Richard Garriott Suing NCsoft For $24 Million

[Evil Avatar]

Edge Online is reporting (http://www.edge-online.com/news/richard-garriott-suing-ncsoft-for-24-million) that failed Tabula Rasa developer Richard Garriott is suing NCsoft for $24 million.

Ultima and Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott is suing former employer NCsoft for $24 million.

According to a May 5 filing with the Texas Western District Court, Garriott, the plaintiff, is accusing NCsoft of fraud.

Create a game so piss-poor that it fails within a year and then sue for the profits you didn't make. Um... yea, whatever. Moron.

[Ulysses]

Wow, lot of details here.

[RevGored]

Evil, did you have more information than what was in that article, or were you just shooting from the hip, so to speak, on calling him a moron?

[Derella]

Really? That's all that's going to be said in this news post?

Check out this (http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-sues-nc-soft-over-millions-stock-options) article at GamePolitics. It goes into the actual details of why he is suing them.

Whether or not TR sucked seems completely irrelevant. If NCSoft did what he alleges they did, he should win.

[rulyblue]

From GamePolitics:

In... November 2008, Chris Chung, President of NCSoft's North American operations, informed Mr. Garriott that NCSoft has decided to "part company." Although Mr. Garriott objected to his dismissal, Mr. Chung insisted that the decision was final - Mr. Garriott had to go.

As Mr. Garriott prepared to leave NCSoft, however, Mr. Garriott learned that NCsoft had internally re-characterized his termination by Mr. Chung as a "voluntary" resignation... This mischaracterization had profound and detrimental effects on Mr. Garriott's stock options: if NCsoft terminated Mr. Garriott's employment (which it did) then the options - worth tens of millions of dollars - would remain in effect until 2011; but if Mr. Garriott resigned voluntarily (which he did not), then NCsoft might have terminated those options... within ninety days of his departure.

NCsoft forced Mr. Garriott into a Hobson's choice of exercising his options. and forced him to sell into one of the worst equity markets in modern history.



"Game Journalism" does not exist if personal sentiment gets in the way of reporting all the information.

Long live fanboyish Game Blogs were people spout their opinion and not fact.

(not directed at Evil Avatar.. mor to Kotaku and IGN and 1UP)

[soqua]

From GamePolitics:


"Game Journalism" does not exist if personal sentiment gets in the way of reporting all the information.

Long live fanboyish Game Blogs were people spout their opinion and not fact.

(not directed at Evil Avatar.. mor to Kotaku and IGN and 1UP)

It should be directed towards EA. He is way off base on his post.

[Evil Avatar]

Evil, did you have more information than what was in that article, or were you just shooting from the hip, so to speak, on calling him a moron?

I was shooting from the hip. :p I'm calling him a moron because he delivered a shitty game not so much because he is suing. But, honestly... no matter what his justification on paper he doesn't deserve any money because his product sucked and ended up costing that company a ton of money.

[rulyblue]

What are you feelings for Crystler, GM and Ford?

[lockwoodx]

Create a game so piss-poor that it fails within a year and then sue for the profits you didn't make. Um... yea, whatever. Moron.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7414/prod006.jpg (http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prod006.jpg)


yes I made it in paint >.>

[RevGored]

I was shooting from the hip. :p I'm calling him a moron because he delivered a shitty game not so much because he is suing. But, honestly... no matter what his justification on paper he doesn't deserve any money because his product sucked and ended up costing that company a ton of money.

So by this logic, should a game developer have to fall on their sword in lieu of the company they work for taking a hit, no matter what their history? Because by that logic, Miyamoto should be taking it in the ass for Wii Music, even if Wii Fit is the second coming of Christ for that company.

[Evil Avatar]

He can just cry me a river. He had to cash in his stock options during a time when the stock was piss poor. Boo Fucking Hoo.

Perhaps he should have saved some of the millions he paid for his space trip or the millions he spent to go visit the Titanic.

Poor little rich boy.

[greenapple]

Oooh, class warfare. I always thought you were heavily conservative, politically speaking.

What does his choice of how he spends his money have to do with anything (it's his money)?

The question is simply whether there was fraud or not. Garrett being rich or not has nothing to do with it. If an employee does a bad job, you fire him (which he alleges they did). You don't get to fire him and then say that he quit (wink, wink, nod, nod) because it saves you some dough. NCSoft shouldn't have had negotiated Garrett's contract so favorably to Garrett, then.

