Raltar, thats a cheap stunt(the colored text) and it reflects poorly on you. I said nothing of the kind. I stated quite clearly why we are no further along in space development than we are, and compared it to the development of the personal computer.
Yes, you did rant about personal computers and space development. Two topics which are completely unrelated to Richard Garriot and his lawsuit. Did I slightly "exaggerate" what you said? Yes, obviously, for the comedic value. But did my exaggeration alter the fact that you were trying to drag this thread and everyone in it into an off-topic subject that only you care about which doesn't matter in the slightest? No, it didn't.
The point I was trying to make, in a humourous fashion, was that you are off topic and your opinions on space travel are not relevant to this discussion. So sorry you didn't like it, but if you can't find something to say about Richard Garriot then I think you should go find a forum about space travel to continue your rant.
Originally posted by Dafong
I did not say that those people hating on Richard Garriot were wrong. Please show me where I said that at all?
Okay:
Originally posted by Dafong
People here seem to be posting based on personal emotion rather then on cold hard facts.
Funny, I typed up half a page of facts about how Richard Garriot abandoned his post during the development of Tabula Rasa. Neither you or Wraithone made any attempt to reply to them. But I guess in your world you have facts and emotion reversed so you just blew me off as one of those overly emotional types who you say is wrong.
Originally posted by Dafong
I am more interested in the questions the Lawsuit raises and on whether NCSoft, a company I have a personal dislike for after dealing with them several times, gets stung for $24m dollars. Personally, I hope he wins.
And see here is where you, working on nothing but your own personal feeling towards NCsoft, jump to the conclusion that they must obviously be wrong, must obviously have done something inappropriate to Richard Garriot and that he obviously deserves to win. I obviously saw this as being completely hypocritical considering you just accused everyone in this thread of using too much emotion and not enough facts.
When I confronted you about it you began talking about your PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with Ncsoft:
Originally posted by Dafong
I have dealt with NCSoft, quite a lot in my working career and I have come to dislike them based on experience of actually dealing with them.
To which I said:
Originally posted by Raltar
Unless you are about to reveal that you were one of the employees who worked on Tabula Rasa, I can't imagine how your "personal experience" with NCsoft could be relevant to this lawsuit. You may not like NCsoft but that does not make them wrong nor does it make Garriot correct.
And now here we are. I'm still waiting to hear your reply to that...
I did not say that those people hating on Richard Garriot were wrong. Please show me where I said that at all?
Okay:
Originally posted by Dafong
People here seem to be posting based on personal emotion rather then on cold hard facts.
Funny, I typed up half a page of facts about how Richard Garriot abandoned his post during the development of Tabula Rasa. Neither you or Wraithone made any attempt to reply to them. But I guess in your world you have facts and emotion reversed so you just blew me off as one of those overly emotional types who you say is wrong.
Your 'facts' are about as reliable as you reading of the English language....for instance....
Originally posted by Dafong
I am more interested in the questions the Lawsuit raises and on whether NCSoft, a company I have a personal dislike for after dealing with them several times, gets stung for $24m dollars. Personally, I hope he wins.
"And see here is where you, working on nothing but your own personal feeling towards NCsoft, jump to the conclusion that they must obviously be wrong."
How on EARTH is that me coming to the conclusion that NCSoft are wrong?...to quote....I HOPE he wins....not, he should win, not, he is right, I merely hoped that he won.
Since your interpretation of the English language differs from EVERYONE elses, you will understand when people look at your 'facts' and don't bother to respond.
Perhaps when you can deal with reality, grasp the understanding of the language you are reading and respond to what is actually being said, rather then what you wish was being said, then people might take the time to respond to your 'facts'
Raltar, thats a cheap stunt(the colored text) and it reflects poorly on you. I said nothing of the kind. I stated quite clearly why we are no further along in space development than we are, and compared it to the development of the personal computer.
Yes, you did rant about personal computers and space development. Two topics which are completely unrelated to Richard Garriot and his lawsuit. Did I slightly "exaggerate" what you said? Yes, obviously, for the comedic value. But did my exaggeration alter the fact that you were trying to drag this thread and everyone in it into an off-topic subject that only you care about which doesn't matter in the slightest? No, it didn't.
