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What does one do after inventing one of the first virtual worlds ever to exist online? If you're Richard Garriott, you try to leave Earth behind altogether, for a little while anyway. Lots of gamers know about Garriott's quest to escape the bounds of Earth's gravity via private space travel. What some may not know is the reason the man known as Lord British wants to do it so badly. Turns out his dad was an astronaut and the younger Garriott sees following in his dad's footsteps—and becoming the first second-generation astronaut—as his destiny. You'll get to see exactly how he accomplishes that when Man on a Mission, a documentary that chronicles the training and eventual journey that takes Garriott beyond the stratosphere. The film comes out in theaters and on on-demand services on January 13th of next year. Among others things, audiences will get to see the inside of the International Space Station and watch Garriott's dramatic re-entry back to our fair planet's atmosphere. More »
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With his new wife living and working in New York and his company and home base in Austin, Texas, how does legendary game developer Richard Garriott split his time between the two? He doesn't, that's what his robot is for. More »
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Richard Garriott, the Ultima creator and space tourist believed to be the only private citizen to own property on an extraterrestrial body, is selling real estate here on Earth. For about $4 mil you may claim the stately Texas manor owned by Lord British. More »
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An Earthquake hit Virginia today, and we felt tremors all up and down the east coast. Instead of seeking shelter or whatever you do when an earthquake hits, the games industry took to twitter to make jokes. Seems reasonable to us. More »
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Before there were virtual farmers in FarmVille and virtual shop owners in CityVille, there was Ultima Online. More »
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Richard Garriott created the blockbuster game Ultima Online, paid his way onto a Russian rocket and has traveled deep beneath Antarctica. So, yeah, he's pumped about today's NASA news. More »
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A new space flight suit being developed at MIT to help reduce bone mass loss on long stays in space got a helping hand from Ultima game creator and space aficionado Richard Garriott. More »
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Why is this man smiling? Because a Texas jury just awarded him $28 million in a suit filed against NCsoft, the publisher of his now defunct massively multiplayer online game Tabula Rasa. More »
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Richard Garriott, space tourist, rat tail enthusiast, and creator of Ultima and Tabula Rasa (RIP), may also be the first private citizen to have a legitimate claim to ownership of a good portion of the moon. More »
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The killer whale that apparently killed a trainer today in front of a horrified SeaWorld audience was also connected to the death in 1999 of a drifter so obsessed with Ultima Online that he once wandered into Richard Garriott's home. More »
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Richard Garriott, the first video game designer to ride a rocket to outer space, wanted to play a massively multiplayer video game from the International Space Station. And he wanted to bring his iPod. Neither happened. More »
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Richard Garriott, back from space is now back in video games. Last week, his new venture Portalarium was announced. This is an adventure that comes with a challenge to you the Kotaku reader, and a tease of Ultima-meets-FarmVille. More »
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After a two-year break from gaming, and a short trip into space to visit the International Space Station, Ultima creator and former NCsoft executive Richard Garriott is back, this time as the technical director of a social media company. More »
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Origin's classic Ultima series was many things, but sexy, it was not. It was anti-sexy. Which is what makes this sexy "Ladies of Ultima" calendar all the surprising. And...sexy. More »
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For the handful of you who may have missed the late October episode of The Martha Stewart Show with Richard "Lord British" Garriott, that show has finally been uploaded for all to enjoy. More »
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Richard Garriott, son of an astronaut and science fiction/fantasy video game icon, will join two self-proclaimed sci-fi addicts in holy matrimony 36,000 feet in the air. More »
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Automata are self-operating machines, the original iteration of robots. These clockwork creations have fascinated me since I was a child. Richard Garriott, too, is fascinated with these machines, but he's got the money to back up his interest. More »
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What's the story behind gaming legend Richard Garriott's $24 million lawsuit against massively-multiplayer online game developer NCsoft? The court filing unearthed by GamePolitics reveals a sordid tale of betrayal. More »
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Late last year, Ultima creator Richard Garriott split from NCsoft, the developers and publishers behind his latest game, Tabula Rasa. Sounds like the split wasn't exactly amicable. More »
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Well, he didn't go there to hang out, eat freeze dried ice cream and float his rat tail. Garriott, son of astronaut Owen Garriott and designer of the Ultima franchise, went to space to work. More »
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The forces of humanity make a final stand tomorrow night, as Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa celebrates its final day with an all-out alien invasion. More »
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Jay Mohr is a comedian. Comedians tell jokes. As host of the 12th annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Mohr did just that. More »
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Sure his head is up in the clouds at the moment, but Ultima creator Richard Garriott hasn't forgotten where he's from. In an interview with GameDaily, Garriott discusses an eventual return to gaming. More »
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Gaming legend Richard "Lord British" Garriott's trip into space has come and gone, leaving the Ultima creator nothing but fond memories and stories, which he'll share live on stage in Austin Texas later this month. More »
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Upon their death, great men are afforded a sending off befitting of their stature. Pity Tabular Rasa, then, as EB Games in Canada seems more content to roll its lifeless corpse into the nearest ditch. More »
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Previously scheduled to become free to play starting on January 10th, NCsoft's has set sinking MMO Tabula Rasa free a month early, because really...what was the point of waiting? More »
