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Operation Immortality
noxx
Member UncommonPosts: 120
in Tabula Rasa
Ok ....i think i would have added another world to the game instead.....one that would allow players to be banes for some good old pvp ....anything ...except showing everyone how their money is being wasted
Comments
There isn't any money coming from DG or NCsoft. RG is doing the "space" thing on his own dime. This is just somehting he'll be "bringing" with him. no player money or resources are being used. It's just a big advertisment that's costing the the devs nothing.
The email had the title "SAVE HUMANITY" or something like that in all caps. Instant-deletion for obvious spam.
There isn't any money coming from DG or NCsoft. RG is doing the "space" thing on his own dime.
He got his money to ride from the original deal he made with NcSoft in 2001--he got cash and posh stock options for his name, talent and the EFFORT he would be expected to expend on making the Koreans a blockbuster game. S0--you can say it's his own money, but the investors and CEO KIM sure have egg on their faces. They might feel like it's their money he's riding on, since they got a real lemon of a game for all that they gave Lord British and his brother.
He's done this "I shall give you eternal life" thing because he's not going to be allowed to play RGTR from space. The ISS won't lend their connection because of the security issues that forty thousand online strangers might expose them to. He should've checked into that before he went around talking about how he was going to play from space.
WHAT A LAUGH!!
And here I thought that having uninstalled the game and packed away the box that I'd gotten all the entertainment value out of TR that I could.
Has NCSoft's PR department all gone on holidays.... or run out of drugs??? If they've been snorting talcum powder that might explain "Operation Immortality".
Letter to NCSoft's PR Department
Dear Persons of a Stoned Persuasion,
General British is not a real person. He's an online persona who is not travelling into orbit to save humanity.
The man going into orbit is Richard Garriott. He paid a rather tidy sum for the ticket - presumably from money he received for working on Tabula Rasa.
I'm not terribly interested in having my character profile for a disappointing mmo stored in space... or anywhere really. And it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that storing my character profile in space gives me immortality. But I did pay for the game so I'm wondering....
Mr Garriott paid $30 million for his ticket and I paid $100 for his game. I know, I'd like real immortality. I'd like to send a toenail clipping to the space station with him. I've looked through the NCSoft contacts but no-one stands out as an appropriate recipient.
Therefore, starting today I will every day mail a toenail clipping to each of your employees until I receive confirmation that my genetic material will achieve orbit.
Yours sincerely,
General Disappointed-Customer.
Great job, Green! But, man, you have too much time on your hands.
Also... really long toenails
Well said. NCSoft deserves toenail clippings for letting Garriott get away with these idiotic stunts that just humiliate and embarass anyone who is actually willing to play TR.
Who the heck would want to take part in this and pretend that they're as insane as Garriott?
That's funny I had the same reaction.
With this marketing campaign I am surprised people haven't brought up two rather obvious things:
1) Your DNA isn't going into space at all. They are sending a "digital copy." Meaning a description of your DNA, not the actual thing.
2) With all the privacy concerns happening these days, I'm surprised anyone would want to just hand over (and probably sign away the rights to) their DNA to some stranger, let alone a multi-national corporation. Why not just walk into Wal Mart and let them take your fingerprints and social security number, so you can be immortalized in the pages of Wal Mart history?
All in all, I've found this to be a rather limp-wristed and feeble attempt at marketing. It's rather sad yet unsurprising considering how limp-wristed and feeble the game itself has turned out.
I am just surprised non of the "gaming journalists" out there have picked up on the potential privacy snafu this could create.
Mmmm, I did - hence the small mountain of toenail clippings currently making their way to NCSoft through the mail
Though to be fair it's conceivable that a time may come when digital DNA is enough to seed a clone.
Unless you live in eg. Switzerland, you don't have anywhere near as much privacy as you think. Privacy laws are relatively young, more full of holes than... well Swiss cheese, and generally only intended to give you a false sense of security.
I know from personal experience how easy it is for people to access supposedly private information because even where theoretical protection exists, privacy laws are often impossible to enforce, and therefore effectively mythical.
The worst case I read of was some poor woman whose stalker paid a private investigator to piggyback the police SOS signal to ping her mobile phone to find her location. That's apparently an easy thing to do and was a common and relatively cheap service at the time eg. Fugitive Finder.
