
Interview with Richard Garriott, a.k.a Lord British - evo_9
https://lifehacker.com/im-richard-garriott-aka-lord-british-and-this-is-how-1831177709
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smhenderson
The Digital Antiquarian has a great article about Richard [1]. It's a bit of a
long read but very interesting. The follow up article to this is about
"Akalabeth", a game Richard wrote when was a teenager.

[1] [https://www.filfre.net/2011/12/lord-
british/](https://www.filfre.net/2011/12/lord-british/) [2]
[https://www.filfre.net/2011/12/akalabeth/](https://www.filfre.net/2011/12/akalabeth/)

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ticmasta
IGN unfiltered did a 3-part interview (IGN Unfiltered #17) with him as well
that is worth viewing. Ryan McCafferty is a decent interviewer who shows a
genuine love of the products and does his research:

[https://ca.ign.com/videos/2017/03/15/richard-garriott-on-
pul...](https://ca.ign.com/videos/2017/03/15/richard-garriott-on-pulling-
pranks-and-pooping-in-space-ign-unfiltered-17-part-1)

~~~
smhenderson
Thanks, I'll give it a go.

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haolez
I've played a lot of Ultima Online back in the day, which is probably
Richard's most relevant creation.

It was a fantastic MMORPG. It was really balanced and it managed to be equally
fun to be a "worker" (lumberjacker, farmer, blacksmith) or an adventurer. In
the shards that I used to play, there were not a lot of overpowered players,
so it was very common to see beggars and poverty in the urban centers of the
game's world. And those were PLAYERS, not NPCs.

I don't think any game since then has achieved this kind of feel.

~~~
codezero
I completely agree. One of the things that I loved about UO, was that early on
the bugs were as much a feature than the intended game features. They created
what felt like an unbounded gameplay.

The world itself was extremely diverse and had some really decent scripted AI,
and on top of that GMs/Guides could trigger events (like a massive undead
spawn) to engage/mess with players. It was a riot.

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gavanwoolery
Richard is one of the most down-to-earth tech-celebrities out there. He is
easy to talk to on Twitter, or email, or snail mail. He is, IMHO, among the
most important historical figures in the game industry.

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corysama
I wish I could find the hour-long, audio-only interview with him I listened to
years ago. They basically talked through his whole career starting from
learning to program.

The striking part was the repeated theme for each of his companies: He built a
company and a team within. They had success and a subsequent buyout offer.
He'd take the money and start a new company. But, his old team at the previous
one really liked working with him. So, they'd all migrate over to the new
company. He rinse-and-repeated this at least three times.

~~~
kgwxd
Is it this? [https://www.wired.com/2014/03/geeks-guide-richard-
garriott/](https://www.wired.com/2014/03/geeks-guide-richard-garriott/)

~~~
corysama
Nope. That was fun though.

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SavoX
I'm looking forward to reading Andrea Contato's upcoming book titled Through
the Moongate – The Story of Richard Garriott, Origin Systems Inc. & Ultima:
[http://www.theira.it/through-the-moongate](http://www.theira.it/through-the-
moongate), which was Kickstarted recently
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1108065491/through-
the-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1108065491/through-the-moongate-
richard-garriott-origin-and-u)

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hentrep
Garriot’s autobiography was one of my favorite reads from 2018:
[https://www.amazon.com/Explore-Create-Pursuit-Frontiers-
Crea...](https://www.amazon.com/Explore-Create-Pursuit-Frontiers-
Creative/dp/006228665X)