The point I was trying to make, in a humourous fashion, was that you are off topic and your opinions on space travel are not relevant to this discussion. So sorry you didn't like it, but if you can't find something to say about Richard Garriot then I think you should go find a forum about space travel to continue your rant.
Nonsense. RG's trip to space was part of the original discussion. My expansion on that tied in two very relevant points. Your concepts of "off topic" are not a valid excuse for your feeble attempt at humor. Ridicule is a standard propaganda tactic, usually brought in to play when the party in question can not debate the merits of the argument. Final point, you are NOT a mod here, hence, you do NOT get to determine what is and is not "off topic".
Nonsense. RG's trip to space was part of the original discussion. My expansion on that tied in two very relevant points. Your concepts of "off topic" are not a valid excuse for your feeble attempt at humor. Ridicule is a standard propaganda tactic, usually brought in to play when the party in question can not debate the merits of the argument. Final point, you are NOT a mod here, hence, you do NOT get to determine what is and is not "off topic".
More irony. You both seem more interested in hurling insults than in actually talking about the subject at hand. It seems to me that you two are the ones who cannot debate the merits of the arguement since neither of you have made any attempt to do so.
RG going into space and your opinion that goverment is holding back space travel are hardly related subjects. Thats like saying because NCsoft is located in Korea we might as well start talking about the Korean War while we are at it. Perhaps instead of promoting your private agenda you could find something to say about Richard Garriot or NCsoft? Nobody needs to be a mod to see that this thread is about the lawsuit between RG and NCsoft, not these other side topics.
@Dafong: Once again you repeat your flawed arguement. You think RG should win more money simply because you don't like NCsoft. Your dislike of NCsoft does not justify RG getting any more money for a job he never did in the first place. You are letting your personal feelings blind you to the actual facts of the case, which has been my point from the very beginning of this debate.
Nonsense. RG's trip to space was part of the original discussion. My expansion on that tied in two very relevant points. Your concepts of "off topic" are not a valid excuse for your feeble attempt at humor. Ridicule is a standard propaganda tactic, usually brought in to play when the party in question can not debate the merits of the argument. Final point, you are NOT a mod here, hence, you do NOT get to determine what is and is not "off topic".
More irony. You both seem more interested in hurling insults than in actually talking about the subject at hand. It seems to me that you two are the ones who cannot debate the merits of the arguement since neither of you have made any attempt to do so.
RG going into space and your opinion that goverment is holding back space travel are hardly related subjects. Thats like saying because NCsoft is located in Korea we might as well start talking about the Korean War while we are at it. Perhaps instead of promoting your private agenda you could find something to say about Richard Garriot or NCsoft? Nobody needs to be a mod to see that this thread is about the lawsuit between RG and NCsoft, not these other side topics.
@Dafong: Once again you repeat your flawed arguement. You think RG should win more money simply because you don't like NCsoft. Your dislike of NCsoft does not justify RG getting any more money for a job he never did in the first place. You are letting your personal feelings blind you to the actual facts of the case, which has been my point from the very beginning of this debate.
You are obviously immune to the total irony of your above, given your previous feeble attempt at humor. Looking back on this thread, its obvious to anyone with basic reading comprehension, how the topic flow has emerged. Its also obvious that this is a total waste of time.
@Dafong: Once again you repeat your flawed arguement. You think RG should win more money simply because you don't like NCsoft. Your dislike of NCsoft does not justify RG getting any more money for a job he never did in the first place. You are letting your personal feelings blind you to the actual facts of the case, which has been my point from the very beginning of this debate.
It is not a flawed argument to have a desire one way or the other without relying on the facts of the case to justify that desire.
As to the Original matter, as a student of Law in London I will repeat what I said in the first post. IF, and this is a hypothetical, because NONE of us have the facts at hand, but IF Richard Garriot had a contract with NCSoft that related to a share option as a part of his payment AND within that contract it stipulated that Richard Garriot would have to immediately sell his shares IF he voluntarily left the company...AND IF Richard Garriot can show that he did not leave voluntarily and was therefore entitled to keep the shares.....he will likely win his case because NCSoft would have broken the contract and the courts like to enforce contracts as they are quite important to business.
