Tag: Richard Garriot

Portalarium Gearing Up To Release Ultimate Collector


Richard Garriot is a topic of which I tend to butt heads with the community here at MMO Fallout, generally due to the poor handling of Tabula Rasa and Garriot’s departure from Ultima Online. More recently, Garriot set his sights on social networking with the announcement of Portalarium, which Garriot himself described in 2010 as:

“The Portalarium mission is exactly what I want to be doing next in games. This really takes me back to my roots in the game business – small development teams, low barriers to entry, affordable budgets for quality projects, and unlimited new interactive frontiers to explore together with our customers.”

Currently in the works for release this summer is Ultimate Collector on Facebook, tasking players with running a garage sale and decorating their home with the proceeds. Garriot’s company Portalarium has received a $7 million investment from a number of firms, including M8 Capital, FF Angel, BHV Venture Capital, among others. The money from Ultimate Collector will be used to speed up development of Ultimate RPG, the spiritual successor to the Ultima series that may or may not actually be set in the Ultima world.

“We are grateful for the confidence m8 Capital and Founders Fund have placed in our team and we believe gamers will ultimately reap the benefits from this partnership when they get a chance to play Ultimate Collector and see the unique mobile and social games that we are creating at Portalarium.”
-Richard Garriot

Ultimate Collector is set for release later this summer, with Ultimate RPG on the horizon.

(Source: Games Industry)

Play Richard Garriot's MMO While It Is Developed…


There are a select few articles here on MMO Fallout that garner attention after, say, six months of their publishing. It’s been ten months since I published the article about Second Star Interactive, a new development studio formed out arguably the greater minds of Ultima Online, Warhammer, and Dark Age of Camelot, and that article is still on the traffic radar. The comments on the article are just a small portion of the attention that my article brought in, and my tease about three factions and full pvp cause more than one urinary incident among fans.

Daoc 2? OMG i got the shivers

I already have my 50 bucks buried in a coffee can, counting the seconds until this happens…

SO longing DAOC2 or summat like it. I almost started to cry

Richard Garriot is talking to Electronic Arts about a relationship to create a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, as mentioned in a Eurogamer article today. Whether or not that deal is struck will place little sway on the direction of this MMO, however, as Garriot points out:

“I actually think it’s time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don’t think I would change my current plans. I’m very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless.”

The interview reveals a number of details regarding Ultimate RPG:

  • Fantasy setting, although likely intertwined with science fiction.
  • Will likely preserve Ultima’s isometric view.
  • Ultimate RPG will be free to play.
  • Plans to make the game accessible via browser, client, iOS, and Android.
  • Target release date is 2012, 2013 (one of those two, says Garriot).
  • Ultimate RPG will take advantage of social media.
  • There are 25 people working at Portalarium (Garriot’s company)

Tantalizing readers even further, Garriot goes on to reveal that the game will be released closer to a Minecraft style format, allowing people to play as the game is developed.

“As soon as we have a viable game, we will immediately get it into players’ hands so that they can be a part of that creation process.”

(Source: Eurogamer)

Play Richard Garriot’s MMO While It Is Developed…


There are a select few articles here on MMO Fallout that garner attention after, say, six months of their publishing. It’s been ten months since I published the article about Second Star Interactive, a new development studio formed out arguably the greater minds of Ultima Online, Warhammer, and Dark Age of Camelot, and that article is still on the traffic radar. The comments on the article are just a small portion of the attention that my article brought in, and my tease about three factions and full pvp cause more than one urinary incident among fans.

Daoc 2? OMG i got the shivers

I already have my 50 bucks buried in a coffee can, counting the seconds until this happens…

SO longing DAOC2 or summat like it. I almost started to cry

Richard Garriot is talking to Electronic Arts about a relationship to create a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, as mentioned in a Eurogamer article today. Whether or not that deal is struck will place little sway on the direction of this MMO, however, as Garriot points out:

“I actually think it’s time to move on from that regardless, so even if we were to have access to the properties of my historical work, I don’t think I would change my current plans. I’m very confident of the current plans as the right way to evolve my creation, regardless.”

