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From: ldeneault@aol.com (LDeneault)
Newsgroups: alt.games.ultima.dragons
Subject: LB Speaks on AOL Transcript
Date: 27 Sep 1995 16:53:29 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
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Hi All:

For all of you Dragons who don't (or won't) use AOL, Lord British chatted
with folks this past Sunday, and below is the transcript. Enjoy!

-Sith Dragon

***********
Loris pest: LORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RAYMBEN: OKAY!! MULTIMEDIA CHAT HOUR SEP. 24 (Happy Rosh Hashanah)
BEGINS!!!
RAYMBEN: TONIGHT'S VERY SPECIAL GUEST----
AquaBaby: You bet TH .... I am going to put my media in to my multi
skirt and
go-go boots !
Maldoror6: looks to be a nice small intimate group, hopefully LB wont
take it
personally...
RAYMBEN: Quiet please....
Phylwriter: ....RAYM has the floor, folks...
AquaBaby: Shhhhush .....
RAYMBEN: Is <screen name> OSI, who is none other than RICHARD
GARRIOTT, aka
LORD BRITISH
RAYMBEN: The President and co-founder of Origin Systems Inc.
RAYMBEN: For those of you unfamiliar with his work...
RAYMBEN: Richard is one of the pioneers of this industry...
RAYMBEN: If there are "George Lucas"'s or "Steven Spielberg's" of
this
industry...
RAYMBEN: then Richard is one of them
RAYMBEN: He created the world-famous ULTIMA series
RAYMBEN: Back in 1980 (first one was published)
RAYMBEN: And now ULTIMA IX is in the works
RAYMBEN: Origin is also responsible for many many other works of
quality
RAYMBEN: including the WING COMMANDER series by Chris Roberts
RAYMBEN: It is truly one of the major players in the biz, and
Richard helped
start it
RAYMBEN: And I can personally say that he is a genuinely generous
and nice
fellow
RAYMBEN: I know, cause I worked for him for a year and a half! :)
RAYMBEN: Welcome RICHARD!
RAYMBEN: <applause>
Phylwriter: Welcome here Richard. (Lord) :)
JGreu: <clap clap>
OSI: Thank you very much!....
Orbie: :::::applause::::
OSI: Here under the OSI screen name...
RAYMBEN: Richard....tell us your story of how "you got into the
biz"
briefly... it's a good one GA
OSI: Is none other than Richard "Lord British" Garriott...
OSI: and ....
OSI: ChrisPlummer - the marketing guy (who is actually typing...)
RAYMBEN: <yea Chris!>
OSI: Richard is here to talk about Ultima n stuff
Phylwriter: (nice typing...) ;)
OSI: and I'm here to make sure he doen't reveal any top-secret dish!
OSI: ...
RAYMBEN: LOL
Phylwriter: <G>
JGreu: lol
OSI: Back in the late 70s..
OSI: way back in the late 70's...
Aramathin: ?
OSI: I got into publishing by first creating games....
OSI: in BASIC...
OSI: on teletypes, on pater tape...
OSI: the computer store that I used to work at thought that my 1st...
OSI: Apple version of a fantasy game was cool and that I should publish
it....
OSI: I spent$200...
OSI: on Ziploc bags and Xerox cover sheets...
OSI: and hung 5 hand-duplicated coppies on the store shevles...
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT WITH GUEST RICHARD GARRIOTT OF
ORIGIN
OSI: one of these first 5 coppies found its way to California...
OSI: I got a phone call saying that I had plane tickets waiting at the
airport...
OSI: I flew to California and signed a piece of paper...
OSI: and they started mailing me money!!!
Phylwriter: (nice)
OSI: That first copy...
OSI: I should say that first GAME...
OSI: sold about 30K coppies...
Orbie: (wow)
Maldoror6: akalabeth?
OSI: my royalties were$5 apiece...
OSI: which = $150,000
OSI: Yes, that was Akalabeth!
Phylwriter: (cool)
OSI: Form this early beginning...
OSI: Which was really Ultima 0..
OSI: began the Ultima Series!!!
Aramathin: (is it available in any current form?)
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: Please hold questions until I call on you.... type "
RAYMBEN: ? if you have a question
JGreu: ?
RAYMBEN: Richard--- ORIGIN began as a family business... how would
you
describe its "origin"? GA
Maldoror6: ?
Aramathin: ?
OSI: Well....
OSI: after publishing U;ltima 1&2 through California Pacific and
Sierra...
Orbie: ?
