In part II of our interview with Ultima series creator Richard Garriott we talk more about the “rooms full of killing children,” the dark nature of The Black Gate, creative ways to kill Lord British, fan mail, and the possibility of a new Ultima game from Garriott in the future. Read it after the break, and check out Part I if you haven’t already done so.
If you’d been reading the news and the official messages coming out of NCsoft and Richard Garriott’s camps at the end of his employment there, then you would believed that when Richard Garriott left the company the parting was sweet, sweet sorrow with hugs and kisses all around. But just under the surface there were a number of problems if you believe Richard Garriott’s recollection - now part of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. That recollection of the events leading up to and shortly after he left the company to “peruse other interest” are now in the public record courtesy of a lawsuit filed by the creator of ultima, Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa that alleges fraud and misrepresentation on the part of NCsoft.
The lawsuit alleges that NCsoft deliberately represented that Richard Garriott had left the company, when he had in fact be fired. This is the crux of his lawsuit because if he were to leave of his own free will it would give him a 90 day window to sell the NCsoft holdings he obtained when the company bought his game studio in . If he had been “let go” officially Garriott would have had a ten year window in which to sell those shares. Instead he was forced to sell his holdings in what he alleges was the worst time in history to sell.” The result was a tax liability incurred and a reduced return for his shares. Garriott is seeking some $27, 000,000 in damages from NCsoft. Garriott’s lawsuit alleges that NCsoft engaged in a breach of contract, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.
Richard Garriott, who is now spending more time thinking about space travel than virtual worlds, was kind enough to spend some time talking with us about the darker side of the Ultima series of role-playing games. This interview is a companion piece to The Black Gate Murders, an alternate playthrough of Ultima VII: The Black Gate that involves killing everyone in the game.
In Part I of our interview, the creator of Ultima reveals some little-known facts about Ultima VII, the origins of a room full of crazy children that caused a memorable family feud, and his feelings on selling Origin to EA so many years ago.
“Wild” Bill Stealey, co-founder of Microprose (a company he helped build alongside legendary Sid Meier), wants you to know that he’s still going strong and has some lofty plans with a brand new company called Thriller New Media. The company, a division of Thriller Publishing (which was announced at GDC last year), will operate in the spirit of Microprose - before the Hunt Valley, Maryland company’s brand and identity as one of the best simulation and strategy game developers in the world was co-opted by the 1993 Spectrum Holobyte buy-out.
The idea for the company came about while laying the groundwork for Thriller Publishing over the last year - a company that wants to bring espionage themed action games to various platforms including PC, Mac, mobile devices and consoles; Stealey and friends found that a significant opportunity existed in the online multiplayer and MMOG space that it could capitalize on in a very short space of time – hence the need for a second company.
The Austin Texas-based company’s focus is exclusively on online, first-person, military themed espionage action games based on science fiction and military stories from best-selling authors (who those authors are we do not know, but we expect to hear more about them later in the year). The other important part of the equation is a social networking platform to tie all of Thriller New Media’s content together and to provide users with a place to talk, keep score, and share stories.