Regardless of what else has happened, regardless of whether you like RG, regardless of whether you think he did this or you think he did that as an outsider looking in. He will have a claim in contract and he will likely win IF those facts are true. It will be for a court to decide whether those facts are correct or not, not some anonymous person looking at half of the facts through the eyes of reporters.
Since NONE of us know the full facts of the case, all we can do is express our opinion about the people involved. My original argument was merely that people here seemed incredibly emotional about a person they had likely never met. I then expressed my hope and then justified that hope by pointing out that I had worked with NCSoft and disliked them because of that.
Now I am sure you will spin that into whatever the hell you want it to be, as that seems to be what you do, we write replies, you don't bother to read them you obviously just guess what people have written about then spout some nonsense as an answer.
Wraithone, I see you are still only interested in throwing insults. So yes, it would be a waste of my time to continue to speak with you.
Originally posted by Dafong
As to the Original matter, as a student of Law in London I will repeat what I said in the first post. IF, and this is a hypothetical, because NONE of us have the facts at hand, but IF Richard Garriot had a contract with NCSoft that related to a share option as a part of his payment AND within that contract it stipulated that Richard Garriot would have to immediately sell his shares IF he voluntarily left the company...AND IF Richard Garriot can show that he did not leave voluntarily and was therefore entitled to keep the shares.....he will likely win his case because NCSoft would have broken the contract and the courts like to enforce contracts as they are quite important to business.
Regardless of what else has happened, regardless of whether you like RG, regardless of whether you think he did this or you think he did that as an outsider looking in. He will have a claim in contract and he will likely win IF those facts are true. It will be for a court to decide whether those facts are correct or not, not some anonymous person looking at half of the facts through the eyes of reporters.
Since NONE of us know the full facts of the case, all we can do is express our opinion about the people involved. My original argument was merely that people here seemed incredibly emotional about a person they had likely never met. I then expressed my hope and then justified that hope by pointing out that I had worked with NCSoft and disliked them because of that.
FINALLY Dafong, you seem willing to actually talk about Richard Garriot. If you dial back your insults a bit we may be able to get an intelligent conversation going here.
First of all, "IF" Richard had a contract with NCsoft is not really an IF as far as I'm aware. He says there was a contract and I doubt he would have even filed the lawsuit if there wasn't a contract of some kind. Its possible that he lied about having a contract, but as much as I dislike the man I can't honestly see any logic in putting foreward a lie like that when the court will obviously ask to see the contract and if he can't produce it then he will have instantly lost his case.
So I'm going to operate on the assumption that there is a contract. Now the question becomes did NCsoft viloate that contract by forcing Garriot to leave the company? Well, this is exactly what the news article that started this thread was all about! See, Garriot made an announcement when he left the company that he was doing it of his own free will to presue other interests. If he did not leave of his own free will, then why did he make that announcement?
So my theory is that after he returned from his space trip NCsoft confronted him (it was probably the first oppertunity they had to speak with him in private because he had been away in Russia for so long) and explained to him that they would like him to leave because the failure of Tabula Rasa was an embarassment for their company. They gave him the option to save face with the public by leaving on his own rather than having to be fired for his negligence. He took that option and made the public announcement. BUT, several months later after announcing his intention to return to game development and his intention to develop another MMORPG, he asked himself where he was going to get the funding (I doubt anyone will simply give him the money again after what happened with NCsoft and TR). He knew he didn't have the money to make another MMO on his own, so he came up with this scheme to sue NCsoft by claiming that they fired him and tried to cover it up.
So he probably does have a contract and if his version of events is true then NCsoft might owe him some money. BUT, he made that public announcement which said he was leaving of his own free will. That announcement is a FACT in this case, not just a feeling, not just an opinion, a FACT. And because of that fact its my personal belief that Garriot left the company of his own free will and his lawsuit is just a way for him to try to get the money for his next MMO.
Lastly, you say that because we haven't met Richard Garriot in person we aren't in a position to judge him. I disagree. I have played and payed for games that he created. I followed Tabula Rasa during its development, I played it after it was released and I was there the day Richard Garriot announced he was leaving. I was there the day the game was shut down (in fact, I remember quite clearly that on the day they announced the game was shutting down I was in the middle of posting on another forum about my experience with the game and while posting a link to the TR website I saw the announcement which had just gone up about an hour before). So I may not have ever met the man in person but I have had a lot of experience with the products that he creates and the impression I have gotten from that experience is that he is not nearly as good of a game designer as he would like us all to believe. That is my judgement of Richard Garriot. Now I'm not sure what experiences a law student in London could have with a Korean game publisher, but I think its a pretty safe bet that my experience with Richard Garriot stacks up aginst it pretty well. (Unless of course you are going to blow us all away by revealing the CEO of NCsoft is your dad or something.)