[Makyz]

first modeps on demigod

and now EvilAv on Garriot!


-_-

So angry.

[Angelspit]

But, honestly... no matter what his justification on paper he doesn't deserve any money because his product sucked and ended up costing that company a ton of money.

You would make a great lawyer.

[NickAragua]

I dunno, I had a lot of fun playing Tabula Rasa. I'm not really big into PvP, and I liked the fact that most of the population were adults. I never had to "grind", and could make decent progress in the storyline even if I only had an hour or two to play. Plus, what other MMO lets you get a one-shot kill on a boss? Granted I only started playing about ten months after release, so I guess they had a bit of time to polish it and release some late-game content...

That being said, both Garriott and NCSoft can go blow donkey balls, and I could care less who wins the case.

[Jadbalja]

I'm going to have to call you out on your classism Evil. Garriott does a lot of good things with his money as well -- including helping arts groups here in Austin (one of which I belong to -- Austin Shakespeare). And it's not like he's taking money from the poor. If NCSoft screwed him, they should pay up, plain and simple.

[speeder]

You can't feel sorry for a guy that blows $30 million to go into space for a few days.

[Skytram]

I was shooting from the hip. :p I'm calling him a moron because he delivered a shitty game not so much because he is suing. But, honestly... no matter what his justification on paper he doesn't deserve any money because his product sucked and ended up costing that company a ton of money.

Well.... if NCSoft were smart they'd have a put a "quality" clause in his contract, this certainly isn't Garriot's fault. He may be a bit eccentric but calling him a moron seems pretty moronic in itself. Sounds like the true moron in this situation is NCSoft.

I don't think that he set out to make a mediocre game. If you read a bit more about this what seems to be going on here is that NCSoft is trying to say Garriot voluntarily left (thus forcing him to sell his options in this crap market) rather than saying he was forced out (which it seems he was), thus allowing him to keep his options alive until 2011.

If those options are potentially worth what he is suing them for then I say best of luck to him. I hope he takes that money and buys back the Ultima IP from EA and goes back to his roots.

[TexasMouse]

The suit is related to the terms of his employment termination. It's an employment law dispute -- the (admittedly) low quality of the game he built doesn't enter into it.

There's no real way to know if his claim is valid or not based on the limited information we get in the Edge article. Likely they'll just settle out of court in order to get him to go away without generating any more bad publicity for them. Seems like they just want TR, and everything associated with the failed NCS Austin studio to dissapear.

[Skytram]

Some more information from K***** - linked off of gamepolitics.com, if anyone is interested. I figured the K***** link was better because it has a tidy summary.

http://kotaku.com/5242413/why-richard-garriott-is-suing-ncsoft

[Froggy]

first modeps on demigod

and now EvilAv on Garriot!


-_-

So angry.

Who's this guy?

[modeps]

Who's this guy?

New guy. I'm not even sure why I made him angry. C'est la vie.

[Derella]

He can just cry me a river. He had to cash in his stock options during a time when the stock was piss poor. Boo Fucking Hoo.
I think RG is a bit of a douche, and hasn't done anything relevant in ~10 years. Yes, he does cosplay and lives in a castle. That doesn't mean his former employer gets to commit fraud, and cost him millions of dollars.

Perhaps he should have saved some of the millions he paid for his space trip or the millions he spent to go visit the Titanic.

Poor little rich boy.
Yeah! Fuck him for making a ton of cash while he helped pioneer the videogame industry :rolleyes:

[AspectVoid]

When you're fired, you don't just get kicked out the door. There's paper work that you need to sign that acknowledges your termination from the company. I know this very well, as the company my father worked for tried to pull this same shit on him when he was fired back in November. My father's lawyer gave him a piece of very good advice, if anywhere on that form it says "Voluntary Termination". you do not sign it.

If Richard signed the paper work that says Voluntary Termination, than he's pretty much screwed when it comes to getting the whole thing. He may be lucky and get NC Soft to cut a deal with him for less, but if NC Soft has signed legal documents he won't get the whole thing.

[SwitchBlade_Jax]

Does any remember or can maybe find Gariotts' quote from back when he annouced he was leaving the company? from the gist that I remember he seemed to be saying it was his choice. Im on my Blackjack so its hard to dig up old articles. IMHO sounds like he was given a choice but didn't realize how short his stick was until after he picked it. Like someone who "realizes" his neck hurts 2 weeks after a car crash....after all his buddies tell him to sue.

