I did everything, and there is more!
My entire professional career, I've been investing in the privatization of space, helping to unlock the gates of private space travel. Space X plans to take two paying customers on a week long trip there and back. We were simulating the dungeons against social experience that we would have at home. And so we were motivated and we're constantly looking for how and when we would make what we were originally called Ultima If you are a massive MMO RPG fan, you might have heard of Ultima Online. It was one of the oldest PC games that is still being updated to this day. The game has celebrated its 25th anniversary.
The game was initially released by Origin Systems in 1997 and it is a source of some of the craziest and unbelievable gaming stories, such as the assassination of the Lord British Richard Garriott. Don't worry, though, Garriot is still alive and well. It's his avatar that suffered, though. But we'll get into that story in a minute. Hello and welcome to All Patch Notes. Today, we are taking a closer look at both Ultima Online and its producer, Richard Garriott.
We'll be looking at the life of a man who maybe has not done it all, but has come really close to it. And everything he has done has come at a cost. Richard? Garriott’s work has been influential to the video game industry as he was the first person to coined the term MMO RPG.
He's one of the first people to start writing video games in the 1970s and he later went on and started his own video game companies such as Argent Systems in 1983. Destination games in 2000 and Portalarium in 2009. But unfortunately, none of these are still around today anymore. What happened to all these companies, though? Well, Origin Systems was initially sold to EA for $35 million in 1992.
Only for the studio to be disbanded in 2004. Destination Games was founded in 2000 and ended up being inside its U.S. headquarters. But in 2009, the company was dissolved.
The same year, Garriott founded Portalarium, a company that tried to replicate the success of Ultima series but ended up with its rights to transact as a business forfeited by the Texas controller. Nowadays, despite Garriott not having any other gaming companies, there is wind in the industry that he is working on another game. This one will involve NFT. The son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott Richard didn't seem to settle on only making video games. He also managed to fulfill his childhood dream of traveling space.
But even that journey, just like his video game, one, seemed to be filled with hurdles after two failed attempts in which he lost money and a lot of it he had finally managed to embark on a 12 The Journey to the International Space Station in October 2008. From making video games to space travel. A deep dive into the Mariana Trench. And so much more. There is a lot to be said about Garriott’s contribution to both gaming and science.
Has it all been smooth going for him? How much money has he made from all his endeavors and how much has he lost? Where is he today? And what are his plans for the future? We will reveal all this and so much more in today's video. So let's dive right in. Who is Richard Garriott? Born on the 4th of July, 1961, in Cambridge, England.
Richard Garriott is the son of Helen and NASA astronaut and Garriott. Despite his parents being American, Richard had claimed dual citizenship for both the United States and the United Kingdom by birth. He grew up in Texas and had aspired to become an astronaut just like his father. Growing up, surrounded by people who worked for NASA, such as neighbor astronauts John Engle and Hoot Gibson It seemed like there was no other job for a kid like Richard would even consider.
But fortunately, though, in 1974, when he was only 13 years old, Richard was told by NASA doctor that he needed glasses. And because of that, he was no longer eligible to become an astronaut. After being let down by NASA because of his visual impairment, young Gary decided that he would create inside his own space agency when he grows up with a blackjack and hookers, though. But that plan was tossed away just a few years later when Roger discovered what would become his greatest passion video games. This happened during his freshman year in high school when he was first introduced to computers.
Being a fan of the Lord of the Rings series and also learning more and more each day about Dungeons and Dragons. Garriott decided he should try his hand at making a fantasy computer game. He started small with a basic computer class that his high school was offering, where he learned to use the teletype system. Since high school didn't have much of a curriculum when it comes to computer classes, once he finished a basic course, Richard Gary has to get it with another student managed to convince his school to approve a three year self-study course for them to take.
All they had to do during the course was to work on their respective projects and show their work at the end of each term for the remaining three years of high school. I sort of became the school's computer expert as I kind of began to build games there. As for the rest of my career, so to speak, at school. Garriott estimates that he had written over 28 games during high school alone. Once he graduated, he started work at a computer lab where he was first introduced to an Apple computer inspired by what the computer had to offer and the graphics that were quite extraordinary at the time.