It was not If he had a contract, it was IF he had a contract that related to the share option.
It is also not a matter that NCSoft violated the contract by forcing him to leave, it is whether the contract stipulated that he must sell his shares if he leaves the company voluntarily and whether NCSoft presented that scenario to force his hand.
IF that is the case, which is the ACTUAL story, not the story you have concocted for yourself about whether he is suing for being fired, then RG will have a legitimate claim under contract law.
As to your last paragraph that is a tenuous link. You know NOTHING about him, you know nothing of his opinions or what he is like as a person, you have merely experienced what he has created.....that is like hating the guy that designed the Ford Focus cause you don't like the design....look feel free to not like the design, but its a bit of a stretch to hate the guy cause you didn't like the car or you did and Ford cancelled it. That is a ridiculous reason for not liking someone.
"The suit, filed by Garriott's attorneys yesterday in a U.S. District Court in Texas, says that South Korea-based NCsoft breached its stock option agreement with the game designer, which was established when NCsoft acquired Garriott's Destination Games in 2001."
"The suit said if Garriott was terminated by NCsoft, the options would remain in effect until June 2011. However, upon a voluntary resignation, NCsoft would terminate those stock options unless exercised within 90 days of his departure."
Exactly as i said earlier, and I hadn't even bothered to read the original article cause it was bleeding obvious from the first post what was going on.
No you didn't read what was written...again. It was not If he had a contract, it was IF he had a contract that related to the share option. It is also not a matter that NCSoft violated the contract by forcing him to leave, it is whether the contract stipulated that he must sell his shares if he leaves the company voluntarily and whether NCSoft presented that scenario to force his hand. IF that is the case, which is the ACTUAL story, not the story you have concocted for yourself about whether he is suing for being fired, then RG will have a legitimate claim under contract law.
You accuse me of not reading what you said, claim I made up a story, then pretty much repeat exactly what I said? If this is the way law works in London I can see why America revolved aginst your country.
Yes, it is a question of if he had a contract with NCsoft (and yes, "IF" the contact covered his stock options). My theory on what happened is that he does in fact have such a contract, but now he is looking for a way to make a quick buck so he can fund his new MMO so he is trying to sue NCsoft for forcing him to leave the company (and thus lose the stock options).
Here, I can quote from the article as well:
"According to an article at Gamasutra, Garriott was dismissed by the publisher shortly after returning from his trip to the International Space Station.The details of the court case revolve around the circumstances of that dismissal."
So there you have it, exactly what I said: Garriot is trying to sue NCsoft because he claims they forced him to leave the company which caused him to lose his stock options. If he wins the lawsuit or not all depends on his ability to prove that his departure from the company was forced by NCsoft and not of his own free will.
Now, let me repeat my theory on what happened for you: Garriot came back from space. NCsoft was pissed. They asked him to leave on his own rather than be fired. Garriot agreed to leave and announced on the Tabula Rasa site he was leaving to presue other interests. However, he later discovered he needed money to fund his new MMO so he decided to change his story, say that NCsoft forced him out and that he wants his stock options back. I am not "making up a story" that is just my theory on what happened based on the evidence I have seen.
And your Ford Focus analogy is terribe. The difference between a Ford Focus and Tabula Rasa is that I didn't buy a Ford Focus. I DID buy Tabula Rasa, I saw first hand that it was not a very good game and it is my honest belief that it is not a very good game because the head developer was off screwing around in space when he was supposed to be working on the game. As I tried very hard to explain to Wraithone in one of my previous posts:
"The reason why I dislike Richard Garriot and the reason why I feel he does not deserve to win his lawsuit are based on the facts of the events that took place during the development of Tabula Rasa. Richard Garriot SOLD the rights to Tabula Rasa, the rights to use his name and his services as a game developer to NCsoft for 40 million dollars. That part I'm okay with, although I surely wouldn't have paid him that much money. Then Ncsoft put another 70 million into the game for development costs. Again, while it might seem a little excessive to me, I'm okay with that part. Here comes the part I'm not okay with. Once Richard Garriot had his 40 million dollars in his pocket he lost all interest in Tabula Rasa. While the game was in development he ran off to Russia with his money and started training for his trip into space. While he was doing this, Tabula Rasa had no direction or leadership as far as their dev team was concenred. As a result of that huge sums of money were wasted on the development which went slowly and poorly. When the game finally released in a largely unfinished condition with no end-game content of any kind, where was Ricahrd? Space. Where should he have been? On this planet, hopefully doing his job.
