IGN Names Richard Garriott the #11 Top Game Creator
Alternative headline: IGN Demonstrates Curious Taste, Ability To Add Multiples of Five To A Number.
To be fair, the editors at the “gaming” “news” site do Garriott a great service with their description of his role in the history of the industry:
Richard “Lord British” Garriott has been to space, which is totally sweet. But that’s not why he’s on this list. Garriott is on this list because he’s created immersive videogame universes that let players live out their fantasies. Among other titles, Garriott created the Ultima series, a long running and critically acclaimed franchise of role-playing games that essentially kick-started the genre.
Ultima was huge, with nine main titles, broken up into three game trilogies spanning nearly 20 years. But its epic scope wasn’t its only merit — it was because the series successfully adapted the character creation system, settings, and storytelling techniques that made pen and paper role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons so popular. In other words, it was a D&D fan’s wet dream.
In addition to the main series, Garriott’s Ultima saw plenty of spin-offs too. Worlds of Ultima and Ultima Underworld expanded the series further while innovating with new technologies (Underworld was the first 3D game that allowed players to look up and down). In 1997 Garriott helmed Ultima Online, one of the earliest and most important MMOs ever. Not only is Ultima Online is credited with helping make the genre popular, (you’re welcome, World of Warcraft fans) but it’s still running today!
Garriott’s success with MMOs continued with City of Heroes and City of Villains in this decade, in addition to his most recent project, Tabula Rasa, a futuristic persistent online RPG that combines shooting game elements with more traditional role-playing design.
Do game designers get any more eccentric or brilliant than Richard Garriott? Not bloody likely.
But seriously…how do you write an article like that and come away thinking: “Yeah, he rates a good, solid 11. Defined a genre (two, really, since JRPGs owe much to Ultima 3), been to space, invented MMORPGs…that’s pretty close to a top-ten performance. But he didn’t do Virtua Fighter or anything, so…you know…point against.”
Actually, to be fair, IGN do have some worthy entries in the top ten; Miyamoto certainly merits the top spot. But putting Carmack (to pick just one) ahead of Garriott seems…wrong.
Heh I honestly don’t see any shocking name in that Top 10. Sure I would have put Garriott above a few of them, but you can really make an argument for all of them really (the dig at Virtua Fighter is nice, but that’s really not why Yu Susuki is so highly regarded :P)
I would definitly put Carmack in a top 10 too.
I hope you’re refering to Hang-on and Space Harrier. Rather than Shenmue’s fork lift of frustration. I probably played more Space Harrier in the Shenmue arcade than I actually played Shenmue. Shenmue was just that game you showed your friends when you wanted to show them how awesome Dreamcast graphics were.
I’m pretty sure Virtua Fighter was the first 3D fighter game and was a huge hit in Japan at the time… I even remember seeing the over sized cabinet in an arcade when I was very young. For me, VF4 will always be my favourite fighter. Not only have I played the crap out of it with my friends. But it had more than just a combo list, it had a trainer mode to show you exactly how much lag would be in between button presses to pull off combos. It literally showed you down to .01 of a second. It was an awesome title!
The sample pool is oceanic and the contributions too many to weigh individually without a Matrix-style machine factory. Garriott being in the list at all (and I loved his biography in TFA) is cool and amusing.
As far as devs that sling around blades on chains that cut tips of planets off for fun, hmmmmm. Carmack good as Sergorn mentioned. RG obviously. WS for his Ultima work. Whoever did SotN’s design or direction has serious skill. The Populous/Bullfrog/Fable guy, Molyneux. The Russian guy who did Tetris. Who was the designer behind Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer (DOS)? Jet Fighter II (DOS) was well-designed as well…
Ken and Roberta Williams must be in the top ten. No argument.
Yes argument.
After leaving Sierra, Ken and Roberta decided to go “fuck the industry, we’re retiring!”. I respect their decision, even agree with it, but it disqualifies them from the Top Ten.
Heh, I didn’t know that. I’ll have to hunt for the story.
I think #11 place is very respectable, considering it puts him above many figures who are far more relevant to a modern gamer.
Remember, this is IGN we’re talking about.
Heh, MDK 2 is put down as one of the Doctor’s accomplishments. I’m sure they’ll want that game engraved on their tombstone.
I only went so far back as 25-30, but no Yuji Naka? I’m a little surprised I didn’t see the Command and Conquer guys up their. They, ya know, kinda invented RTS with Dune 2000. All in all though, I’m pretty pleased with the list.
Louis Castle is there at number 78 for Westwood Studios.
It’s a strange list and has artists and music composers listed too, and others who are not technically “game creators”.
Absent is Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari. Atari had the first video arcade game, Computer Space, which Nolan wrote. Atari also had the first successful home console. Bushnell also founded Chuck E. Cheese but we won’t hold that against him…
They aren’t very consistent. A list of those who made the best games ever is quite different than a list of those who were the most influential.