Garriott "open" to working on new Ultima

I am quiet frankly amazed by this, if this story is true?
After the wake of ultima online 2 and everything else that happened to ultima i thought that was something in the past but if he wants work on it then EA should let him i think , there is some intrest for a new ultima game i think thats not a facebook game.

I,d like to see iPad versions of some of the earlier ultimas, especially ultima 5. Loved that game. Seven too.

@Arkwright

Not on iPad, but you could play Lazarus

He's bonkers, no wonder EA won't touch him with a shitty stick of +5 miasmic fplander.

There were some brilliant Ultima Games. My favorites: Ultima VII and Ultima VIII. Ultima Underworld II also has a special place in my heart.

Ultima Online

He needs to tell them his new idea is to turn it into a medieval FPS with a twist. The twist being guns and lots of OORA!
They will be all over it then.

I think they should let him do it, give him full creative control and see what he comes up with

Of course, fat chance of that happening...

For anyone who doesn't know, GOG is giving away Ultima 4 free of charge at the moment.

I'd buy it!

I recently started playing ultima 9 again... And it's amazing how well its held up - from a technology pov.

.

Don't see this happening at all. EA don't need Garriot who as clive dunn says is a bit mad, and possibly full of his own bullshit. He is just sniffing around for an opportunity.
EA have Bioware/Dragon Age, they have games like Kingdoms of Amalur coming. They have in their eyes, got the Fantasy RPG market sewn up for some time. I can see them knocking out some f2p ultima game to sit alongside Lord of Ultima, but they don't need Garriot to do that.

Of note, the shepherd of the Ultima IP at the moment is BioWare.

I'd like to see new Ultima RPGs of some description and I'd like to see Garriott consult on them, but I'd never want to see him be in charge of the IP again, he's too unpredictable.

After the way Garriot treated NCsoft, I'm not surprised EA don't want to work with him.

Just stick it on iOS. All of it. Not much of a risk there is there?

☥

Ultima 1 was a fantasy RPG where you could fright dragons with laser rifles, get a space ship, battle tie fighters, then use a time machine to kill the final boss

REMAKE!

I personally have played and enjoyed every single (single player) ultima game, the only one i didnt enjoy so much was ultima 8 - as it was less an rpg and more a platformer.

Sorry, but neither Bioware or Garriott would be able to honor the Ultima name anymore. Not with how Bioware handled their most recent fantasy RPG and not how Garriott last projects went totally bust (UO2, UX, Tabula Rasa).

Who cares? Underdog ...

I could kill for a *proper* Ultima game with today's tech and an old school design.

I want Ultima 4 redone, to be more sandboxy like Dwarf Fortress Adventure mode

@dominalien.
Thx for the heads up on Lazarus. Looks very interesting. And from that I've discovered a port of Ultima7 available for my doctored psp. Life is good!

Of course EA aren't interested! They can't annualise it for a start.

These days, for EA to be interested in anything, a proposal must include an online pass, crappy day-one DLC, even crappier pre-order DLC, SecuROM & activation limits, full access to your hard drive when you install their Origin spyware and above all, EA's trademark zero customer service.

Ultima simply can't offer that.

After the mess he left Tabula Rasa in, I suspect the talks involved him offering to give them head and EA ordering their security to escort him off the premises with as much violence as possible.

The man is a douche, and although NCSoft aren't angels, what this man did to them is unacceptable and I doubt there will be many who will give him the time of day any longer.

And I LIKED Tabula Rasa. Still do. And this man just... didn't care.

So I'll take great pleasure in his suffering.

>The man is a douche, and although NCSoft aren't angels, what this man did to them is unacceptable


Yes - i'm SURE you know 100% what happened between him and the publisher, and are 100% able to know who was in the right/wrong... Afterall, you're on the internets, no-one is wrong or has invalid information in these parts...

"he's a douche"?

Do your research, for years he used to turn his mansion (custom designed - complete with hidden passageways/etc) into a haunted house for halloween.. Then he'd open it up for free for people to come and get scared/etc... Not exactly the sign of a "douche" is it?


* well, I guess it depends what he did to said kids behind closed doors... but i'm suspecting it was all above board...