The interview reveals a number of details regarding Ultimate RPG:

  • Fantasy setting, although likely intertwined with science fiction.
  • Will likely preserve Ultima’s isometric view.
  • Ultimate RPG will be free to play.
  • Plans to make the game accessible via browser, client, iOS, and Android.
  • Target release date is 2012, 2013 (one of those two, says Garriot).
  • Ultimate RPG will take advantage of social media.
  • There are 25 people working at Portalarium (Garriot’s company)

Tantalizing readers even further, Garriot goes on to reveal that the game will be released closer to a Minecraft style format, allowing people to play as the game is developed.

“As soon as we have a viable game, we will immediately get it into players’ hands so that they can be a part of that creation process.”

(Source: Eurogamer)

Appeals Court Rules In Favor of Richard Garriot


Backstory: Richard Garriot partnered with NCsoft to create Tabula Rasa, a sci-fi shooter MMO that rather famously launched in late 2007 and shut down in early 2009 following a poor reception. Before Tabula Rasa shut down, however, NCsoft published a letter of resignation purportedly from Richard Garriot that he was leaving the company to pursue other careers. Garriot shot back, suing NCsoft with the claim that he was fired from the company, and then marked as voluntarily resigning in order to defraud him out of stock options that were available but expired upon his “resignation.”

Last year I reported that Richard Garriot had won $28 million in his lawsuit against NCsoft, although the final amount was $32 million, after lawyer fees and other costs added on. I also pointed out that NCsoft would undoubtedly appeal, and appeal they did. The 5th Circuit Court, however, saw Garriot’s side of the story (yet again) and shot NCsoft down, affirming the judgement.

“It would be unjust to allow NCsoft to sit back during trial, observe Garriott’s litigation strategy, and then demand a new trial on damages when it dislikes the verdict.”

NCsoft noted the lawsuit in their 2010 financial documents as a notable dent in their revenue.

A Bite Of Nostalgia: Tabula Rasa


Today’s video comes from LevSix, from the defunct Tabula Rasa.

Richard Garriot Wins Lawsuit Against NCsoft


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...
I hope NCSoft has plenty of it...

Oddly enough, it was exactly one year ago yesterday (shortly after MMO Fallout began) that I wrote up about Tabula Rasa, where I mentioned that Richard Garriot was suing NCSoft for $24 million for alleged fraud. In his lawsuit, Garriot claimed NCSoft forged a letter of resignation, both to themselves and the community of Tabula Rasa, and used it to get out of contract terms that would put Garriot in control of a number of stock options under the conditions of involuntary termination. In short: NCsoft fired Richard Garriot, and then lied about the conditions of his departure to get out of paying him millions of dollars in stock options.

The jury awarded Garriot $28 million, which NCsoft is of course planning to fight tooth and nail.

More on Richard Garriot as he appears.

Dad's Back! Richard Garriot Returns!


Get the canceled game, Dad's home!

Call him what you want, King Garriot, General Garriot, crazy, Richard Garriot is the big daddy of the MMORPG world, and has a special place in the hearts of many MMOers, whether you’ve played his version of Ultima Online (the old one) or Tabula Rasa. Ever since Tabula Rasa flew the coop and fell ten stories to its death, there’s been a lot of skepticism in the MMO world as to whether or not gaming genius Richard Garriot would make it back. He seemed busy with his new life flying the cosmos, and didn’t seem all that interested in the MMO landscape anymore.

Boy were we wrong, as Garriot himself is back with Portalarium!

“The Portalarium mission is exactly what I want to be doing next in games. This really takes me back to my roots in the game business – small development teams, low barriers to entry, affordable budgets for quality projects, and unlimited new interactive frontiers to explore together with our customers.”
-Richard Garriot

Interactive frontiers? Unlimited? Back to his roots? Excuse me if I glee. From my understanding, Portalarium will be starting out with a “portalarium player” that will act as a plugin to allow other gaming engines to work inside of social websites: Facebook, Myspace, etc. Where will Richard Garriot go from there?

