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Richard Garriott returns safely from space
Richard Garriott's space flight has certainly caught the attention of more than just the fans of his MMO development career. He's been all over the mainstream networks for several months as preparations were made and he was eventually launched into orbit earlier this month. Now Garriott has returned safely to Earth in what was said to be a highly-successful mission with Russian Cosmonauts.Not only has the father of the modern MMO concluded the Tabula Rasa: Operation Immortality project with his trip to the International Space Station, but he has also become the second person to ever follow in their father's footsteps into space. Garriott's father Owen Garriott is a retired NASA astronaut who flew on the U.S. space station Skylap in 1973. Ironically, Garriott's return to Earth perfectly coincides with Tabula Rasa's own news of the game making a return to the home planet.You can see more information, videos and interviews with Garriott upon his return at his website richardinspace.com.
Watch a video of Richard Garriott's geeky but enviable space voyage
By now a lot of you know that Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima Online and Tabula Rasa, is in space. Sadly, since we didn't watch the live broadcast of his liftoff, we only know this through second-hand reports. But it's all going to be okay -- the NASA TV broadcast has been uploaded to YouTube, so if you missed it as we did then you too can watch an eccentric and wealthy nerd experience his lifelong dream. We've embedded it after the jump. Enjoy!Garriott lifted off on October 12th, carrying with him the DNA of Operation Immortality participants, including some Tabula Rasa players. Shortly after liftoff he displayed to the camera a Logos message to the camera on the spacecraft -- simultaneously an inspiring quote about space travel from a Russian scientist ("Earth is the cradle of humanity but mankind will not be in the cradle forever.") and a hint at upcoming additions to Tabula Rasa.[Via Joystiq]
Witness Richard Garriott launch into space on October 12
One of the MMO industry's most recognized names, Richard Garriott, is about to become the world's sixth private citizen to participate in a space mission aboard the International Space Station. The trip into space comes at no small cost through Space Adventures, and the whole experience of gearing up for the trip is documented on Garriott's dedicated site. The MMO tie-in is that Garriott's space walk is part of "Operation Immortality" which we've touched upon in the past here at Massively. Garriott fans can watch him launch into space via streaming video at NASA TV, NASA Select TV (Australia), or the NASA TV Public Channel. Haters can do the same thing, just describing it as "seeing him strapped to a rocket and shot into space." It's all about perspective. Regardless of whether you think Operation Immortality and the trip to the International Space Station is interesting or not, it's a first in the industry. If you're in the Austin area, there will be a space watch party at Opal Divine's Penn Field restaurant, with live music and pre-launch activities.The launch is scheduled for October 12, at 1 pm Kazakhstan time. Since we suspect most of our readers don't reside in Kazakhstan, that's Sunday at 2 am Central, 3 am Eastern, and midnight Pacific. Best of luck with the flight, Richard.
Playboy model to join TR's Operation Immortality
The list of celebrities donating their digitized DNA for Tabula Rasa's Operation Immortality is becoming a bit staggering, but this latest one should help perk your interest. Jo Garcia, Playboy Magazine's Cyber Girl of the Year for 2008 will be the latest to store her digitized DNA on the International Space Station along with others like Stephen Hawking, Stephen Colbert, Tim Draper and more.Although the title of Cyber Girl of the Year has nothing to do with gaming, Garcia considers herself an avid gamer. "People don't understand that that the whole gaming world is not just for geeks, and assume that every person who plays video games is a geek that wears glasses," Garcia said in a recent interview with Kotaku. "It's a misnomer that needs to be put to rest."
Richard Garriott's appearance on The Colbert Report
As announced earlier in the week, Richard Garriott made his Comedy Central debut last night with Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. This appearance by Garriott was in conjunction with his Operation Immortality project that will take place next month. Stephen Colbert will be joining many other popular celebrities by adding his digitized DNA to the Immortality Drive which will accompany Garriott on his space flight, and remain on the International Space Station in the event of Earth's destruction.Admittedly, the Garriott appearance is very brief. In fact, he didn't actually "appear" on the show at all, but called in from his space flight training grounds in Russia. This was a bit on the disappointing side, yet we understand Garriott's time restraints with that whole space flight thing and all. Plus, it turns out this interview was done literally ten minutes before Garriott was to be quarantined for the flight. Sadly enough, there was no mention of Tabula Rasa during the interview at all. Regardless, it's a funny little interview.
Richard Garriott to appear on The Colbert Report
If the recent news of Stephen Colbert joining Operation Immortality has you scratching your head, you may be pleased to learn that Tabula Rasa's Richard Garriott will appear on Colbert's show, The Colbert Report, to discuss his flight to the International Space Station, Operation Immortality and Colbert's participation with the project.This particular episode will air on Comedy Central tomorrow, September 17th, immediately following the Jon Stewart Show at 11:30pm EDT/10:30pm CDT. With Colbert's dry humor and satirical wit, we're sure there will be more than a few jokes made at Garriott's expense.
