It's a sad day, my friends. With Richard Garriott starting Portalarium, we may retire the spaceman Garriott photoshop (above). With Garriott back on terra firma and with a new company, it's probably time to bury the image that represents the last couple years of his life, in which Garriott went to space, saw his name on failed MMO Tabula Rasa and encountered professional issues that saw him departing NCsoft and suing it for $27 million. Here are some excerpts from our discussion of Garriott's past and future at DICE.
Joystiq: Before we talk about the future, let's talk about the past a little bit: how was space?
Richard Garriott: Life changing, phenomenal. It is a series of life-changing epiphanies. ... My first thought was when I saw the Earth from space was not, "Oh wow, how high and beautiful it is above this beautiful Earth." It was: "Wow, we are not that high up. I sure hope they made this orbit perfectly circular or we're going to be reentering again real soon." That was my honest first thought when I saw the Earth from space. But it is perfectly circular.
During this whole space situation the NCsoft thing happened. What's the current status of the $27 million lawsuit?
Active, so, therefore I can't talk about it. There's a court date somewhere in the summer. Maybe things will resolve before then, maybe they won't.
Are there any unresolved issues with NCsoft beyond the lawsuit?
No, not at all. In fact, there's even areas where I'm quite supportive of NCsoft, both their products and a number of people there. Not my lawsuit, but there are other lawsuits where I fundamentally take their side on. I really have no bad blood with NCsoft globally, at all. I think they still do great products and have some really great people. I just have issue with one particular aspect of how my employment was dealt with. I thought it was an error and that's the basis of the lawsuit.