[drakkarim]

If NCSoft did what he alleges they did, he should win.

lets hope not, otherwise we'll have to deal with this spent has-been again.

maybe he should've thought about this kind of shit before he blew half his wad on a rocket trip.

[lockwoodx]

Who's this guy?

He's the fat kid that gets a boulder dropped on him in lord of the flys.

[modeps]

He's the fat kid that gets a boulder dropped on him in lord of the flys.

Piggy!
http://lordoftheflies.org/img/Pict29.jpg

[Dracula-X]

lets hope not, otherwise we'll have to deal with this spent has-been again.

maybe he should've thought about this kind of shit before he blew half his wad on a rocket trip.

The rocket trip has nothing to do with the issue. As for blowing half his wad? He is worth far more (multiples) than what he paid to get up there, which was also subsidized by companies (the extent of which is private).

[lalarka]

Does any remember or can maybe find Gariotts' quote from back when he annouced he was leaving the company? from the gist that I remember he seemed to be saying it was his choice. Im on my Blackjack so its hard to dig up old articles. IMHO sounds like he was given a choice but didn't realize how short his stick was until after he picked it. Like someone who "realizes" his neck hurts 2 weeks after a car crash....after all his buddies tell him to sue.

He was vague. Looks to me like he wrote a professional letter informing the gamers that he was leaving without throwing mud on NCSoft.

http://www.playtr.com/news/latest_news/an_open_letter_from_general_br.html
"Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space. Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests."

[Samstag]

Yeah! Fuck him for making a ton of cash while he helped pioneer the videogame industry :rolleyes:

And thank him for spending a ton of cash while he helped pioneer the space tourist industry. Someday I'd like that to be affordable while I'm still young enough to enjoy it.

[lockwoodx]

Piggy!
http://lordoftheflies.org/img/Pict29.jpg

Oh crap it was piggy not froggy.

Froggy was the kid on the little rascals.

[Vandenh]

You can't feel sorry for a guy that blows $30 million to go into space for a few days.

QFt. Case closed, nuff said.

[Derella]

Does any remember or can maybe find Gariotts' quote from back when he annouced he was leaving the company? from the gist that I remember he seemed to be saying it was his choice. Im on my Blackjack so its hard to dig up old articles. IMHO sounds like he was given a choice but didn't realize how short his stick was until after he picked it. Like someone who "realizes" his neck hurts 2 weeks after a car crash....after all his buddies tell him to sue.
The article on massively.com (http://www.massively.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-blasts-ncsoft-with-24-million-lawsuit) about this mentions that Garriott claims someone at NCsoft wrote the open letter to the TR community regarding his resignation, and then signed his name on it.

[Makyz]

New guy. I'm not even sure why I made him angry. C'est la vie.

two posts, long time lurker and listener!

It wasn't that you made me angry, its just the whole "That makes sense right, you need two copies of this game." (http://evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84119) thing gave me the feeling that you felt especially witty and high five-d yourself in your bedroom mirror.

Then another quick baseless Garriott troll by EvilAv, made me wonder if the temperament/validity of the mods is in some sort of downward spiral!

Excuse my rough english, I am a spanish speaker.

[lalarka]

Create a game so piss-poor that it fails within a year and then sue for the profits you didn't make. Um... yea, whatever. Moron.

That's out of line. Such a personal attack doesn't do much to support your view.
The sales performance of TR is a separate issue to RG's employment at NCSoft.

Your statement assumes that RG was going to profit directly from his ownership share of NCSoft based solely on the performance of TR. That isn't the way options work.

TR failed. Yes.
RG left NCSoft. The 'Why' has not been answered yet. Was he fired or resigned? If your view is correct then he was probably fired.

If he was fired his contract gives him the right to retain his options for a longer time than if he left voluntarily.

If NCSoft manipulated the events so that he lost that benefit then he deserves to win.

I wouldn't call it moronic, just smart.

[Redline]

EvilAvatar appears to have a huge case of tall poppy syndrome. It's Richard Garriots money and he can do whatever the hell he likes with it, he certainly earned it, unlike some of the executives working hard off the backs of developers at NCSoft and other companies.

Great attitude some of your guys have, you'd make great company men. Get on your knees and start sucking that company cock.

[modeps]

It wasn't that you made me angry, its just the whole "That makes sense right, you need two copies of this game." (http://evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84119) thing gave me the feeling that you felt especially witty and high five-d yourself in your bedroom mirror.

