Richard Garriott Interview
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When asked about why he thought that the market was filled with fantasy MMOs--as opposed to the science-fiction world of Tabula Rasa--Garriott gave a surprising answer. He said, "We are genre-agnostic--we really want to broaden the type of genres that are successful in the online space. I actually believe that great games make genres popular--I don't think people are fans of one genre or another."
Looking back on the past, Garriott laughed as he remembered how he had to push the idea of Ultima Online. He said, "It took me three years of pitching and re-pitching the game, until we got given $250,000 to build the project. Truly, no one cared about it. They thought it was a waste of time." Then once the game entered beta testing, attracting some 50,000 people to sign up and pay $5 apiece for the privilege of testing out the game, "it became the biggest thing ever. Suddenly we had tons of excess management come down and join us in Austin."
