Lord British WILL Return!
Gamasutra reports that Richard Garriott dropped one hell of a bomb at South by South West (SXSW), an annual film, music, and interactive arts festival held in Austin, Texas.
Garriott’s company Portalarium is competing in this year’s SXSW Accelerator competition, one of the show’s most prestigious events and biggest launching pads.
Previous entrants include Foursquare and Foodspotting. The company unveiled a pair of new titles at the event — including one featuring the return of Ultima’s Lord British.
Lord British’s New Britannia (working title) will be a social networking game built around Garriott’s famous alter ego, which he wholly owns – as opposed to the Ultima universe, which Electronic Arts has the rights to.
The title is set to come out after the second quarter release of Ultimate Collector, the company’s first original game, which will take the form of a social network game paired with a television show hosted by Garriott, the pilot for which has already been shot.
Further details were light for both titles, since Garriott’s presentation was primarily an appeal to investors for the $3.8 million in financing the company is seeking. However, Garriott did note “the virtual world game is not just an ultra-light MMO shopped on social media. I think that would be a failure.”
Previously, the Ultima creator has been somewhat vague about whether Portalarium would feature a Lord British-themed fantasy title in its lineup of games. Not any more, I guess!
New Britannia…actually kinda catchy, though I’m sure it won’t be the release title.
Very exciting! We’ll have to see what the next chapter is, and how it changes the genre.
How COOL is that?! I can’t wait to re-enter Britannia!
“Ultimate Collector”? You think I should wait for the phone to ring?
(probably not…)
Origin Museum: Well, the game IS supposed to be episode based with a TV series component. Maybe you could be the season finale?
well, i wish him luck. hopefully the leaps and bounds in technology, and the limits of social media, will help them focus on the gaming experience like in u4-7
“New Britannia”. Damn does that name excite me. I had never even thought that he could return to that world… I suppose if Lord British is his, then certain concepts surrounding LB could be his too… Where would the line be drawn for what is copyrighted by EA? Britannia? The Virtues? I’m even more interested in hearing details about his new game
Well, we know for sure that the “Lord/General British” persona remains with Garriott. The “Ultima” name and IP remains with EA.
I don’t know about the Eight Virtues, but I wonder if perhaps the Britannia name isn’t specifically held by anybody? I mean…technically, it’s an old name for Britain. Can you copyright that if you aren’t…I don’t know…the Queen?
Yeah. I figure “Britannia” can be used. Anyone here a copyright lawyer? :p I think it would be beyond awesome if he was able to create a game set in Britannia a couple of hundred years later.
But “New Britannia” makes me think he may be having Lord British travel to a new world (which would also be cool). Maybe an “It is time for me to move on from Britannia so that it can grow on its own” followed by a random Orb toss. But what things/ideals would Lord British take with him? And could he take any people with him? (I doubt that some of the companions would remain without British)
I get the impression that it’ll be a new land as well, though of course it’s too early to tell as yet.
Not sure as to the characters that could be similarly imported. I would assume Iolo, Dupre, and Shamino might be along for the ride, assuming the men on whom those characters are based retain some rights to the names.
I don’t know, it sounds like the only thing that would carry over from the Ultima games we know would be the character Lord British; the blurb at the top here sounds like EA retains the rights to everything else Ultima-related.
Perhaps. I guess it depends on which things are automatically included in the Ultima copyright. Characters are, but there would be ways around that. “Lord British” for example. Shamino might also be ok for Garriott to use since he was using that character before Ultima even existed. I’m not an expert on copyright, but if the character was already in existence before Ultima, then using it in the series shouldn’t mean it belongs to the Ultima copyright. I think…
From the Ultima VIII manual:
© Copyright 1994, ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Britannia, Origin, Ultima and We create worlds are registered trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Avatar and Pagan are trademarks of ORIGIN Systems, Inc. Lord British is a registered trademark of Richard Garriott. Electronic Arts is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts.
Something I’ve noticed for quite a while was the (ab)use of the title Avatar. I mean, the picture that represents your self is named Avatar, an anime with a bald guy is called Avatar (AFAIK), the award-winning movie from a while ago was entitled Avatar.
Since I’ve read the Ultima VIII manual about 10 times, I knew, at least by 1994, that AVATAR was a trademark of Origin’s, thus, EA’s as well… maybe. I wondered whether EA has turned a blind eye to this issue, they forgot to pay the bill and their rights have expired, or they never held copyright to AVATAR even though its subsidiary company, Origin, did.