Nah, It just felt funny to me that with a game they admit has been broken for a while, their way to make amends is to allow you to buy a SECOND copy at a reduced price.

[RevGored]

EvilAvatar appears to have a huge case of tall poppy syndrome. It's Richard Garriots money and he can do whatever the hell he likes with it, he certainly earned it, unlike some of the executives working hard off the backs of developers at NCSoft and other companies.

Great attitude some of your guys have, you'd make great company men. Get on your knees and start sucking that company cock.

I agree with your first statement, then the second one leads me to believe you're still buying vinyl 'because it sounds better' but aren't really sure, and you wear a Dead Kennedy's tour shirt you picked up at a record store because they stopped touring before you were born.

[modeps]

EvilAvatar appears to have a huge case of tall poppy syndrome.

I wish I knew what tail poppy syndrome was... :(

[Redline]

I agree with your first statement, then the second one leads me to believe you're still buying vinyl 'because it sounds better' but aren't really sure, and you wear a Dead Kennedy's tour shirt you picked up at a record store because they stopped touring before you were born.

Good, that's exactly what I wanted. :p

That said, the Dead Kennedys actually formed the year I was born, so no.

[Redline]

I wish I knew what tail poppy syndrome was... :(

This (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tall+poppy+syndrome) might help. :D

[AlfredT]

I like Richard Garriot, I met him once at the AGC, and not only was he totally down to earth he was downright friendly and affable.

That does not blind me to the fact that TR was a mess and for the life of me I couldn't understand the dev team/NCsofts failure to apply lessons learned painfully from its other mmos (lineage/CoH etc). I hated TR and I made no secret of it on the forums or my disappointment in RG's (lack of?) involvement in it.

But I think as the creator of Ultima series, which I had a lot of fun with, and as a huge icon/figurehead in the gaming industry, he has done a good bit for the medium and deserves more respect than to be called a moron. Yes TR was a failfest, but hes a game dev not some paragon of perfection. As for him suing NCsoft, if they are at fault they will have to pay. And from what little info there is that Ive read, it seems that he may have a case.

But the thing that made me actually post and not lurk is the comment made by EA about his spaceflight. RG's father was an astronaut and it has been his dream to follow in dad's footsteps.

I thought America was a land where you work hard and make your dreams succeed, not where you hate on anyone more successful than you.

[Qoz]

AlfredT - Signed.

Still .. I hate Garriot for his lying about Ultima9 (and making it an epic fail) right up to the release day. He still made UO possible and it was one of the best games I have played.

In hindsight I belive Ralph Koster and other talents probably had more to do with UO being good. Everything Garriot has touched since UO has been horrible, so it's kinda weird seeing him with all this cash - especially in crisis times. Still he earned those money so I have nothing against him spending it on hookers, crack, space flights or whatever.

It's like he spent money on a space flight, and now he doesn't deserve the "proven until guilty" procedure. He is automatically judged a scumbag for being rich!! Damn, that is just such an ignorant and stupid comment that must come from your own feeling of disappointment with your life.

[derjester]

Echoing the disparaging at EvAv's post. TR was a piece of shit. No question. In case you haven't noticed NCSoft churns out quite a bit of shit. However a contract is a contract, no matter how many zeros are in it. If NCSoft will try to bone a high profile, expensive asshole like RG, just imagine how they bully their underlings? It's straight up fraud and should be treated as such even if the plaintiff is an asshole that makes shitty games.

Edit: Read more details on it. NCSoft bought Destination Games with Stock Options. They basically made him an offer, that he took, then terminated him when it was valued the least. Nice timing on NCSoft's part to make sure the acquisition ended up costing them much less than initially thought.

[LimaBravo]

Tabula Rasa was excellent and was a failure due to NC's pricing and lack of support.

EvilAvatar sounds a little butthurt, Did RG nerf your favourite class or something ?

The man gets paid to put out ideas if they fired him while he was in frikken space they are amoral two faced assholes that will be raked over hot coals in any half way decent court of law.

Pro-tip - If you have money you tend to spend it on things you want, like space trips etc... Stop crying and get a job.

[Vulture]

Tabula Rasa was excellent and was a failure due to NC's pricing and lack of support.


Thread Over , the Garriott fan club Fanboi has shown up.


/Robert G was in charge of NCSoft NA at the time so still a Garriott decision.