Well that, my friends, will yet to be seen.

Unfortunately there is still no news on the $24 million lawsuit against NCsoft.

Dad’s Back! Richard Garriot Returns!


Get the canceled game, Dad's home!

Call him what you want, King Garriot, General Garriot, crazy, Richard Garriot is the big daddy of the MMORPG world, and has a special place in the hearts of many MMOers, whether you’ve played his version of Ultima Online (the old one) or Tabula Rasa. Ever since Tabula Rasa flew the coop and fell ten stories to its death, there’s been a lot of skepticism in the MMO world as to whether or not gaming genius Richard Garriot would make it back. He seemed busy with his new life flying the cosmos, and didn’t seem all that interested in the MMO landscape anymore.

Boy were we wrong, as Garriot himself is back with Portalarium!

“The Portalarium mission is exactly what I want to be doing next in games. This really takes me back to my roots in the game business – small development teams, low barriers to entry, affordable budgets for quality projects, and unlimited new interactive frontiers to explore together with our customers.”
-Richard Garriot

Interactive frontiers? Unlimited? Back to his roots? Excuse me if I glee. From my understanding, Portalarium will be starting out with a “portalarium player” that will act as a plugin to allow other gaming engines to work inside of social websites: Facebook, Myspace, etc. Where will Richard Garriot go from there?

Well that, my friends, will yet to be seen.

Unfortunately there is still no news on the $24 million lawsuit against NCsoft.

Aion: Open Beta, Head Start Announced


Aion releases September 22nd, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until the end of September to try out this bad boy, nor do you have to import the Asian version to get on distant servers. After many rumors of the sort, the announcement has come that Aion will be holding a week long open beta, starting September 6th, giving access to 30 levels and the full environment to fly around in.

Those who preorder the game will be able to access the head start, and get right into the action on September 20th, a full two days before the full game launches. Players who preorder will also be able to set up their names and servers on the 18th, two days before the early start.

To those of you teetering on the edge: Don’t forget that this is an open beta, the key word being BETA. Although Aion has launched in other parts of the world, that does not mean that there will not be starting glitches in the open beta. That is what the beta is for, to hammer out the final bugs. Also remember: Aion has quite a pull from the community. Expect the patch and client servers to be down for some time, assuming it isn’t hosted on Fileplanet. Champions Online, that recently went into Open Beta, had a good 24 hours of difficulty with servers and clients.

Update: Good news! The Aion client is now available for download!

Get it from

Tabula Rasa: What Happened


Tabula Rasa was an MMORPG that blended role playing with 3rd person shooter tactics, in an open ended and dynamic war waged between the human and bane forces. The game focused on Logos, artifacts that players collect to enable certain powers. While the game focused on PvE play, the introduction of PvP content introduced war games, allowing various game modes to be played between warring clans.

Unlike most other MMO’s that feature a targeting system and auto-attacks with the addition of hotbar attacks, Tabula Rasa features a targeting system for only some weapons, combined with a third person shooter system, and rpg hit/miss and damage calculations. Tabula Rasa focused on the war aspect of the game, and both sides of the war would launch attacks on each other’s bases. It was completely possible to lose a base to the Bane forces, meaning that access to the NPC’s, vendors, spawn points, teleport locations, and anything else located in the base would become inaccessible until the area was retaken.

So where did Tabula Rasa fail? The easiest way to answer that is unfulfilled promises. The game launched with very little, if any, end-game content, and the developers took so long to introduce any inkling of end-game content that many of the players who had reached the level cap had quit long beforehand. Certain promises of player-driven mechs, pvp wargames, and more, weren’t fulfilled until literally a month before the game shut down. Richard Garriot also left the company a few weeks before the announcement of shutdown.

Inevitably, player count went down sharply, resulting in the game getting the axe for subpar subscriber numbers.

OR WAS IT?

Continue reading “Tabula Rasa: What Happened”