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT WITH GUEST RICHARD GARRIOTT OF
ORIGIN
OSI: I was fed up with other publishers for varying reasons...
OSI: my brother, Robert, was just finishing his 2nd Master's degree...
OSI: he had recently studied investments in software publishers..
OSI: together with my early funds...
OSI: and small ivestment from our parents...
OSI: we began Origin...
Phylwriter: (Welcome those from the TSRO area...) :)
OSI: Mother was the art director...
OSI: and all the kids folded boxes...
OSI: in fact...
OSI: Chris and I were just reminiscing over an original Ultima III
hand-folded box he has...
OSI: here right now...
OSI: ga
Aramathin: ?
RAYMBEN: Questions cue-- Aramathin, JGreu, Madoro6, Oribe....
Aramathin GA
RAYMBEN: GA Aramathin
DrkStrider: Did I miss anything? GA
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT WITH RICHARD GARRIOTT OF ORIGIN
RAYMBEN: Aramathin, you have a question? GA
Aramathin: I had heard RG is banned from keyboards... is this true?
also,
what is the story behind the
Aramathin: alternate beginning in Serpent Isle (Yo Dick Brit! My face
is most
muppet like. etc)
Aramathin: ga
OSI: Okay, just to prove that I can type, I'm typing this now! But,
I'm way
slow!...
OSI: I come from the days of 6502 op code typing. I can type them real
fast,
but letters are...
Aramathin: I had heard they kept you off for health reasons( the
computer's
health!)
OSI: Slow for me, My E-mails are always described as, neanderthal...
Phylwriter: <G>
Avatar42: Okay, what'd I miss?
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT WITH GUEST RICHARD GARRIOTT
OSI: The "Muppet head" in Ultima 7 was a fun thing that the audio
gang...
OSI: played with, to "lip sinc" it was hard and to imagine it saying
other
things was too...
OSI: inviting for them to pass up.
OSI: GA
RAYMBEN: JGreu, your question GA
JGreu: Love the Ultima series, is U9 in Britianna? and at the end of U8,
we
see the Avatar...
Aramathin: Is there any way to hear those words? or is it just text
Aramathin: sorry
JGreu: in new clothes is this how he (or she) will look in U9? GA
OSI: Ultima iX IS in Britainia...
Aramathin: (hooray!)
OSI: In fact, a short brief about Ultima 9 is...
OSI: Ultima IX is the END of the Guardian trilogy...
OSI: It's the end of the AVATAR trilogy...
OSI: and as long as we were going back that far....
OSI: we bring to close the first trilogy...
OSI: making this the most epicof all Ultimas to date!
OSI: ...
OSI: It takes place in Britainia...
OSI: with the Avatar, his/her party of friends...
OSI: ..and much of the other familiar Britanian "stuff"
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: Maldoro6, your question GA
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT WITH GUEST RICHARD GARRIOTT
RAYMBEN: Maldoro6, your question?
Maldoror6: Greetings...One commen and one question if that is
possibl...firstly, thank you for the ten
Maldoror6: years of gaming you have provided me....Britannia has for
me been
the greatest
Maldoror6: embodiment of the fantasy archetype. I enjoyed the dark
tone of
U8,
Maldoror6: and although I thinka return to the virtues is a good
idea, i hope
the series continues
Maldoror6: (concludes?) with the dark tone...now my Q...
Maldoror6: Will there be an interrim Ultima product, OSI online has
all but
hinted as much...(also what
Maldoror6: happenned to the original cinematic intro to SI that I
think
Chuckles did?)
OSI: Ok...
OSI: We had done an Ultima 8 - part 2 - you might call it...
OSI: and were at the point of recording speach, when we decided to put
those
team members...
OSI: back on Ultima 9...
OSI: Interestingly, I now think this was a bad decision...
Maldoror6: Lost vale right? OSI had hinted *recently* about something
"fun"
going on...
JGreu: I'll do the speech. <G>
OSI: "Lost Vale" should have been completed...
OSI: but it is now unlikely that we will complete it...
OSI: The original "longer" SI intro...
Avatar42: Too bad.....
OSI: was just too big to ship in the era of floppy disks...
OSI: so a shrter, shippable, version had been created...
Maldoror6: Why not the "complete U7" cd then?
OSI: fortunately, in this day and age, CDs will keep us...
OSI: from having to make those kind of sacrifices...
OSI: ga!
RAYMBEN: (<I wrote the original Serpent Isle intro!... <G>)
RAYMBEN: Orbie, your question GA
Maldoror6: Thank you very much...