Richard created a game called Akela. Beth, the owner of the store, managed to convince him that the game would sell. So Richard spent $200, which was a lot of money at the time, for printing copies of the game and packaging it according to the industry standards at the time. Unfortunately, Garriott sold less than a dozen copies, but one of those did manage to get all the way to California Pacific Computer Company who were interested in signing a deal with him. Under that deal, the game sold over 30,000 copies and Richard received $5 for each copy sold, earning him a total of $150,000, which was three times of his astronaut thought or salary. Michael Abbott is known nowadays as the first published computer role playing game or RPG.
In 1979, Garriott started his classes at the University of Texas in Austin. While in college, him and his friend Ken Arnold created the first ever Ultima game. Ultima one The game just like the next, once featured artwork from Dennis Lobel on their cover. By the early 1980s, Gary had quit college to work full time on the Ultima Series. The series was initially program for the Apple two, but it later on became available on other platforms, too, for the ultimate two game. Gary had swap publishers choosing Sierra Online as they were the only company who had agreed to publish it with a cloth map, as Richard had always wanted the game to be origin systems.
But by the time Ultima three came around in 1983, Garriott had changed publishers once more. This time, instead of seeking a new one, he decided, together with his brother Robert, to set up their own video game publishing company called Origin Systems. This allowed Richard to have more control that input over the creative decisions of the game and implores. There were no more misunderstandings about Roy, things like he was with Sierra Online.
Surprisingly, Origin Systems had managed to survive the video game crash of 1983. This was mainly due to the fact that Ultima already had quite a reputation as a video game series, and also because Origin Systems published only PC games, no console ones. By 1989, Origin had managed to gather over 50 employees between Austin, Texas, and New Hampshire.
By 1992, it had sold over 1.5 million software units worldwide. Also, in 1992, EA Sports had managed to acquire art and systems for $35 million. In 1997, Origin Systems published what is notably the most known video game that had ever been developed Ultima Online. The same year, Richard Garriott coined the term massively multiplayer online role playing game.
Or as you and I know it, MMO RPG. After the release of the game and its running, RZA cited that Origin would become an online only company once they completed the Ultima nine in 1999. However, by 2000 he had already canceled quite a few origin games, including Ultima Online to Private here online and Harry Potter online due to Ultima Nine's bad reception. Oh my God. I've just heard what a winner it was, coincidence or not.
But at the same time that Richard Garriott decided to leave art systems and founded destination games in 2000, Argent Systems continue to exist only to support and expand Ultima Online. Up until 2004, when he decided to disband the studio as founder of Destination Games, Richard Garriott announced in 2001 a partnership with the giant NCC AFT, a part of the partnership agreement with destination games. Once you develop and support the North American version of ETSI Sox lineage games.
Seven years later, Destination Games released their first game, Tabula Rasa, which failed to generate the sales that were expected after its initial release. Disappointed about yet another game that did not sell so well, Richard Garriott announced in 2008 he plans to leave NZ soft and destination games in order to pursue his lifelong dream of space travel. That same year, in 2008, NZ Soft announced their plan to end the life service of tabula rasa. The servers officially shut down in 2009 and the company moved its United States headquarters from Austin, Texas to Seattle, taking down the Destination Games website in the process.
When a second gaming company failed, Richard Garriott did what he announced in 2008. He concentrated on pursuing his dream of space travel. However, a man of many talents and being good at multitasking, Richard Garrett, had managed to split his efforts into two. He concentrated on space travel while also founding a new video game company, Portal Area. Together with Dallas Snell and Fred Schmitt. The company had initially released two games for Casino and Ultimate Collector Ultimate Garage Sale in partnership with Zynga, but shut them down when Facebook Game Market crashed.
Their next title was released in 2009 and was named Shroud of the Avatar for Seeking Virtues. But all gamers had agreed that it was basically Ultima Online, too, in spirit. Garrett had agreed and said that if they would have been able to secure the intellectual property rights to Ozma from here, the game would have been titled Ultima Online to an early access version of Shroud of the Avatar was released on Steam in 2014. Would the game being fully released in 2018 by October 2019? The assets and rights to Shroud of the avatar were sorted. Captain of games and portal area had stopped developing any other games or acquiring any assets. The company later had his rights to transact business forfeited by the Texas controller and as of 2020, Portal area appears to be defunct.
