of an environment, and less of a story. I'm interesting in trying to tackle the problem of developing a really detailed, rich story inside of a multiplayer environment. I have no idea how to do that, but that's my interest."



So he's been thinking about the design goals underlying SotA for a long, long time. It's great to see him tackling these design challenges head-on now.

It's a fascinating interview overall, packing a lot of content in 6 minutes. At the start, there's some art from an early version of Ultima IX (that looks nothing like the final version we now know and/or would prefer not to know...). And at the end, he rather successfully predicts the eventual path of Chris Robert's moviemaking career.

And he's only 35 in that clip -- so young!

 

It's too bad none of that happened.

We did get wing commander movies though

And we all know how that worked out.

 

This is exactly what I was hoping that UO would have become. Nice find on the video.

 

Yep, very good video! I remember seeing this last year when doing my searches for all things Ultima / Richard when the KS was launched. So, do you think he's solved the problem with telling a multiplayer story, especially given that he's brought on Tracy to help him do that?

 

Yeah but they didn't even stick to the original story. I really hate it when they make movies like that. It always turns out to be.. less than what one would hope for. If the WC movie was actually faithful to the game I would've like it a LOT better. It didn't even look like WC never mind the nonsense they pulled with the characters and story.

 

I think the jury's still out.

 

Chris Roberts wanted it just like the games but he said himself there was a lot of pressure from the suits to make the casting more of a "teen movie" like She's all That..... D:

 

I figured as much.. but that only makes it that much worse that they did it that way. It's just like producers insisting a game me made a certain way because marketing said so. ugh..

 

The most important part of this video and others like it, and what we're seeing now is consistency. The vision has always been quite consistent throughout the years and so that's why it's easy to believe this is the "dream game" they've always wanted to make.

 

Richard is a lot calmer now than he was back when this video is shot. You can see the passion and intensity is still there, but the way he responds when asked about Chris Roberts leaving seems pretty intense. I bet with hindsight 20/20 he'd want that rather frank answer back too heheh

Life is hard. Even for those of us with vision.

 

Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about SotA as well, especially after having seen that video too. But I do wonder what design concessions he's had to make given feedback from the community. He has been outspoken about "endless neighborhoods" yet is now selling player towns which effectively will result in this. Granted, he may be optimistic that player towns will be very well managed and well cared for and offer an engaging and fun space to play in...but one can't wonder what those towns will look like once interest drops or is abandoned. You'd now effectively have exactly the situation he wanted to avoid in the first place.

 

Internet MUDs did this before these fancy 3d games came about. Its not a new idea, it was even around before he stated this. He might of not been aware of MUDs.

 

I wonder that too, sometimes. I suppose it's still an *overall* plus if the concessions he makes to the community aren't as bad as the concessions he would have to make to a traditional publisher. This, is of course, assuming those "concessions" are actually damaging; I think in *most* cases where Portalarium has incorporated community feedback against their initial intuition, it will likely lead to an improved game, or worst case (considering opportunity cost), at least an equally good game.

Reading the history of Origin and Electronic Arts, or reading between the lines when the Tabula Rasa team talks about their dealings with NC Soft (or for that matter read the actual lines), I conjecture that meddling by pretty much any traditional publisher would be far more damaging to the SotA design. Activision would be trying to push them into adhering to a more WoW-like formula. EA would reassign Chris Spears to work on the next Tiger Woods game. CCP would let Portalarium flounder for eight years and then fire everyone except the accountants.

I think this puts *positive* pressure on the SotA team in that *they have to make it work.* They will have no publisher to blame.

 

Hey, but at least with Ubisoft one would get a totally open-world game... Though with no female characters.

Sorry, couldn't help myself. *chuckles*