Orbie: How would you describe the writing style of your games? What sort
of
branching style do you use?
OSI: That's a tough queation..
Orbie: Since you're talking to a group of writers -- what sort of tips
can
you pass on to us? GA
OSI: I would not use the phrase "branching style"...
OSI: to describe how the plots are organized...
OSI: unfortunately, I do not have a better term, however...
OSI: I think this is one thing woefully inedequate about current
computer
game design...
OSI: technigues...
OSI: the way we organize an Ultim plot...
OSI: is largely by a sequence of objectives...
OSI: then allowing as many player-creative methods to accomplish these
objectives...
OSI: it's not as simple as a "choose a path" adventure novel...
OSI: since, in the case of Ultimas, we want the world to be
fully-realistically...
OSI: responsive at all moments...
Orbie: (these objectives don't have to be accomplished in a specific
order?)
OSI: I'd like to take this opportunity to also talk about...
OSI: conversation style in Ultimas...
Orbie: (please do!)
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT HOUR W/ RICHARD GARRIOTT OF
ORIGIN
OSI: In Ultimas 1-3, NPCs had just one "blurb" (no conversation)...
JGreu: those were the days.
OSI: in 4-6, NPCs could respond to a few "key words" that simulated a
conversation...
OSI: in 7&8, I think the "point and click" interface...
OSI: helped the usert-accesability...
OSI: but worsened the realistic conversation "feel"..
OSI: in Ultima 9, we are working hard to make conversations that are
both...
OSI: point and click and still "feel" like an actual conversation...
OSI: I think we are accomplishing this goal...
OSI: ga
DrkStrider: !
RAYMBEN: DrkStrider, your comment? GA
Orbie: ::::thanks::::
DrkStrider: I was wondering what inspired you to create the Ultima
series.
Fantasy books?
OSI: In fact...
OSI: 3 things..
OSI: early in highschool...
OSI: I read The Lord of the Rings...
OSI: played D&D...
OSI: (not AD&D)
OSI: ...
OSI: and was exposed to computers before PCs...
OSI: I quickly took up computers...
Phylwriter: ?
OSI: but since the schools had no classes on the subjects...
Maldoror6: ?
JGreu: ?
OSI: I taught myself to program by creating games of my own..
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: Phylwriter, your question GA
Phylwriter: I've heard a bunch about Ultima, and would love to play.
I'm a
MacGuy, tho...where/which one should
Phylwriter: I begin with? Complimentary copies always accepted. <G>
Phylwriter: GA
OSI: Ultima 9 will be done for the Mac...
Phylwriter: Yippie! :)
OSI: Also, there is a shareware version of Ultima 3 out there for the
Mac...
Phylwriter: (Old D&D guy myself...)
Avatar42: ?
OSI: but Ultima 3 is not a very current Ultima...
Orbie: :::excellent::::
Orbie: ::::another mac person here:::::
OSI: so you can get a fix on U3 and wait for Ultima 9 in a year or
so...
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: Maldoro, your question GA
Maldoror6: Thanks...there is always trouble finding a balance between
plot
and non-linearity, a problem
Maldoror6: that i think shifted too much towards plot and linearity
w/U8...how will this be addressed
Maldoror6: in u9?
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT HOUR W/ RICHARD GARRIOTT OF
ORIGIN
OSI: Yes...
OSI: this is always a dificult problem to keep well-ballanced...
OSI: in the case of Ultima 8 we focused a large ammount of our
attention...
OSI: on certain technology areas...
OSI: to the detrement of certain plot issues...
OSI: in Ultima 9, we have a great non-linear plot that still feels
well-directed...
JBurrows: ?
Maldoror6: great :)
OSI: in non-linear plots, the risk is always to overwhelm the player...
OSI: with too much unrelated opportunity...
OSI: the challenge is how to present them with enough choices to
believe they
have free will...
Maldoror6: (u7 ha a great balance, imho)
OSI: few enough that they can keep track of..
OSI: and that each of the are compelling...
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: JGreu, your Q? GA
Maldoror6: thanks
Maaz13: ?
JGreu: Will U9 have full speech?, not like a Speech pack (a few
characters
talk), but Full Speech..
OSI: YES!
OSI: In fact...
JGreu: and please bring back the character portrates. :)
OSI: we plan on "top name" voice talent...
Avatar42: names.....?
OSI: and very well-known composer(s) for music as well...
OSI: we have an alternate solution to portraits...
OSI: it's not video..