In 2022, Richard Gary had announced that he is currently working together with long term business partner Todd Porter on a new fantasy MMO that uses NFT technology. It is not yet known who will be the publisher of this game, but its title was revealed to be Iron and Magic Ultima Online. A brief History. With so many things said and done and probably more to come. It seems like Richard Garriott just doesn't want to stop.
He's made video games. He went to the International Space Station. He also traveled to the deepest point possible the Marina Trench. And while his gaming companies had not had continuity, he might have envisaged for them. One game remains synonymous with Lord British.
We're talking about Ultima Online, one of the oldest PC games that still receive updates to this day. Ultima Online is an emoji released on the 24th of September 1997 by Richard Garrett's first company, Origin Systems. Ultima Online was the result of Gareth's idea of making a game that involves several thousand people who could all play in a shared fantasy world. While at the time there were other games that allowed hundreds of players to play at the same time, Ultima Online outdid the competition, both in terms of graphics and in-game mechanics.
Richard had mentioned that Origins visions of Ultima Online were of a game that would have a theme, a story, and eventually make it into an online virtual world where people could go and live out their alternative lives. They wanted to offer the player as much freedom as possible. Well, that eventually did backfire a bit, with Ultima Soon becoming a game known for griefing and player killing. And the worst part was that killing a player could also cause him to lose everything. And speaking of killing, that's where the Lord British lost his life.
During a beta test of Ultima Online in August 1997 during a server population stress test. A player called Rings cast a fire field spell killing Lord. British Rings explained later on in an interview that he cast the fire field scrawled on the badge Lord, British and Lord Black Throne. Game Director. Star Long. Initially it was just seen as a joke with one of the Lords actually commenting on Reigns ever. Ha ha. Nice try.
But before they knew it, Gareth's avatar Lord British, had collapsed to the ground in flames. Later on he was discovered that after the servers were reset, Gareth had forgot to turn on the cheat that meet him and vulnerable. So Brains attend was actually successful due to Richard's error. What happened next was described as reigns as pure mayhem. Lord Black Throne or somebody else had someone for demons and people were killed, left, right and center. Reigns tried to run, but he still couldn't escape.
The developers at Origin Systems, who hit back by deleting his character and banning him from Ultimate Online forever. However, according to Origin, Reigns wasn't banned because of the assassination, but rather due to the other complaints against his account. Despite the protests reigns Ban had caused amongst players, Ultimate Light still ended its beta testing with a bang, giving its players an end of the world scenario where demons, shadow lords and other evil creatures slaughtered every character in sight. In September 1997, Ultima Online opened the first game service to the public.
Within the first six months, the game had managed to get to over 100,000 subscribers. With its popularity on the rise. In 1999, Ultima Online opened servers all around the world. In 2000, Richard Garrett resigned, and when he left, he took his avatar, Lord British, with him, causing players to speculate as to why he had left. By 2003, Ultima Online had received 250,000 subscribers. But just a year later, Origin Systems shut down, leaving the game without a studio to manage it while Ultima Online was the first MMO RPG to ever reach 100,000 subscribers that had reached its peak subscriber count in 2003.
It is said that since then it has been in a steady decline. In 2008, the game had only 100,000 subscribers left. However, this decline could be due to the fact that World of Warcraft was released in 2004 and quickly became the leader in the MMO RPG market, bringing in players from other games such as Ultima Online. With ten expansion packs released in 1998. Ultimate Success had brought in a lot of attention to the game, including a range of awards. Guinness World Records had awarded the game eight world records in the Guinness World Records Gamer Edition 2000 neat including first MMO apogee to reach 100,000 subscribers.
Longest running MMO RPG and the first and only person to kill the British. Yeah, they actually made that our record too. However, the longest running MMO RPG award was revoked due to an oversight that was instead given to a game called for Korea, which was released just a few short months before Ultima Online.
In 2012, Stratos presented Ultima Online with a historic achievement award to commemorate the 15 years of innovation, imagination and dedication in support of Ultima Online Community. Time magazine had also listed as one of the top 100 greatest games of all time in November 2012. With such a colorful history full of ups and downs and even little accidents such as killing, lure, British Ultima Online is still one of the defining games of the memoir genre. Richard Garrett's vision for a multiplayer RPG world has been influential on many of the most successful and popular attires that came after it.