You see, I do not mind that Richard went into space. He had the money to afford the trip and apparently the motivation to do it. Good for him. My complaint with him is that he was in space during the time when Tabula Rasa needed him most and the game failed as a result of his negligence. Ncsoft invested over 100 million dollars into his game with the understanding that he would be there through the entire development process using his expertise as the famed creator of Ultima Online to ensure the success of the game concept which he had created. Instead he went off to screw around in space.
When Tabula Rasa failed it was not only a disaster for NCsoft who ended up losing all the money they had invested into the game but MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY it was a disaster for the customers who bought the game. If a rich guy screws over a Korean game publisher that is not really my problem. But when that same rich guy also screws over thousands of paying customers (of which I happened to be one) then that is when he goes down in my book as being a very bad dude."
I admit I don't know Garriot as a person. Maybe he is a very nice guy. Maybe he takes good care of his kids and loves his wife and gets along with all his neighbors. Thats all fine. But I DO know him as a game developer and in that respect I think he sucks at his job, doesn't care enough about the people who buy his products and is more interested in grabbing cash to fund trips into outer space than anything else.
You do realise people can read your earlier posts.
I am bored with your revisionist re-writing of history and of what other posters have said. You can argue on your own, I am sure you will find it quite easy to change what you have originally said often enough to hold a decent argument with yourself.
Comments
Yes, you did rant about personal computers and space development. Two topics which are completely unrelated to Richard Garriot and his lawsuit. Did I slightly "exaggerate" what you said? Yes, obviously, for the comedic value. But did my exaggeration alter the fact that you were trying to drag this thread and everyone in it into an off-topic subject that only you care about which doesn't matter in the slightest? No, it didn't.
The point I was trying to make, in a humourous fashion, was that you are off topic and your opinions on space travel are not relevant to this discussion. So sorry you didn't like it, but if you can't find something to say about Richard Garriot then I think you should go find a forum about space travel to continue your rant.
Okay:
Funny, I typed up half a page of facts about how Richard Garriot abandoned his post during the development of Tabula Rasa. Neither you or Wraithone made any attempt to reply to them. But I guess in your world you have facts and emotion reversed so you just blew me off as one of those overly emotional types who you say is wrong.
And see here is where you, working on nothing but your own personal feeling towards NCsoft, jump to the conclusion that they must obviously be wrong, must obviously have done something inappropriate to Richard Garriot and that he obviously deserves to win. I obviously saw this as being completely hypocritical considering you just accused everyone in this thread of using too much emotion and not enough facts.
When I confronted you about it you began talking about your PERSONAL EXPERIENCE with Ncsoft:
To which I said:
And now here we are. I'm still waiting to hear your reply to that...
The History of the Order of The Golden Shields
Okay:
Funny, I typed up half a page of facts about how Richard Garriot abandoned his post during the development of Tabula Rasa. Neither you or Wraithone made any attempt to reply to them. But I guess in your world you have facts and emotion reversed so you just blew me off as one of those overly emotional types who you say is wrong.
Your 'facts' are about as reliable as you reading of the English language....for instance....
"And see here is where you, working on nothing but your own personal feeling towards NCsoft, jump to the conclusion that they must obviously be wrong."
How on EARTH is that me coming to the conclusion that NCSoft are wrong?...to quote....I HOPE he wins....not, he should win, not, he is right, I merely hoped that he won.
Since your interpretation of the English language differs from EVERYONE elses, you will understand when people look at your 'facts' and don't bother to respond.