Also, in case Origin has been officially shut down, I suppose EA must have been wise enough to go through all the red tape to inherit their rights. In that case, Avatar and Ultima will be owned by EA, and Lord British by Richard Garriott. I don’t know about Britannia, but Pagan, Serpent Isle and Black Gate are trademarks of Origin’s and many names (e.g., Tseramed, Iolo, Gweeno, etc.) may still be copyrighted. That means RG may need to create something new indeed… else he will surely hit a brick wall.
Sidenote: Lord British was almost senile in Ultima IX… I wonder if he will return older or newer in this new “Ultima”.
So I figure Ultimate Collector is that semi casual game they’ve been talking about while New Britannia is gonna be the big new LB Game.
It’d actually be very cool if the world in this new actually ends up being called “New Britannia”. Since Britannia is indeed an ancient word for Britain, he could probably get away with this.
I wouldn’t expect any other Ultima elements though – the other characters, the virtues… all that is tied to the Ultima IP and thus to EA.
But then I would suspect Garriot will be thinking up a new sort of Ethics to be the basics of this new game, much like he planned for Tabula Rasa originally.
Also it does sound that it might not be that far of, which is cool.
Trademarks are held only for a particular area. That “Avatar” trademark would have been just for computer games (or whatever they called that field back then). It can still be used for anything else (such as “Avatar” shampoo). (Trademarks are something I do know quite a lot about)
As for those trademarks, they might not include the names being used in something, just the actual games being named those things.
The term ‘Avatar’ is actually an ancient Hindu word for an earthly incarnation/appearance of Vishnu (or, less commonly, other gods). In modern Western society it has come to be used for a whole lot of different things.
Though most recently it was the title of a TV show and completely unrelated movie, it’s also been the title of several novels, a comic book publisher, episodes of a number of other TV shows, bands, albums and so on and on. And of course it’s also used to mean an online or in-game representation of the user.
And it’s even been used previously as the title of a video game in the 70’s.
I’m no expert but I think the whole trademark thing is quite complicated and it may only be very specific uses/contexts in which the word/s are restricted. Trademark and copyright are two completely separate areas of the law. I know that one ground on which you can claim ‘fair use’ of somebody else’s trademark is if the use of that term is the only way to accurately describe an aspect of your own product/work. So if I were to make a video game in which one of the characters was referred to as The Avatar, I think it would fall under that umbrella. You could probably make similar cases for any of the trademarks that Kobra Kai got from the Ultima VIII manual.
Well, the incarnational aspect of the term Avatar is still kind of present in the Western usage of the term.
The Avatar of Ultima fame is an embodiment (which is a related concept to incarnation) of the Eight Virtues.
The Last Airbender is an Avatar for…actually, I think he falls more under the Eastern understanding.
The “Avatars” of James Cameron fame are alternative bodies into which the consciousness and life essence of human operatives can be placed.
Nothing really to do with Vishnu, but still very much about the idea of embodying something else, whether another consciousness, or a higher being or set of principles.
Well in the Last Airbender the Avatar is basically the enbodiments of the four elements as I understood it… it’s not far off to our Avatar.
Of course let us not forget that the term “Avatar” is often used to define a player’s virtual persona in online games and virtual worlds.
But yeah trademarking and copyright is complicated – it depends on a lot of factors so it’s hard to know if a name that has been copyrighted/trademarker for one thing can be used for another but there is usually a lot of room for that (for instance there is dog/cat food called Ultima ugh :P)
It’s of course more complicated when you want to copyright a single common word so I’m sure about Britannia… but since it is a common word for Britain dating back centuries ago I don’t know if it could be copryighted in a way to prevent its use from some other games.
Of course it’s possible “New Britannia” will solely be used for the codename of the game… but in any case it does show us what Garriot’s aim is here and that is obviously something Ultima ish
I’d be mighty sheepish about giving a million dollars to somebody who doesn’t even have concept art to show me, let alone somebody who’s last gaming venture was something of a disaster. Then again, that somebody is Richard Garriot, a guy who happens to have a reality distortion field. I’m sure he’ll be able to get his funding just fine.
Something we haven’t really talked about yet in regards to this blurb: A TV show associated with a social networking game? How is that supposed to work?
Is Garriott going to come on and say I have the highest collection of widgets, but WTF’s complete collection of colored wuzzles takes the weekly prize?