Being a psychopath (and therefore a good liar) he spun the PI a good reason for wanting to find her. So the PI obliged and handed over her location.
Then the stalker killed her.
The piggybacking practice was specifically criminalised, which eventually led to the end of most of these services being publicly advertised - but I'd be surprised if it's actually stopped the practice.
The most privacy laws do is discourage casual invasions - which are not the ones you need to worry about.
Then there's the fact that at the moment, terrestrial laws generally don't apply to activities that occur in space. Richard Garriott might well be able to legally clone an army of minions from the contest winners once he's outside earth's atmosphere.
That's not even taking into consideration any eye-wateringly confusing waivers contest winners might need to sign.
And most importantly, those gaming journalists are probably too busy snickering at the sheer absurdity of this PR stunt!
That would not surprise me in the slightest, lol.
I always feel bad when I make snarky or mean comments about TR, because I remember back when Ultima and Lord British were the stuff of late-night legends, back way before UO when I was just a kid struggling to understand how to swap out memory with a soldering gun (ah, how I loved the advent of plug-in memory!). And even though I personally missed it, I would be remiss if I didn't mention how important UO was to creating the MMO market (at least outside of Asia).
I guess that's just why I feel the hate a bit more keenly over TR. I was only half-expecting it to be the ultimate MMO, but to get such a steaming pile feels almost like a betrayal. And all the press over RG's space tourist nonsense is like rubbing salt in that wound. Now when I see all the General British stuff in game all I can think is he must be a serious ego-maniac, rather than a brilliant game designer.
And most importantly, those gaming journalists are probably too busy snickering at the sheer absurdity of this PR stunt!
They probably won't be snickering. More like sighing and gushing and swooning. Gaming writers really want attention from RG and desire above all things an invitation to one of his crazy parties. RG always gets the press he wants from American gaming writers. It's different in Korea where somebody might be a stockholder of NcSoft and has lost value. But in the US there is a strenuous effort by the gaming media to protect Lord British from anything approaching a difficult question.
There's a puffpiece writeup about getting eternal life from our Lord in the Aug 7 Escapist magazine, written by Susan Arendt, a trembling fan of many years. If you read it, notice that there's no unpleasant question asked about the poor sales performance of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, only a concern that Richard might not be safe at the ISS.
There was a time when Michael Jackson enjoyed a similar status - now he's just a crazy old funny-looking baby-dangling possible-pervert with a monkey.
RG may have been "The Man" back in his UO days, but TR was a mega-flop and this is really very funny. Gaming writers work for people who want gaming readers to buy their magazines / visit their sites etc. RG can't run around doing this kind of thing for long before protecting Lord British starts costing them money.
Funny you should mention Michael Jackson, since Britannia Manor is a kind of low-rent Neverland.
It'll take a lot for today's gaming writers to give up on their mythologizing of Lord British. This media niche is not made up of young people anymore, but those of middle age who have their OWN egos invested in persuading their readers of RG's genius and creativity. To admit otherwise would damage their own creds. They have to maintain the image. You're not ever going to see a realistic appraisal of NcSoft's disastrous investment in the Garriotts 2001-2009 from the likes of the dizzy writers at Escapist.
So much has been obvious that they willfully ignored--like all the stuff Lord British does that has nothing to do with developing games. None of them ever ask the questions, "How do you play so much and still do all the hard work that goes into making a blockbuster game?" "How do you justify all the attention you give to your lifestyle when the game is in serious trouble?"
How about--"Do you ever feel that you let your fans, your employees and your investors down?" "Is Tabula Rasa even making monthly expenses?"
They are Lord British's courtiers, not reporters.
This may play into what I said earlier - RG has been on the PC gaming scene since practically day one. Some might argue he helped create PC gaming with the original Ultima series. When I think back to those days (the 1980s) the only games that still stand out in my mind are the Infocom text games, Bards Tale, Wizardry and Ultima. I wasn't even around for UO (thank god because I was in college and couldn't have dealt with the distraction).
When I heard TR was coming out, the main reason I was excited was precisely because it was RG's game. I feel kinda bad for the guy that he seems to have gone the way of John Romero. Although unlike Romero, I guess, TR has had a lot easier of a ride from the press than Die Katana did.