Perhaps when you can deal with reality, grasp the understanding of the language you are reading and respond to what is actually being said, rather then what you wish was being said, then people might take the time to respond to your 'facts'
Yes, you did rant about personal computers and space development. Two topics which are completely unrelated to Richard Garriot and his lawsuit. Did I slightly "exaggerate" what you said? Yes, obviously, for the comedic value. But did my exaggeration alter the fact that you were trying to drag this thread and everyone in it into an off-topic subject that only you care about which doesn't matter in the slightest? No, it didn't.
The point I was trying to make, in a humourous fashion, was that you are off topic and your opinions on space travel are not relevant to this discussion. So sorry you didn't like it, but if you can't find something to say about Richard Garriot then I think you should go find a forum about space travel to continue your rant.
Nonsense. RG's trip to space was part of the original discussion. My expansion on that tied in two very relevant points. Your concepts of "off topic" are not a valid excuse for your feeble attempt at humor. Ridicule is a standard propaganda tactic, usually brought in to play when the party in question can not debate the merits of the argument. Final point, you are NOT a mod here, hence, you do NOT get to determine what is and is not "off topic".
More irony. You both seem more interested in hurling insults than in actually talking about the subject at hand. It seems to me that you two are the ones who cannot debate the merits of the arguement since neither of you have made any attempt to do so.
RG going into space and your opinion that goverment is holding back space travel are hardly related subjects. Thats like saying because NCsoft is located in Korea we might as well start talking about the Korean War while we are at it. Perhaps instead of promoting your private agenda you could find something to say about Richard Garriot or NCsoft? Nobody needs to be a mod to see that this thread is about the lawsuit between RG and NCsoft, not these other side topics.
@Dafong: Once again you repeat your flawed arguement. You think RG should win more money simply because you don't like NCsoft. Your dislike of NCsoft does not justify RG getting any more money for a job he never did in the first place. You are letting your personal feelings blind you to the actual facts of the case, which has been my point from the very beginning of this debate.
The History of the Order of The Golden Shields
More irony. You both seem more interested in hurling insults than in actually talking about the subject at hand. It seems to me that you two are the ones who cannot debate the merits of the arguement since neither of you have made any attempt to do so.
RG going into space and your opinion that goverment is holding back space travel are hardly related subjects. Thats like saying because NCsoft is located in Korea we might as well start talking about the Korean War while we are at it. Perhaps instead of promoting your private agenda you could find something to say about Richard Garriot or NCsoft? Nobody needs to be a mod to see that this thread is about the lawsuit between RG and NCsoft, not these other side topics.
@Dafong: Once again you repeat your flawed arguement. You think RG should win more money simply because you don't like NCsoft. Your dislike of NCsoft does not justify RG getting any more money for a job he never did in the first place. You are letting your personal feelings blind you to the actual facts of the case, which has been my point from the very beginning of this debate.
You are obviously immune to the total irony of your above, given your previous feeble attempt at humor. Looking back on this thread, its obvious to anyone with basic reading comprehension, how the topic flow has emerged. Its also obvious that this is a total waste of time.
It is not a flawed argument to have a desire one way or the other without relying on the facts of the case to justify that desire.
As to the Original matter, as a student of Law in London I will repeat what I said in the first post. IF, and this is a hypothetical, because NONE of us have the facts at hand, but IF Richard Garriot had a contract with NCSoft that related to a share option as a part of his payment AND within that contract it stipulated that Richard Garriot would have to immediately sell his shares IF he voluntarily left the company...AND IF Richard Garriot can show that he did not leave voluntarily and was therefore entitled to keep the shares.....he will likely win his case because NCSoft would have broken the contract and the courts like to enforce contracts as they are quite important to business.
Regardless of what else has happened, regardless of whether you like RG, regardless of whether you think he did this or you think he did that as an outsider looking in. He will have a claim in contract and he will likely win IF those facts are true. It will be for a court to decide whether those facts are correct or not, not some anonymous person looking at half of the facts through the eyes of reporters.
Since NONE of us know the full facts of the case, all we can do is express our opinion about the people involved. My original argument was merely that people here seemed incredibly emotional about a person they had likely never met. I then expressed my hope and then justified that hope by pointing out that I had worked with NCSoft and disliked them because of that.
Now I am sure you will spin that into whatever the hell you want it to be, as that seems to be what you do, we write replies, you don't bother to read them you obviously just guess what people have written about then spout some nonsense as an answer.