Xbox tried something similar with their 1 vs 100 game/gameshow, and it didn’t work out. That said, the number of Facebook users dwarfs the already impressive number of Xbox Live subscribers, so maybe by sure brute force of numbers it will work out this time.
Though I wouldn’t count on it.
Maybe it will be like win Ben Stein’s money, except you will compete for artifacts out of his mechanical puzzle collection.
after reading this all, i just think that this is going to be another instance of a good old IP being dragged through the mud
How so? Garriott doesn’t control any IP other than the Lord British persona, and he has injected that persona into most of his other games (Lineage, Tabula Rasa).
He’s only dragging himself through the mud, in other words.
well maybe not the IP, but definitely my hopes and dreams
Okay, fair enough. I can’t promise those won’t be dashed needlessly against the rocks of cynical exploitation of famous names.
“well, i wish him luck. hopefully the leaps and bounds in technology, and the limits of social media, will help them focus on the gaming experience like in u4-7”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Assign bullshit to the toilet, greatness to the game.
On another note, absorb this madness:
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:3nsfca.2.31
First renewal 2003-11-24, original registration 1985-09-03, description, “computer game equipment containing memory devices; namely, discs”. Status is LIVE. Looks like someone is holding the torch for such lovely words, and I don’t have the time to see if “Moonglow” or “Jaana” have been registered.
The U.S. Patent/Trademark Service is obviously shit with all the software patents they allow, so who knows what evil is at the hands of EA attorneys should Garriott try to use his own damn content in his own games. “Ultima” has too many entries to follow unless you’re truly dedicated.
I must say I really don’t care about TV Show tied to social network game. Perhaps it’ll work or not… really all I care is that “New Britannia” thing 😛
I know there are skeptics, but I am cautiously optimistic about this. His plan is to have what is basically “Ultima Online virtual world” + “classic Ultima storyline quality” into an accessible social network environment… the thoeyr is sound and could be very interesting even for his hardcore Ultima fans if done well.
Will it work? I don’t know – but if the quality is there: I’m game even if it’s not some big AAA single player RPG.
I think I would be MORE game ESPECIALLY if it isn’t some big AAA single player.
I think the gaming experience has gotten more and more watered down as 3d graphics became a focus. I think they are more appropriate for shooters like halflife and bioshock.
Every true RPG experience I loved has been in 2d or a distant isometric. U4-7, Baldur’s Gate, even the DS ultima remakes (which I played at the farthest camera distance possible).
It is just that RG seems so intent on making something revolutionary, and he has failed to notice that, as the industry has grown 1000 times over, the bar has actually RISEN for revolutionary. Tabula Rasa just doesn’t cut it.
I think it’s necessary to point out Garriot’s previous interview (posted here) that makes a very valid claim–the reason he got famous was because when new tech comes out, the first games lack depth. Garriott would make a game with depth, and they become classics. Ultima 4 was revolutionary because it had depth, when no other computer game at the time did. UO-same thing. Now there are a million Facebook apps, but none have depth–I think he’s on to something here.
Garriot gives games depth. (how’s *that* for a catchphrase?)
Yeah the interesting and very valdi bit about these Garriott interview was when he pointed that game development tends to be cyclic: whenever there is a new medium or a new technology – things tend to go back to zero and gets gradually more complex.
Garriott’s thing has always been to push thing forwards, that’s what he did back in solo RPG days, back in MMORPG days, and that’s definitly what he aims to do with Portalarium. Hell you just need to look at these Facebooks game to see there is a lot of potential for doing something DIFFERENT and add depth to it.
Now all his tries were not always met with success as the failure of Tabula Rasa proved – but it certainly was a noble attempt even if the whole “Let’s offer plot depth of a single player RPG in a MMO” has yet to be achieved. I actually kind of regret not trying out more Tabula Rasa, because I’ve had quite a few people who played the game extensively telling me it did had interesting plot of depth beyond its “WoW with Guns” gameplay.
Also I’m not quite sure that the bar has really risen has far as revolutionnary go: seems to me on the contrary developpers don’t really try to revolutionise much or try new things. And in any case Garriott is not so much trying to revolutionise video games, as he wants to revolutionise/evolve the browser based market – which in truth shouldn’t too hard to accomplish considered the depth vaccuum it represents.
Hot Dam, this has me excited!!!!
Granted I’m very skeptical due to it coming out on social media and it been MMO style but I sure hope he crafts a unique world with an interesting story….
I definitely think he is right that tech has improved alot but content is big time lacking.