Even nowadays, despite the fact that origin system does not exist anymore, Ultima Online still has a small and loyal player base. Despite his company's failing and his failed attempts at space travel, Richard Garrett's game still lives on and will live forever to be his legacy to the world of online gaming. Richard Garriott, the Space Tourist. As mentioned previously, in 2008, Garriott wanted to fulfill his lifelong dream of exploring space. Well, that was quite a lengthy passion project of his as he seemed to have a lot of bad luck and unfortunate events leading up to his space travel.
With the sale of Origin systems came the opportunity for Richard to invest in space adventures and pursue a ticket to become the first private citizen to fly into space. But due to financial setbacks, he was eventually forced to sell his seat in 2001. Garriott returned to creating video games, and once he had managed to gather the necessary funds once more, he paid for another nonrefundable ticket.
But this time, instead of financial issues, Maggio was discovered on his liver during a mandatory medical examination. Their manager, Moja, was serious business. He could easily cause internal bleeding in the event of a rapid spacecraft pressurization. He was given a choice between forfeiting his deposit or undergoing surgical removal of the enigma, and Garrett chose the surgery. Finally, in September 2008, Space Adventures announced that Richard Gary would fly to the International Space Station as a self-funded space tourist.
The total cost of the trip was estimated to be somewhere around $30 million. After the surgery and a year of training and preparing in Russia in October 2008, Gary became second generation space traveler after Circe Volkoff, the first offspring of an American astronaut to go into space and the second person to wear the British Union flag in space. The spaceflight lasted only 12 days, during which Gary filmed Apogee of Fear, the first ever fictional short film fully filmed in space. Utter accomplishments.
Just exploring the outer spaces and creating video games was not enough for our boy, Richard Garriott. In 2021, he was elected president of the Explorers Club and proceeded to travel to the bottom of the Marina Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on the planet. The purpose of the travel was to get geological samples from the bottom of the trench. But Garriott also managed to place a geo cache and record in another short film. Garrett is also the owner of the Luna 21 Lander, and Luca had two rover, which are both currently located on the moon. Lunokhod two is still currently in use.
Its mirrors aligned in such a way that it makes possible to actually calculate the distance between Earth and the Moon. With his vehicle still in use. Gary claims property rights to the territory surveyed by Luke and R2, while U.N. treaties ban governmental ownership of property on other celestial bodies, corporations and private citizens retain such rights. This means that Gary adds, claim of the territory surveyed by Lunokhod two may very well be the first valid claim of private ownership of extraterrestrial territory.
Basically, it means the man who actually owns land on the moon. As a game developer and space traveler, Garrett has won many worlds. Some of the most noteworthy being Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1992.
Game Developers Choice Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, British Interplanetary Society's Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Best Individual Achievement. In 2009, British Interplanetary Society's astronaut pin given to British born astronauts in 2009, Society of NASA's First Surgeons Lovelace Award for Contributions to Space Medicine in 2009, and he was inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame in 2010. Today, Richard Garrett's network is said to be somewhere around $1,000,000.
Not much, considering other game developers have bigger sums of money in the bank. But we also need to remember Richard never seemed to be the type to just hold onto money for the sake of having as possible just his ticket to the International Space Station alone, costing $30 million. You could also explore both the North and South Poles and the Marina Trent on top of that. So it's safe to say that that money was well spent, right? Some of you might disagree with the statement.
Despite his multiple attempts at establishing video game companies and his failed attempt at space travel going, it doesn't seem to want to just quit yet. In April 2022, the game developer, the Horizon, had announced the founding of a new studio called Demetra and the Lord British Gary got together with tap water, recorded the brand's new studio and created a new MMO built on the blockchain. When asked about the game, Garriott nor Polgar offered too much information except that it will be an MMO with Porter adding her mission is to take MMO to the next level, offering this huge fanbase the opportunity to help build our next title and to shape the next version of RPGs. In the same way that Rich and I shaped those in the past. It is yet to be seen whether this endeavor in the blockchain will be successful.
One for Garriott, but either way, it's safe to say that he can comfortably live the rest of his life knowing that whatever he wanted to do, he did it even if he didn't. The feeling he tried and a lot has to be said for that. Well, that's all we got for you today, folks. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. Let us know in the comments section below. If you've ever played Ultima Online or if you would even consider joining in on the fun.
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2023-03-31 22:34
