Dear Richard,
You've been my first game developer hero ever since I took that class in adventure-game-making-on-the-Apple-II from you at Computer Camp in Tahoe while you were working on Ultima 2. I know it's easy to say stupid things in a live interview - but it's also easy to apologize. According to PC gamer, you did say you were better than virtually everyone else you've met--You may not have been trying to toot your own horn but you did. You surely did.--and you did say other people suck. There's almost no context where that isn't asshole behavior. So, yeah, how about that apology.
Maybe it would look something like this: "Dear Shigeru Miyamoto, Raph Koster, Ed Del Castillo, Sid Meier, Warren Spector, Chris Crawford (and you can go on naming names as long as you want here), and everyone else I've met who is a solid designer that I'm unfortunately forgetting right now, I apologize - I didn't mean to say that you weren't in the same league as I am. Also, for all those game designers who are toiling away in the trenches unnoticed, the ones whom I claimed 'suck' - I'm sorry for that too. You don't suck. You have possibly made some sucky design choices, and you can do better, but so can I. Let's all do better."
I think that's what I would do.
Sincerely,
Jamie
I think he's got a point.
If you can't code, and can't draw art, you probably end up as producer or designer, and probably suck at it.
Also, the quality of art, and the quality of code are easier to measure than the quality of a design. Which could explain for some unaccountability.
Posted by: Bram Stolk | March 20, 2013 at 12:09 PM
Actually you kind of come across as the pretentious asshole here.
Posted by: Durgington Hurgington, Sr., Esq., PhD., MBA, QED | March 20, 2013 at 02:03 PM
Well, I don't really know what to say to that, "Durgington". How come?
Posted by: Happionlabs | March 20, 2013 at 02:12 PM
Bram, yeah - he does have a point. Just could have said it better, and I bet if it wasn't a live interview he would have, but now that he said it badly a real apology would be nice...
Posted by: Happionlabs | March 20, 2013 at 02:15 PM
How does Jamie come across as pretentious here?! Hilarious. Anyways, apologies are classy and they're really good for your mental health. That "Esq-PhD-MBA-QED(wtf?!)" guy has no idea what kind of person you are Jamie, he's doing the same thing that Lord British did: He made a massive assumption and a casual flippant unkind statement. It makes him look bad because of how sloppy a statement it is.
Posted by: Yoshitomo Moriwaki | March 20, 2013 at 09:08 PM
I love Richard Garriott. He's my game dev hero as well, but he has several lemons in his past that ought to trigger at least a LITTLE humility. Tabula Rasa, Ultima 8 & 9 (both were awful)..
My point being, he's really good at certain aspects of game design. Backstory and setting, and creating living systems for the player to interact with are his forte. He's NOT exactly good at building interfaces that make sense, or game mechanics that aren't completely wacky and foolishly complicated.
Basically, he needs to come off his high horse and quit pretending we're all peasants to his Lord British.
Posted by: Evan Weeks | March 21, 2013 at 05:28 AM