
Richard Garriott: the man, the myth, the mischief - doppp
http://www.polygon.com/features/2017/1/30/14406074/richard-garriott-book-interview
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pmoriarty
My favorite Ultima-related story is "The Assassination of Lord British":

[http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/03/the-game-archaeologist-
the...](http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/03/the-game-archaeologist-the-
assassination-of-lord-british/)

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clowd
Interested to see what Shroud of the Avatar will be like, whenever it's
finished. I got thousands of hours of entertainment from Ultima Online, and
Shroud is said to be "UO 2 with a different name." He makes a good point that
the Steam audience is a different beast; as a whole they aren't very tolerant
of alpha releases, with good reason.

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pmoriarty
I've been an Ultima fan since Ultima III, and rate Ultima IV the best of the
Ultimas. Yet today, all of the Ultimas are pretty insufferable to me. They're
too simplistic. Too cliche. Too limited. I expect a lot more from a game today
than pretty much any game of the 80's or 90's could deliver.

I haven't played Shroud of the Avatar, and have only read the reviews of it on
Steam, but I don't think I'm a typical Steam gamer, if only because I'm much
older and have played many of the original Ultimas when they came out. Still,
the Steam reviews, if they are to be believed, make Shroud of the Avatar sound
like a gigantic disappointment.

Garriott does not seem to want to take any of the criticisms seriously, and
never really addresses any of the really deep criticisms, of which there are
many. He just brushes them off with a few words about the game looking _"
unfinished, unpolished, with only a few weapons and an obtuse UI"_.

The impression I'm left with is that either he's in denial or hundreds of
negative Steam reviewers are fools or exquisite liars. I really doubt the
latter is the case, and don't hold out much hope for this game, though I'd
love to see Garriott emerge triumphant and for Shroud of the Avatar to become
a groundbreaking classic like his early games.