But yeah, TR on it's own would have been a black mark that still could be turned around, but you combine it with all this dumb-ass space camp nonsense, it makes it look like he's playing the fiddle while Rome burns.
That is a perfect image.
RG dressed in his spacesuit, playing a fiddle outside a burning NCSoft headquarters.
If I had even a shred of artistic talent I'd be all over that.
But yeah, TR on it's own would have been a black mark that still could be turned around, but you combine it with all this dumb-ass space camp nonsense, it makes it look like he's playing the fiddle while Rome burns.
The irony is that he couldn't put out the fire even if he stopped fiddling. He's just an empty space-suit. But it's in his power to make you live forever?
It's an event. Cheese and rice, you kids take things a little too serious. It's a promotion to get attention to the game. Nothing more. And it's free for the devs too, seeing as RG is fitting the 30 mil cost on his own dime.
God forbid someone use the leverage of a globaly recognized event to garner attention to their business.
You all should be this passionate about Halliburton and the president, and less jaded about a video game's PR stunt. And before the “I’m European, I don’t care about Bush” posts start: you’re European. You’re opinion doesn’t count anyway.
It's an event. Cheese and rice, you kids take things a little too serious. It's a promotion to get attention to the game. Nothing more. And it's free for the devs too, seeing as RG is fitting the 30 mil cost on his own dime.
God forbid someone use the leverage of a globaly recognized event to garner attention to their business.
This raises two mildly interesting points. Is Garriott using his ride to draw attention to his game, or is he using the game to draw attention to his ride? Neither really seems to draw much attention whatsoever, but he behaves as if the ride is far more important than the game. If you follow his efforts at pretending to be a scientist at challenger.org and youtube, his hits are pitifully low.
And you keep saying "he's spending his own money." But doesn't that beg the question of whether he has earned it in the first place? Doesn't he owe something to his investors, his fans and his employees other than his personal self-indulgence? He accepted the ticket money in good faith that he'd work hard. Will you tell me that he even gives the appearance of working?
Since you're a devoted follower, have you been keeping up with his blog Richardinspace.com? He appears to take himself VERY serious. He spends a lot of ink scolding people for calling him a tourist instead of the more prestigious "astronaut." Cheese and rice!
I don't know what the US president has to do with anything. But I have noticed the Russians bombing thousands of Europeans this week. They're the ones making Richard's ride possible.
This raises two mildly interesting points. Is Garriott using his ride to draw attention to his game, or is he using the game to draw attention to his ride? Neither really seems to draw much attention whatsoever, but he behaves as if the ride is far more important than the game. If you follow his efforts at pretending to be a scientist at challenger.org and youtube, his hits are pitifully low
I don’t follow it really. I’m a fan of the game. I have little interest in his space traveling adventure, but I’m sure it’s pretty exciting to him and it’s brought a slew of people that hadn’t known about TR to the trial (at the least). I don’t think anyone that has their livelihood invested in a business model will all but completely abandon that for a recreational interest. Despite it’s magnitude (and civilians going into space is a pretty big step in our history). I’m playing the game currently. He’s there. While still training to go into space, he’s had the War college (which he was a BIG part of) and recently had the special event where he “boxed” Jesus Chavez. They may not be events that people outside of the game find entertaining, but a lot of the current player-base had a blast. Further, the old adage: “can’t please them all” is redundant in the MMO community overall.
And you keep saying "he's spending his own money." But doesn't that beg the question of whether he has earned it in the first place? Doesn't he owe something to his investors, his fans and his employees other than his personal self-indulgence? He accepted the ticket money in good faith that he'd work hard. Will you tell me that he even gives the appearance of working?
Regardless of whose name is on the cover. His exploits are his own. He can be as eccentric or demure as he wants. It’s not my place or yours to tell him how he spends the money he received in his contract with NCSoft or for the sale of Ultima Online. Who gets to tell you “You did a shitty job this week. You can’t spend your money on video games this month” (unless you’re a child, which RG is not). They were not buying his “promise of the greatest game ever” they bought the “level of experience that Richard can bring to a development team”. And unless you sit on the board of directors at NCSoft, you’re just a consumer like me, who either likes the product or doesn’t. So, if he ran around w/ his underwear on his head screaming that he can crap magic cookies, it means nothing as long as the people that sign the check over, see the potential of the person. There was no “you get this amount if you produce this level of subscriptions”. They paid for his expertise. They paid what they felt was a fair price. If you think NCSoft got ripped off, fine. That doesn’t take away from a man, pursuing his dream, with a fat bank account that he earned through negotiations. Arguing the “validity” of his persona is artificial. What he “deserves” is completely subjective. Just like meeting player’s expectations is hugely “subjective”.
