Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Brad McQauid: Do you think it's a good idea for us to meet before your game has even been turned off?

Richard Garriott: The only game I recognize as my own is Ultima Online and it's not being switched off anytime soon.

BM: Fair enough, I'll scratch Vanguard off my resume too then.

RG: Let's call a mulligan and replay our "next big thing" and pretend like the last two shots didn't count.

BM: It feels weird being back here where it all ended. I wake up with horrible dreams of how we let all those people go. Oh wait, I wasn't here when we dropped the axe. That was such a good call.

RG: I wasn't even on the planet when we decided to pull the plug on TR, I think I win for greatest distance.

**

The next game from the Lord and the Vision.

RG: Speaking of space, when I was way out there, I saw the future of gaming.

BM: Would you say you had a "Vision?"

RG: No, that sounds lame. I had a true sight of the future. I saw a high fantasy MMO.

BM: I am cool with that, I think everyone is tired of WoW and there really aren't any other games in the fantasy genre outside of Everquest.

RG: Can you pass whatever you're smoking? WoW just hit 11.5 million players, I think even the four people tired of the game came back when the expansion hit.

BM: It has no soul. I want my game to have soul.

RG: Well that is true. Our game needs soul and a new language to go with all that soul.

BM: The way I envision it, we really need solid game mechanics, great crafting and amazing combat.

RG: Man, someone else will figure that out, let's get an intern or something. I'm a story guy.

BM: That didn't work out so well for me last time, unless you look at my consulting contract with SOE, that was a great story.

RG: All of that coding and art stuff is automated now, the only thing that separates games these days is story. Nobody does stories anymore.

BM: You mean original stories like aliens invading Earth?

**

BM: This will be the real successor to Everuest that I've always dreamed of.

RG: I thought that was Vanguard? And I thought we agreed this will really be the successor to Ultima Online.

BM: EQ trumps UO, ask anyone.

RG: I did at the game store the other day, and nobody had heard of either game. One guy asked me if Everquest was "that online thing like Second Life?" I almost flagged PvP and kicked his ass right there.

**

RG: Speaking of PvP, it needs to be in the game.

BM: That's fine, we'll add it when we add crafting during the first patch. 

**

BM: So how much funding should we run after?

RG: Well, I need to pay the Russians before they kneecap me, so that's 10 million. Then I need a new wing on my castle, so let's just call it an even 15 million.

BM: I've racked up a few debts of my own since I sold at the bottom, so let's bump that to 25 and call it good.

RG: Good thing we won't actually have to deliver a game, there's no way we could make a game for 25 million these days. 

BM: So high fantasy it is.

RG: Yep, and we should call it something epic, like "Baneland"

BM: Hrm, I was thinking of "Everguard" or "Vanquest."

RG: That is so unoriginal, you just mashed your other games together. Have you had a new thought this decade?

BM: We can decide the name later, let's go get some funding.

RG: Good plan, let's meet back here with venture suckers, I mean capitalists in tow in two weeks. Remember to use phrases like "story driven, world changing, PvP focused, next generation" and maybe lob in a "mini-games" or if you get desperate say it will be "free to play and supported by microtransactions" that will hook them.

BM: You lost me at PvP.

RG: Nevermind, I'll go get the funding, you go get Lazik so you can improve your Vision. See you in two weeks.


And with that the two figures dissolve into the fog, unaware that the hatching of the new game has been memorialized forever.