Gaming Pioneer Returns

Ultima creator launches Tabula Rasa today
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 2, 2007 11:42 AM CDT
Gaming Pioneer Returns
Tabula Rasa launches today.   (Associated Press)

The New York Times profiles Richard Garriott, the grand old man (at 46) of massively multiplayer online games. After several early successes, Garriott built a game world in which thousands of individuals could operate via a newfangled machine called a modem. The result, 1997's Ultima Online, changed the video game industry. But Garriott hasn't had a hit since, and hopes are high for his newest effort, tellingly entitled Tabula Rasa.

With Tabula Rasa, six years and $20 million in the making, Garriott has taken a new tack: gone are the medieval fantasies and complicated keystrokes, replaced by a brutal, bloody shoot-'em-up. But, says the designer, Tabula Rasa's major innovation is the inclusion of ethical quandaries "akin to the global war on terror: How far are you prepared to go to do what you think is right?" (More video games stories.)

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