>The man is a douche, and although NCSoft aren't angels, what this man did to them is unacceptable


Yes - i'm SURE you know 100% what happened between him and the publisher, and are 100% able to know who was in the right/wrong... Afterall, you're on the internets, no-one is wrong or has invalid information in these parts...

"he's a douche"?

Do your research, for years he used to turn his mansion (custom designed - complete with hidden passageways/etc) into a haunted house for halloween.. Then he'd open it up for free for people to come and get scared/etc... Not exactly the sign of a "douche" is it?


* well, I guess it depends what he did to said kids behind closed doors... but i'm suspecting it was all above board...

Well, I paid attention to the fallout - reports of vulgarity, abuse, turning up late or not at all and diverting funds away from the games development for his own amusement. And when NCSoft gave him the ultimatum (which I think was fair - "Work on the game or piss off" - maybe not the exact words but to that effect) he chose his own little ambition over thousands and thousands of fans of his work.

What he does in his personal life is his own business - he could be akin to Ghandi in his house for all I care. Professionally, he doesn't seem to be able to stick to anything - or rather, he thinks that he can coast along on the back of something. That annoys me deeply. Many of us who stood with Tabula Rasa were amazed at how quickly he seemed to get bored of it. Perhaps this just isn't his world anymore - but it took hurting a LOT of gamers out there to find that out.

Richard Garriott has a habit of burning bridges that don't need to be razed. His professional career does have highlights, of course it does - but it is also strewn with failings, downs and some very dodgy attitudes. When he decided to just not work on Tabula Rasa, I just thought, "What a cock." And I still do. For all the technical issues it had, for me it had one of the strongest, closest and friendliest communities I've seen in years - that was not something to be so willfully tossed aside.

I don't doubt NCSoft have their part to play - and I still think in a large part when Garriott walked out they were overly keen on getting rid of Tabula Rasa, perhaps too keen to throw his suitcase out onto the porch - I've got some suspicions that NCSoft may have put unreasonable demands on development, funds (maybe not a surprise) and his timecard. But I think there was too much rushed through to please shareholders and men in suits - too much had to be cut back, or shelved, or sidelined for a while. Fixes that were planned couldn't go through as wages weren't being paid. No, NCSoft are no angels - but Garriott walked away from the table. I believe that was when NCSoft decided to get rid of any trace of his presence, and therefore close a decent MMO that many of us enjoyed for the whole of its run. When you walk away, you are making it final - burning that bridge, there is no going back.

No, I don't know all the facts as it were. But enough fireworks went off behind the curtains (and enough leaked out into the internet) to draw some conclusions - and Richard Garriott will have to carry this mantle around with him. It's his burden to bear - and it is one I am sure may have EA on edge. You can be a really nice guy down the pub with your mates, or great with your neighbours - but if you're a difficult arse to work with, then you will be branded as difficult. Pretty sure that's a reputation that sticks and is hard to wash off.

And he let a lot of us Tabula Rasa fans down very badly. He didn't even hold onto the rights to do something with them. Like Ultima, he just walked away and left it in the hands of people who... let's be fair here, probably aren't 100% sure what to do with it anyway, and the suits didn't seem to see or care about any future vision.

Thing is, sometimes where you find smoke, you usually find some fire to go with it. I mean, the fallout was nowhere near the impressive meltdown that we saw with Vanguard (still think there's a movie in that somewhere). Tabula Rasa was a good game, managed badly and left to fester. What they had was beautiful - and they just didn't care much for maintenance.

Garriott has to shoulder his share of the blame in this. So yes, I level the word "douche" at him. Trust me, there are probably worse words being used to describe him - I've seen Tabula Rasa fans use far worse language, this is mild in comparison. It's his own fault really. He doesn't need defending - his actions and work speak for themselves.

That said, I would still love to see Tabula Rasa revived. Absolutely. It would be amazing to see it back - I would just prefer it back without him at the helm this time. A good IP like that needs love, dedication, commitment, money, time, good management and patience.

I sadly fear Garriott hasn't got many of those attributes to spread around on this character sheet...

EA hasn't done Ultima, or Origin, any favors. Note: Origin was swallowed by EA in 1992. The last good Ultima game? Already in development - released in '93.
Come to think of it, the quality of Origin's games went right down the hill after the acquisition. Like many studios picked up by EA, everything good happened before EA got involved. Well, at least with BioWare.
Its really sad.
Heartbreaking really.