Since you're a devoted follower, have you been keeping up with his blog Richardinspace.com? He appears to take himself VERY serious. He spends a lot of ink scolding people for calling him a tourist instead of the more prestigious "astronaut." Cheese and rice!
No, I haven’t. I’m not really a follower of the space traveling. I just like TR for what it is, and what it could be. There are certainly things that could/should be improved, but I think this game is moving in a great direction. Under RG, uner Jack Emmert, under Michael Jordan. I could care less. I just want a fun game. And the developers of this game are hands down the best w/ the community. Regardless if their production pace is acceptable for you, no player that has invested time into the game can argue against the communication from the devs of TR.
I don't know what the US president has to do with anything. But I have noticed the Russians bombing thousands of Europeans this week. They're the ones making Richard's ride possible.
It was a joke. Like “focus less on soapboxing about some dude going to space, and take a stand for your country”, but it was still an attempt at satire. Maybe I missed. Additionally, I doubt the civilianization of the Russian Space program has a whole lot to do with the war between them and Gerogia.
Cheese and rice! What a lot of ink! Seems to me that you're taking these blogs very serious.
Just like meeting player’s expectations is hugely “subjective”.
I wouldn't call the quarterly earnings reports subjective, or the stock price. Some expectations are playing out in a highly objecttive manner.
As to what people deserve, that's subjective, which is why there are opinion forums where opinions are expressed.
If you think NCSoft got ripped off, fine. That doesn’t take away from a man, pursuing his dream, with a fat bank account that he earned through negotiations.
I have a hard time making sense of what you write here. Are you saying all terms of some contract were met? Or are you saying that NcSoft management is inept and deserves what it got?
"I'm a fanboi of the game." Fixed it for you.
I don't like to engage in ad hominems, but I have read your posts about TR and think it's a pretty apt description. A bit harsh considering your post had some fair points, but I hold to it based on reading other threads.
Try and be a bit more objective about this. If TR gets turned around and becomes the deep, ground-breaking game it was billed as I will be one of the first to sing its praises from the highest mountain, but based on the past several months and RG's ridiculous self-aggrandizing space-tourist stunt I don't think you can fault myself or the others for our lack of faith.
I only talk about it, because like I said, seeing this happen for me is disheartening considering I still consider RG one of the great early luminaries of PC gaming. It's like pulling back the curtain and seeing the wizard for what he really is.
If Tabula Rasa had launched the way it did, but had a serious and rapid release of patches and additional content then this conversation would not be happening and most of us would probably think RG's space flight was totally awesome. Instead we get a new coined term "Soon(tm)" to descibe the crappy lackadasical development process. How sad is that?
No, I'm a fan of the game. There's a huge difference.
A fanboi screams how invalid and stupid a person is who has a disparaging opinion against the game.
Just like a troll throws the word "fanboi" around to anyone that doesn't whole heartily agree with their opinion that the game is shit.
I've stated plenty of times, in plenty of posts "things aren't perfect", but I like this game, the way it is, and I find more virtues in it then failures. You may not feel the same way, but I don't give a shit.
What?! Someone's taking this seriously?!!!
Who, where?!
I want to point and laugh!!!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
At this point, you're a fanboi. There's nothing wrong with being dedicated to a game, but that's the label you're going to get when you still have faith in a game after the build-up and hype followed by the fiasco TR has seen.
LIke the old saying goes, Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me into paying to beta-test a half-baked game and continuing to support the developers who screwed things up, shame on fanbois.
Guess I'm a fanboi then... Currently enjoying the game and hearing great things about D11 on the test server. So yeah looking forward to D11.
Some people find it hard that others like a game they did not enjoy or agree with and throw out the term fanboi. The Fanboi term is so overused like perscription drugs.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.