Creator of Ultima Online kickstarting a new MMORPG for 2014

[t0lkien]

Originally Posted by gotrocks [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Saw this a while back, looks awful.

My biggest problem is that Garriott is soooo full of himself. You should hear the way he talks about other developers. Not ok. I refuse to support any of his work when he has pretty much straight up said all developers except him, peter molyneux, and a couple others are total shit

The new vid looks pretty great, and the no-hand-holding aspect of the design is loooooong overdue. Save us from WoW babies and their God awful cartoon diaper universe.

However, his trash talking about other designers is actually warranted in at least one way. The state of modern game design is ferking attrocious, and the guys generally put in charge of games in lead positions are aggressively mediocre and intentionally so. Lead design is a middle management position in which only those who capitulate to upper management survive i.e. they are yes men. I've been a Lead and have been forced into that same awful compromise, and it's soul destroying if you have any integrity. The ones that survive and endure there are not good designers - actually, I question what sort of people they are.

There are exceptions of course, but they are few now when they used to be (almost) the rule. Black Isle, Interplay, Origin, Sirtech, (young) id Software, the original LucasArts, the original Bioware and old Blizzard/Blizzard North (RIP) - so many of the ground breaking companies that created the genres we play now no longer exist, and the best of the designers have passed on to other things. Garriott on this point is spot on. His choice of designers whom he considers "his equal" are terribly misplaced IMO, and he obviously has a huge ego in this regard (and I don't necessarily agree with him). Calling the industry out for what it has become, though, just makes me cheer from the sidelines. It's a long overdue truth.