Maldoror6: ?
OSI: but my censor won't let me say any____
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: Avatar42, your Q, then two more, JBurrows & Maaz.... GA
Avatar42
JGreu: Thank you.
Avatar42: Thanks, I also would like to profess my thanks at the
counless
hours your wonderful
Avatar42: adventures have brought me, my leige.....now, to the Q.
Avatar42: I am a Support Engineer for MS Win95, so, from a technical
standpoint
Avatar42: I found it interesting to hear that some of your
programmers took
part
PYXX: ?
RAYMBEN: WELCOME TO MULTIMEDIA CHAT HOUR W/ RICHARD GARRIOTT
Avatar42: in programming parts of the OS. Can you divulge any
information on
specifics with
Avatar42: that, and I would also be interested in any details you
might have
on what Win95 specific
Avatar42: features Ultima 9 will utilize.....GA
OSI: All Origin products for the Intel-based platform...
OSI: will be Windows 95 native starting early next year...
OSI: Yes, we sent 3 programmers to Microsod\ft to be sure that the code
and
APIs...
OSI: for the game DSK would be suitable for high-end products like
Origin
creates...
OSI: Greater than 50% of our tech support calls...
OSI: were usually related to product installation and hardware
incompatability...
OSI: and it is with great joy that these calls will now go to Microsoft
<g>..
Avatar42: Thanks!
RAYMBEN: JBurrows, a quick one, I hope... GA
OSI: consumers need plug-n-play...
OSI: ga
JBurrows: Thank you, moderator...
JBurrows: Phyl mentioned D&D briefly...do you think Ultima and its
like
promise to push such roleplaying
JBurrows: paper-based adventure games out of the market? (Quick
enough, I
hope...)
JBurrows: GA
OSI: Well, I don't think so...
OSI: there's still something fun about face-to-face game playing...
Phylwriter: (cheeto fingers!!) <G>
OSI: Even with a multiplayer on-line game...
Maldoror6: (multiplayer ultima would be the best!)
OSI: like, for example, M U L T I M A...
Avatar42: <tee hee hee>
JGreu: multima!
OSI: where, many of the other characters are (will be) real...
Aramathin: (still in production! <cheer>)
Maldoror6: that is what OSI has been teasing us about!
OSI: I'm sure even such products will not completely displace
paper-games...
OSI: and yes, this product is already in full production...
OSI: it is a Britannia-based permanent on-line world...
OSI: already functioning here at
OSI: Origin...
OSI: TCPIP based..
OSI: ga
RAYMBEN: We don't have time for any more questions... Richard, any
parting
words? What in your
JBurrows: Thank you.
Maldoror6: any relation to jeff dee's online rpg he was working on?
RAYMBEN: opinion is the future of multimedia in the next 5 years?
OSI: Multima is unrelated to Dragonspires...
AD Alvarez: :ahem:
MadameRosa: Raymond?
RAYMBEN: We have 3 minutes MadameRosa
Phylwriter: ..winding down, please be patient...
OSI: In the next 5 years...
OSI: I'm sure we'll see as much change as we've seen in the past 5
years...
OSI: so I'm sure great things are in the future not only for Origin...
Aramathin: Any demos for u9 planned?
OSI: but for those of us here who play our competitor's products :)
OSI: U9 will have a demo...
Maldoror6: none of us :)
JGreu: can I send you a letter in runic?
JGreu: :)
Aramathin: Thera is no Competition for ULTIMA!
RAYMBEN: THANK YOU RICHARD GARRIOTT!!!!! <applause applause>
OSI: Runic letters always reach me...
Moanare: ::::::APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE, APPLAUSE:::::::::::::
Orbie: :::::::APPLAUSE::::::APPLAUSE:::::::::
Metaday: <clap clap clap>
Maldoror6: thank you so much!
JGreu: <APPLAUSE!!>
OSI: Thanks from Richard..
Avatar42: yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RAYMBEN: NEXT WEEK--- SID MEIER of MicroProse will be with us!!
Phylwriter: ::Clap::::Clap::::Clap::
OSI: thanks from Chris..
Phylwriter: ::Clap::
Moonmoth01: Applause!
Avatar42: Thanks for coming!
RAYMBEN: Thanks to Phylwriter, Moanare, Orbie for helping out!!!!!
DrkStrider: ::standing ovation::
Orbie: I hope you'll come again for another chat, richard!

Lawrence Deneault
Managing Editor,

Marlowe & Company/Thunder's Mouth Press