Origin and EA: article

[fable]

Although there's a clear sense of polarization in this article, still, it's a good read, with a relatively high degree of accuracy. It ignores what led to Origin's financial difficulties, and how Garriott's growing obsession with sensory game devices and action titles hurt OS, but it's pretty straight-on where Hawkins and EA is concerned.

[Denethorn]

Very interesting read. I thought I knew most of EAs evil through researching the flunk that was Ultima IX (I always swore to myself that if I ever won the lottery I would buy the rights to Ultima and hand them to Richard Garriott to finish the series properly, though I'm dubious as to whether he would), but that article was most enlightening ; valuable for the quotes alone.

I found found the omens in Ultima VII very intriguing, never really noticed them before. The tune 'Stones' (one of Iolo's compositions) always filled me with both nostalgia and melancholy at the fate of Origin. A sad tale, and the worst possible demise for one of the most outstanding game series/studio in the industry's history, but thats how things go.

I'm doing my best to be optimistic about Tabula Rasa, its one MMOG I will certainly lift my online gaming abstinence for, but I can't say I'm in fanboy mode.

[fable]

Garriott himself wasn't an innocent in all this. He always has to be in charge of everything and finds it nearly impossible to delegate. Nor can he manage large projects. His method of dealing with Ultima IX was to let a team do it without any overview, because he'd have to make all the decisions if he got involved. When he saw what it looked like, he scrapped it and fired the team, then hired some others and did the same. We got the results.

And remember, he was the one who sold OS to EA. He did this because he wanted to push the technical envelope, and needed to promote multi-sensory PC periperhals. The latter was an abysmal failure, and the former doomed U9. He was told this repeatedly in advance, and paid no attention to those who said so. Garriott has a blank spot when it comes to his own fallibility and failings.

[Luis Antonio]

This article is very good... Very good. It shed some light on what happened to the OS. I knew it was due to a vision/administrative/clumsiness problem but never seen the real story. This one seems to be good enough. Stick this topic, maybe?