Richard Garriott on the state of social gaming
Legendary game creator Richard Garriott raised a few eyebrows when he announced a foray into social gaming last fall. The MMORPG maestro and occasional astronaut seemed a rather unlikely candidate for the casual games space after spearheading the likes of Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Garriott revealed that he's taking no prisoners when it comes to his new endeavor, offering his views on the large number of crapware titles cluttering the casual space as well as his company's plans to distribute its tools for free in order to help standardize the sector and raise the quality bar.
"There's tons of small start-ups who we are seeing take lots of investment and lots of activity and large acquisition costs -- who are creating, literally, junk. Stuff that people aren't playing that much and if you play it it's not much fun," Garriott opined.
Garriott's new company, Portalarium, has thus far produced Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack, both playable via Facebook, and is now shifting its focus to a new title that has more in common with UO. Details on the new game are slated to be revealed over the next two weeks.
