AIAS honors Lord British; isn't he already a Lord?
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a common interest group that aims to further the interests of people involved in the video games industry, has decided to honor Lord British (aka Richard Garriott of Ultima Online) by placing him in the group's Hall of Fame. Lord British will join previous winners of the prize like Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright and Sid Meier.
It's not clear what benefit the games industry and Richard will get beyond this token gesture. Do you respect Lord British any more because a board consisting of representatives from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Electronic Arts thought he was worthy of an award? Surely a better way to further the "industry" would be to encourage start-up developers to create brilliant games, rather than slapping meaningless awards onto people we already admire. Is an industry "Hall of Fame" really necessary?