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Man, a guy fulfills his lifelong dream of going into space and suddenly has more important things to do than work on his video game? Richard "Lord British" Garriott announced today that he will be leaving NCsoft, the company behind his recent MMORPG Tabula Rasa, to pursue other interests. More »
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Game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott and his "immortality drive" — containing Crecente's genetic material — is officially in orbit now. Sorry I missed this earlier, but Garriott rode the candle out of Baikonur early Sunday, and his Soyuz craft will dock with the International Space Station on Tuesday to begin a 10-day span of experiments. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5062368&view=rss&microfeed=true Well damn. First the Harmonix folks don't actually make it onto their promised appearance on The Colbert Report, and now Lord "Richard Garriott" British's appearance is actually just a phone call from Russia, where he is preparing a knapsack full of DNA to bring with him on his historic journey into space. More »
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There certainly is a large amount of gaming news relating to Comedy Central's cartoon character Stephen Colbert floating about these days, isn't there? While we eagerly await the announcement of the world's first video game based on a fake news personality, Stephen himself will be hobbing knobs with none other than game industry legend and Keeper of the Sacred Rattails Lord "Richard Garriott" British. British will be appearing on The Colbert Report this evening to discuss Operation Immortality, his DNA in space project that will eventually result in an evil Crecente clone army taking over the known universe. Luckily for us the question of "How do you really get to know a universe?" is still very much up in the air. Way up. More »
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Wired has a nice feature up on Ultima Richard Garriott and his cosmonaut training in Russia's Star City. Written by Masters of Doom author David Krushner, here's a sample: More »
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The issue of created languages is hardy new (cf Esperanto), but I've not seen a lengthy discussion of created languages in games — the challenges and pitfalls of designing a working, intuitive, and integrated linguistic system that's really a part of a game is an interesting issue. James Portnow spoke with Richard Garriott, lead designer of Ultima, about the keys to creating an intuitive in-game language that isn't too intrusive. Portnow further muses on the 'language' of games, and how created languages can inform our design of other aspects of the user interface: More »
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No matter what eventually happens to Crecente's DNA, be it used to create a clone army or otherwise, he'll surely be in good company when his cells are committed to the International Space Station as part of NCSoft's Operation Immortality. Best-selling author Tracy Hickman joins the cellular cast of the operation, his DNA traveling with Space Richard Garriott when he is launched into space on October 12th. Hickman is best known for co-authoring the original Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy with Margaret Weis. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5037060&view=rss&microfeed=true We told you earlier about General British's (formerly known as Lord British) magnanimous move for the human race by offering to preserve the genetic material of a few lucky gamers aboard the International Space Station. In this brief video we take a look at the General's inspirations in pursuing the creation of this archive (flash drive) for the betterment of humanity in the face of a possibly impending global catastrophe. More »
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Richard Garriott is going to have 40 gamers with him when he travels to the International Space Station in October. But the lucky clutch of gamers won't be there in person, but rather in digital DNA. More »
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Tabula Rasa has only been up and running for six months, but they've already lost a sizeable enough chunk of folks that they'd do anything to win you back. Since release they've had 8 new content updates, introduced alien hybrids, and added respec tokens to the mix, and for the week beginning May 5th and ending May 12th players who've passed on the action can log into their accounts and see how the game has been shaping up, completely free. I played the game a bit during beta as well as a good month after launch, and it just couldn't hold my attentions, but I'll log in next week, just in case it was just a case of bad timing. More »
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Ultima and Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott loves two things: Space and rattails. Man not only has his own sputnik, but his own rattails. This October, Garriott and his flowing locks will be blasting off to the International Space Station. He plans on making a spacewalk, which would make him the first civilian with rattails to do so. Historic! To commemorate the event, Seiko is creating a titanium spring-powered "Spring Drive Spacewalk" watch, which will be limited to 99 pieces only — at a price! But really, can you put a price tag on a Richard Garriott watch? Yes, yes you can. More »
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Update on that MMO Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa clusterfuck. The game bombed, and The Korea Times reported that heads rolled at the developer's Austin Studio. So now that the dust has settled, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa producer Starr Long now says: More »
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Apparently, MMORPG Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa bombed. And when games bomb, heads roll. If true, it's at NCSoft's Austin Studio! The Korea Times reports that the Austin subsidiary "has proven to be a financial disaster." Making Tabula Rasa was no cake walk, with rattailed Richard Garriott restarting the project several times, costing NCSoft added expenses. In a conference call, NCSofts chief financial officer Lee Jae-ho said: More »
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Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has from the start been a story about humanity, but since before the game launched players have been clamoring to play something outside of generic human number five. The lack of character diversity is one of the main things I didn't like about the game, but that's all changed now. Patch 1.4 saw the introduction of human alien hybrids - human characters spliced with alien DNA to create something entirely new. Thrax, Brann, and Forean hybrids, each with unique stat bonuses, are unlocked via quests that start at level 15. In order to help facilitate the new options, new emphasis has been placed on player stats, clones can now reassign ability points, and an option to hide your helmet to show off your new blue head have all been implemented. Enough to draw me back into the game? Only free time will tell, my friends. More »
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