Wraithone, I see you are still only interested in throwing insults. So yes, it would be a waste of my time to continue to speak with you.
FINALLY Dafong, you seem willing to actually talk about Richard Garriot. If you dial back your insults a bit we may be able to get an intelligent conversation going here.
First of all, "IF" Richard had a contract with NCsoft is not really an IF as far as I'm aware. He says there was a contract and I doubt he would have even filed the lawsuit if there wasn't a contract of some kind. Its possible that he lied about having a contract, but as much as I dislike the man I can't honestly see any logic in putting foreward a lie like that when the court will obviously ask to see the contract and if he can't produce it then he will have instantly lost his case.
So I'm going to operate on the assumption that there is a contract. Now the question becomes did NCsoft viloate that contract by forcing Garriot to leave the company? Well, this is exactly what the news article that started this thread was all about! See, Garriot made an announcement when he left the company that he was doing it of his own free will to presue other interests. If he did not leave of his own free will, then why did he make that announcement?
So my theory is that after he returned from his space trip NCsoft confronted him (it was probably the first oppertunity they had to speak with him in private because he had been away in Russia for so long) and explained to him that they would like him to leave because the failure of Tabula Rasa was an embarassment for their company. They gave him the option to save face with the public by leaving on his own rather than having to be fired for his negligence. He took that option and made the public announcement. BUT, several months later after announcing his intention to return to game development and his intention to develop another MMORPG, he asked himself where he was going to get the funding (I doubt anyone will simply give him the money again after what happened with NCsoft and TR). He knew he didn't have the money to make another MMO on his own, so he came up with this scheme to sue NCsoft by claiming that they fired him and tried to cover it up.
So he probably does have a contract and if his version of events is true then NCsoft might owe him some money. BUT, he made that public announcement which said he was leaving of his own free will. That announcement is a FACT in this case, not just a feeling, not just an opinion, a FACT. And because of that fact its my personal belief that Garriot left the company of his own free will and his lawsuit is just a way for him to try to get the money for his next MMO.
Lastly, you say that because we haven't met Richard Garriot in person we aren't in a position to judge him. I disagree. I have played and payed for games that he created. I followed Tabula Rasa during its development, I played it after it was released and I was there the day Richard Garriot announced he was leaving. I was there the day the game was shut down (in fact, I remember quite clearly that on the day they announced the game was shutting down I was in the middle of posting on another forum about my experience with the game and while posting a link to the TR website I saw the announcement which had just gone up about an hour before). So I may not have ever met the man in person but I have had a lot of experience with the products that he creates and the impression I have gotten from that experience is that he is not nearly as good of a game designer as he would like us all to believe. That is my judgement of Richard Garriot. Now I'm not sure what experiences a law student in London could have with a Korean game publisher, but I think its a pretty safe bet that my experience with Richard Garriot stacks up aginst it pretty well. (Unless of course you are going to blow us all away by revealing the CEO of NCsoft is your dad or something.)
The History of the Order of The Golden Shields
No you didn't read what was written...again.
It was not If he had a contract, it was IF he had a contract that related to the share option.
It is also not a matter that NCSoft violated the contract by forcing him to leave, it is whether the contract stipulated that he must sell his shares if he leaves the company voluntarily and whether NCSoft presented that scenario to force his hand.
IF that is the case, which is the ACTUAL story, not the story you have concocted for yourself about whether he is suing for being fired, then RG will have a legitimate claim under contract law.
As to your last paragraph that is a tenuous link. You know NOTHING about him, you know nothing of his opinions or what he is like as a person, you have merely experienced what he has created.....that is like hating the guy that designed the Ford Focus cause you don't like the design....look feel free to not like the design, but its a bit of a stretch to hate the guy cause you didn't like the car or you did and Ford cancelled it. That is a ridiculous reason for not liking someone.
From the original article.....
"The suit, filed by Garriott's attorneys yesterday in a U.S. District Court in Texas, says that South Korea-based NCsoft breached its stock option agreement with the game designer, which was established when NCsoft acquired Garriott's Destination Games in 2001."
"The suit said if Garriott was terminated by NCsoft, the options would remain in effect until June 2011. However, upon a voluntary resignation, NCsoft would terminate those stock options unless exercised within 90 days of his departure."
