$15,125,684+ Taken, 10 Years Developed, Complete Failure

Richard Garriott is one of the hall of famer, all time great names in video games. A pioneer. A legend. Unfortunately, he tarnished his legacy with a last run at changing the online world, and he finds himself in the court of public opinion. The verdict? You decide. For me, he remains a man that literally changed the game, but tried one too many times. Still a legend, no doubt. But with a terrible end to what would otherwise have been an incredible story.

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#mmorpg #kickstarter #shroudoftheavatar

[gorganhorn]

He promised to deliver an experience unlike anything that existed. A game so cutting edge you can literally play it from anywhere in the world... all you have to do is close your eyes and imagine.

[OnlyKaerius]

I was a Tabula Rasa closed beta tester. What killed Tabula Rasa was one simple decision during beta, that had the testers in uproar, but were unheeded. Until that time, every player who participated in killing an enemy got the full experience for the kill, this lead to a camaraderie, where everyone was encouraged to help each other. The decision was to change this so only the player who did the most damage got the experience, changing the entire mood of the game from band of brothers to get away from me killstealer. Such a simple change absolutely destroyed the game.

[Drakarys]

Richard's story is the epitome of “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

[blindlynx]

The man who spent 30 million dollars to go into space needed to be crowdfunded

[ButWhyWasTaken]

When a game project is almost out of money after raising over 10 million while also being in early access AND selling stuff for hundreds and even thousands of dollars in the ingame cash shop there are not alarm bells going off in my head, no there are air raid sirens going off in my head.

[Killigma]

Paying $3000 for virtual land will always be crazy to me.

[JohnTheRevelatr]

23:45 Hit the nail right on the head. As an early backer, I had that exact feeling: "why are you gatekeeping castles and plots behind USD walls? These things should be rewards for players that do great deeds, as they were in UO."

[kulman]

Some years ago I attended a presentation sponsored by my workplace, in which Garriot told us about his video game history, especially Ultima, as well as about his recent space trip. All I remember from this is that he clearly doesn't really care that much about games anymore (or at least is not involved in the development really) and that pooping in space is really difficult because of the lack of gravity

[zardoz]

He paid 30 million dollars to go to space, but he couldn't pay half of that amount to fund his own game... why take the risk when you have naive fans that you can scam, right?

[anonony]

At least this guy has a history of building games. Not nearly as egregious as the kickstarters that make millions of dollars based on nothing but a concept from somebody with no experience making games

[levelsandgear]

It's kind of amazing how unaware of all this I was. I was a huge Ultima Fan (Including UO) and really respected Garriott. Due to being older and having other responsibilities, I never really paid attention to this title. Watching this video, and as soon as the creator mentioned that you could buy titles and land in Shroud, it set off alarm bells. "Wait, they wanted land and the world to be formed and shaped by those in it, but are then selling the best stuff prior to its launch?" - Both can't happen. I also cringed when I saw Richard being involved in an NFT based game. Sad to see these people turned out to be grifters.

[strawbarry]

I knew all of this from following his career since the 80's, but I just wanted to pass along my sincere appreciation to you Kira for giving a very balanced take on all of it. It's all too easy to point fingers and laugh, but in reality, Richard's story is a tragedy. He really *did* do great things a long time ago. But like many who peak early in life, he just couldn't avoid the temptation for "one last ride." And no matter the field, singers, actors, writers...99% of the time they crash and burn trying to re-live those glory days. It's a tale as old as time. So thanks for granting him the respect he deserves, while also acknowledging the person he ultimately (no pun intended) became.

[khornebread]

I used to play this game, but finally quit sometime last year. The purchase and reselling of little modification to 0 modification store-bought assets, the absolutely mind-boggling balance decisions, the tossing out of much needed fixes just to add in pop culture references as digital items, to the leader developer thinking that ever decision he's made is amazing and Shroud is a gem in the rough (this is the same guy that switched to working on the NFT game, and many of the updates for Shroud got "mysteriously" smaller), and finally much of the player base defending almost everything the remaining developers do with unrequited fervor. Seriously, I will not be surprised if I see a few of them in the comments attempting to defend Shroud.

Thank you for covering this: While my time in Shroud wasn't all bad, I am glad I finally quit for good, and I hope that the tiny playerbase that remains moves on to better games deserving of their attention.

[punk]

TBH, some people just aren't up to the job once a project gets to a certain scale. If you were a bedroom coder then you aren't necessarily going to be much good at managing a team of 100+ people.

[nikidelvalle]

I always love when a video takes me through a story I had no idea had been happening and makes me as mad about it as if I had been there the whole time.

[RoseKindred]

Kinda shows that even those who are part of the industry can still fail. How can a "nobody" who launches an MMO on KS expect to succeed?

[prntab]

The problem is he achieved his dream (going to space). I think that just fundamentally changed him from a dreamer striving towards a legacy to someone just struggling to hold onto it.

[bloodqc]

There's something gross about a space-traveling millionaire begging for money instead of assuming the risk himself.

[DK-skcv]

UO is still the only game that felt like I was living an alter ego in a fantasy land where alliances, politics, trade, player housing, risk and reward with everything in between made the world feel alive and unique.
Great times.

[DeriumandWifey]

The amount of money I gave to that Kickstarter was more than I want to admit. I had such high hopes for SotA, been playing UO since the late 90s and Garriott rug pulled us on promises it would be UO2.