NC Soft announced that it will shutter the game at the end of February.
Ok, that’s a bit harsh. But what’s really worse? This headline or the hubris that it takes to include your name in the game’s title? Or that fact that all that money basically went for nought?
Quite frankly, the entire notion of the RG-centricity of the marketing put me off the game almost from the date it was announced. Seriously, why didn’t they just call it “RICHARD GARRIOTT’S ENORMOUS E-PEEN (now with free MMO)(TM)”.
I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand arrogant, self aggrandizing assholes. And the only thing worse than arrogant self aggrandizing assholes are arrogant self aggrandizing assholes that don’t deliver the goods.
I mean seriously. The only guy who might be able to get away with that shit is Sid Meier and that’s still debatable. Every designer is going to deliver a turd at some point. Why risk devaluing your own brand?
“Joel and Ethan Coen’s Hudsucker Proxy”
“Bill Gates’ Windows Me Vista”
“Richard Fuld’s Lehman Brothers”
“Steve Jobs’ Merlin”
“Field Marshall Tito’s Yugo”
etc.
Payback, as they say, is a bitch. We can only hope that in the annals of MMO-failure, this game will always be referred to the future the way its been marketed– “NC Soft’s failed MMO, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa” or “the spectacular failure that was Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa”, etc.
I have no particular axe grind. I beta’d the game. There just wasn’t that much there for me. It wasn’t ground breaking. It wasn’t that fun.
Frankly it was hard to see where all the money went. Until I remember who went to space versus who’s now out of work. At least now, in addition to his ego having its own zip code, so does his failure.