Exactly as i said earlier, and I hadn't even bothered to read the original article cause it was bleeding obvious from the first post what was going on.
You accuse me of not reading what you said, claim I made up a story, then pretty much repeat exactly what I said? If this is the way law works in London I can see why America revolved aginst your country.
Yes, it is a question of if he had a contract with NCsoft (and yes, "IF" the contact covered his stock options). My theory on what happened is that he does in fact have such a contract, but now he is looking for a way to make a quick buck so he can fund his new MMO so he is trying to sue NCsoft for forcing him to leave the company (and thus lose the stock options).
Here, I can quote from the article as well:
"According to an article at Gamasutra, Garriott was dismissed by the publisher shortly after returning from his trip to the International Space Station. The details of the court case revolve around the circumstances of that dismissal."
So there you have it, exactly what I said: Garriot is trying to sue NCsoft because he claims they forced him to leave the company which caused him to lose his stock options. If he wins the lawsuit or not all depends on his ability to prove that his departure from the company was forced by NCsoft and not of his own free will.
Now, let me repeat my theory on what happened for you: Garriot came back from space. NCsoft was pissed. They asked him to leave on his own rather than be fired. Garriot agreed to leave and announced on the Tabula Rasa site he was leaving to presue other interests. However, he later discovered he needed money to fund his new MMO so he decided to change his story, say that NCsoft forced him out and that he wants his stock options back. I am not "making up a story" that is just my theory on what happened based on the evidence I have seen.
And your Ford Focus analogy is terribe. The difference between a Ford Focus and Tabula Rasa is that I didn't buy a Ford Focus. I DID buy Tabula Rasa, I saw first hand that it was not a very good game and it is my honest belief that it is not a very good game because the head developer was off screwing around in space when he was supposed to be working on the game. As I tried very hard to explain to Wraithone in one of my previous posts:
"The reason why I dislike Richard Garriot and the reason why I feel he does not deserve to win his lawsuit are based on the facts of the events that took place during the development of Tabula Rasa. Richard Garriot SOLD the rights to Tabula Rasa, the rights to use his name and his services as a game developer to NCsoft for 40 million dollars. That part I'm okay with, although I surely wouldn't have paid him that much money. Then Ncsoft put another 70 million into the game for development costs. Again, while it might seem a little excessive to me, I'm okay with that part. Here comes the part I'm not okay with. Once Richard Garriot had his 40 million dollars in his pocket he lost all interest in Tabula Rasa. While the game was in development he ran off to Russia with his money and started training for his trip into space. While he was doing this, Tabula Rasa had no direction or leadership as far as their dev team was concenred. As a result of that huge sums of money were wasted on the development which went slowly and poorly. When the game finally released in a largely unfinished condition with no end-game content of any kind, where was Ricahrd? Space. Where should he have been? On this planet, hopefully doing his job.
You see, I do not mind that Richard went into space. He had the money to afford the trip and apparently the motivation to do it. Good for him. My complaint with him is that he was in space during the time when Tabula Rasa needed him most and the game failed as a result of his negligence. Ncsoft invested over 100 million dollars into his game with the understanding that he would be there through the entire development process using his expertise as the famed creator of Ultima Online to ensure the success of the game concept which he had created. Instead he went off to screw around in space.
When Tabula Rasa failed it was not only a disaster for NCsoft who ended up losing all the money they had invested into the game but MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY it was a disaster for the customers who bought the game. If a rich guy screws over a Korean game publisher that is not really my problem. But when that same rich guy also screws over thousands of paying customers (of which I happened to be one) then that is when he goes down in my book as being a very bad dude."
I admit I don't know Garriot as a person. Maybe he is a very nice guy. Maybe he takes good care of his kids and loves his wife and gets along with all his neighbors. Thats all fine. But I DO know him as a game developer and in that respect I think he sucks at his job, doesn't care enough about the people who buy his products and is more interested in grabbing cash to fund trips into outer space than anything else.
The History of the Order of The Golden Shields
You do realise people can read your earlier posts.
I am bored with your revisionist re-writing of history and of what other posters have said. You can argue on your own, I am sure you will find it quite easy to change what you have originally said often enough to hold a decent argument with yourself.