GameDaily has an exclusive interview with Richard Garriott — the creator of the Ultima series — in which he laments the end of Tabula Rasa (the MMORPG he helped create) and hints at a return to the gaming business in the wake of his departure from NCSoft.
Apparently, some of the “new interests” that he suggested that he wanted “to devote [his] time and resources to,” following “the unforgettable experience” of space travel, includes the possibility of a return to gaming.
And just to sweeten the pot:
BIZ: If you did return to games, would it definitely be an online game?
Garriott: I wouldn’t use the word definitely. I think that if it were today, it’s most probable. That’s just what I find the most interesting, still. That being said, I am still a huge fan of solo-player games as both a player, and as a storyteller. I just think there’s an intimacy in solo-player games that is much easier to do in a solo-player environment than it is to shoehorn it into a multiplayer environment. One of the things we were trying with Tabula Rasa was to offer more storytelling in an MMO setting. And we made some strides in that direction. But I still don’t think it was nearly to the level that the middle Ultimas did.
BIZ: If Electronic Arts wanted you to return and author a single-player Ultima for the consoles, would you do that?
Garriott: Conceptually? Sure. The property Ultima is still very near and dear to my heart. I think that if, by hook or by crook, I had access to that property, either in solo-player or multiplayer, I would absolutely love to continue to play in the Ultima universe.
Yeah, I know…it’s not a formal announcement of his triumphal return to the Ultima franchise in the wake of recent shifts in EA‘s game development strategies and policies. It’s still interesting, all the same, to see just what Lord British is up to these days, and what his vision for the future might just be.