Stephen Colbert joins the gene pool at TR's Operation Immortality
Professional athletes, writers, musicians and entrepreneurs have nothing on Operation Immortality's latest DNA recipient: Stephen Colbert. The star of the hit Comedy Central show The Colbert Report will have his DNA digitized and sent to the International Space Station with Richard Garriott for the wildly-popular Tabula Rasa promotion Operation Immortality."I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my life-long dream of being the baby at the end of 2001," said Colbert. Garriott comments on the decision to add Colbert to the growing list of popular celebrities joining the project, "Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?"
Tabula Rasa's Operation Immortality extended
Since we first told you about Tabula Rasa's Operation Immortality, it has grown quite a bit. All sorts of top athletes, artists and musicians have signed onto the project to have their DNA digitized and sent into space through the Immortality Drive. This special hard drive will travel with Richard Garriott to the International Space Station on October 12th and stay there in the event that humanity needs a restart.Originally, this project was to end on August 31st, for anyone interested in participating. However, we're happy to report that this deadline has now been extended until September 29th, 2008. This gives you even more time to vote on mankind's greatest achievements, send a personal message from the website or win a chance to have your digitized DNA included on the Immortality Drive. So if you still haven't taken part in this historical event, you might want to head on over to the project's website and give it a shot.
The DNA guest-list grows for Garriott's Operation Immortality
Richard Garriott's Operation Immortality is proving to be quite the attention-grabber lately. Not only that, but more people are signing up to get in on the DNA-sharing action. One of the most recent additions to this project is Matt Morgan, better known as "Beast" on TV's American Gladiators and a professional wrestler for Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling.Morgan has been called "The Blue Print", in reference to his size and physical build. Some believe he is a blue print for the paradigm of human genetics and physical potential. "The Immortality Drive wouldn't be complete without the DNA from a human physical specimen and who better to fit that bill than The Blue Print himself, Matt Morgan," said Garriott. "I'm thrilled that Matt is on board and that an American Gladiator will be making the trip with me to space."
NCsoft Adam and Eve 2.0 art contest announced
Are you an exceptional artist, with work good enough to save humanity from the Bane? You might just be what Richard Garriott and Operation Immortality are looking for. Just consider this: if the Earth was destroyed by tentacled aliens and the human race was forced to be reborn from stored DNA, what would the new Adam and Eve look like? This is where you come in. The new Adam and Eve 2.0 Art Contest held by NCsoft allows players to submit their own original artwork for a chance to win a spot on the Immortality Drive. Winners will get their DNA and artwork sent into space with Richard Garriott and stored on the International Space Station as part of mankind's greatest achievements. The selection will also have the opportunity to appear on future NCsoft promotional materials. So head on over to the main contest page for complete details, and good luck!
Tabula Rasa's Feedback Friday gives backstory on General British
In this week's Feedback Friday for Tabula Rasa, we get a bit of a summary from the release of Deployment 11 earlier this week. Richard Garriott's space flight and his new project Operation Immortality is featured, with an explanation of how this experiment will work. Plus, we're treated to an in-character story entitled The Traveler, which is all about General British's experiences as a cosmonaut castaway and eventual hero for the AFS.We also get an explanation of the changes made to the new player experience, and why these changes were necessary. Apparently, the developers felt that Bootcamp and subsequent missions were too difficult and were laden with too much extraneous information, so they've revamped the tutorial, help menus and log-in screen. Hopefully these changes will aid new players brought in with the recent publicity from Operation Immortality, as well as the current influx of returning players.
NCsoft's Operation Immortality launches
As we reported from Comic-Con 08, NCsoft was quite the belle of the ball last week with their Adam & Eve 2.0 booth gaining its fair share of attention from attendees. At this booth, couples were seen swabbing their cheeks for some DNA samples to send into space with one of the grandfathers of the MMO, Richard Garriott. Finally, the website for this campaign has been officially launched and all further details have been released. From now until August 31st, anyone with a PC and an internet connection (that's you) can participate in the site's weekly polls which will be included on an Immortality Drive, to be sent into space with Garriott. Not only that, but current Tabula Rasa players can actually leave a personal message to be included on this drive. Is this simply an outrageous commercial for Tabula Rasa? Sure it is, but has anyone ever done anything even close to this before for a game? Nope.
NCsoft's Operation Immortality to send human DNA into space
A banner atop the NCsoft booth at Comic-Con 2008 read cryptically: "DNA Test Site: Adam & Eve 2.0." Several rows of brightly-colored buttons arrayed on a table, there for the taking, were emblazoned with the same message. Even more puzzlingly, couples were lining up to swab their cheeks with Q-tips to be stored in plastic pouches labeled with their names and today's date. What kind of crazy cabal initiation was underway at NCsoft's booth?Without fully revealing the mystery of Operation Immortality, an NCsoft representative shed some light on the cheek-swabbing activities of the fans lining up two-by-two. Five couples, one per day of Comic-Con festivities, will be chosen to have their DNA sequenced and stored in a hard drive that will be jettisoned into outer space -- and why exactly? In case the horrifying possibility of a Bane victory renders the human population of Earth annihilated, we'll be able to repopulate it with the human DNA kept safe in the off-site storage of space.
