Lord British Shot Into Space

[DoctorFinger]

Richard Garriott, the hall of fame game designer best knows as Lord British from the Ultima franchise, has been shot into space.

More precisely the 47 year-old Garriott - whose most recent effort is the MMO Tabula Rasa - paid the Russian space program $30 million to send him up to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft. Garriott will spend 10 days on the ISS conducting experiments and trying to get his fellow astronauts to undergo the Quest of the Avatar.

Source - Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/world/ny-world135881866oct13,0,1575294.story); Edge-Online (http://www.edge-online.com/news/bon-voyage-richard).

[Cupelix]

How does Richard Garriott really have $30 million to spare? I would not have thought that the Ultima franchise would have made him nearly that much.

Good luck to him, though. It takes some balls to ask someone to shoot you in to space.

[Raen]

Obviously it was all the money he made from Tabula Rasa ;)

[Nura]

Heh, saw this on the news yesterday, he were holding some sort of folderthing with logos from Tabula on it :P

[fitbabits]

It's a one-way ticket, right???

[Young Al Capone]

Pretty cool, but sort of steep. I guess it isn't for the normal guy, making $300k a year.

[Bone]

How does Richard Garriott really have $30 million to spare? I would not have thought that the Ultima franchise would have made him nearly that much.Really? I've lost count of all the Ultimas at this point. I would imagine that especially the first five or six made him a lot of money, back when you could make games with smaller teams.

So my wife got us tickets to the IGDA picnic at Garriot's land (his lakeside property with little bed and breakfasts all designed to look like a mini-Ultima village, complete with a fort and pirate ship), and we all asked where he was. Apparently he couldn't join us because he was training in Russia (Star City) for this mission. I went from envious to completely awestruck in an instant.

[OrangePulp]

Pretty cool, but sort of steep. I guess it isn't for the normal guy, making $300k a year.

300k a year =\= normal.

It would be pretty cool to go into space, but I don't know if I'd pay 30 mil for it. I'm also surprised he can afford it.

[Schnoogs]

$30 million?

How does that guy have that much money?

[Young Al Capone]

300k a year =\= normal.

It would be pretty cool to go into space, but I don't know if I'd pay 30 mil for it. I'm also surprised he can afford it.

Another obscure quote joke, Duke Phillips this time, but even without knowing the quote it should have been obvious that it was a joke.

[Lekon]

It's a one-way ticket, right???

I think its a shame Origin systems isn't still around. I have a few of their Christmas cards still, and they always did great art for them. I can only imagine how silly the art would be for a "We shot our king into space, nyahahaha!" card would be. I imagine a giant cannon ala the Ultima Martian dreams, and the immortal king going 'WHeeeeee!" And a little Stephen Colbert on the ground yelling "Don't spill any!"

[Bone]

Lekon, you just reminded me how Ultima II, being a time-travel twist on what would later be known as moongates, took a turn for sci-fi and let you launch your spacecraft and pilot it to the known planets and "Planet X". So freakin' cool, and I imagine Garriott is thinking of this. Back then he must have thought his game was as close as he'd ever be to space.

[itchyeyes]

$30 million?

How does that guy have that much money?
He sold Origin to EA for $35 million in 1992. Of course you can assume that there were other partners in Origina, but you also have to assume that he made a good chunk of change from the company before he sold it, and that he's probably done ok for himself in the 16 years since he sold it also.

[Jboy001]

$30 million?

How does that guy have that much money?

from selling gold in UO?? :)

[Schnoogs]

He sold Origin to EA for $35 million in 1992. Of course you can assume that there were other partners in Origina, but you also have to assume that he made a good chunk of change from the company before he sold it, and that he's probably done ok for himself in the 16 years since he sold it also.

30/35 = 85%

Who would give away 85% of their fortune to ride in space?

Let's say best case he made 60 million...that's still 50%. I could understand if he was worth billions. 35 million would be a drop in the bucket.

[Young Al Capone]

30/35 = 85%

Who would give away 85% of their fortune to ride in space?

Let's say best case he made 60 million...that's still 50%. I could understand if he was worth billions. 35 million would be a drop in the bucket.

Maybe it was like a life goal or something, something he was willing to drop a good portion of his life savings into.

I mean, he is like the 2nd civilian I have ever heard of going into space, besides that dude from N'Sync.

[TheFlyingOrc]

30/35 = 85%

Who would give away 85% of their fortune to ride in space?

Let's say best case he made 60 million...that's still 50%. I could understand if he was worth billions. 35 million would be a drop in the bucket.

He made 35 million in 1992. Being a nerd, he probably invested most of that in the tech sector. If he sold his stock in the tech sector in early 1999, he could easily have hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Zonkuya]

Maybe getting shot into space (alongside Stephen Colbert's DNA which he, surprisingly, did not shoot himself) is in his bucket list.

And hey, anything to further NASA's uh, tech tree, amirite?

[TheFlyingOrc]

I mean, he is like the 2nd civilian I have ever heard of going into space, besides that dude from N'Sync.
I'm pretty certain that never actually happened.

[Young Al Capone]

I'm pretty certain that never actually happened.

Upon further reading, you are right.

I also discovered that there have been quite a few civilians in space, all of them billionairs.

[MosBen]

Remember, not only did he make a bucket load of money from selling Origin, but he ran the company when they were among the elite game makers of the day. Wing Commander, Crusader: No Remorse, and yes, the Ultima titles (including the cash cow Ultima Online) and more. He was probably making pretty good bank running the company, then make a boat load of money selling the company. I don't remember if he stuck around with the company after the EA buyout, but if he did he probably made good money doing that as well. Also, remember that Wing Commander was made into a Hollywood movie and then a cartoon series. A crap movie, sure, but that's just more money coming in. Then, of course, Tabula Rasa, which again probably pulled some good money in.

And on top of all of this, he's had over ten years to have lots of money invested. Granted, things are pretty bleak now, but he's still probably at least doubled his investment value since the EA buyout.

Anyway, the dude's freaking rich and it's not likely that he'd make himself poor to satisfy a nerdy fantasy.

[itchyeyes]

Maybe it was like a life goal or something, something he was willing to drop a good portion of his life savings into.

I mean, he is like the 2nd civilian I have ever heard of going into space, besides that dude from N'Sync.
He's actually the 6th, none of which were Lance Bass, who's sponsorship deal fell through several months before he was supposed to go.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourist#Orbital_space_tourism)
List of flown space tourists

All six space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures:[6]

1. Dennis Tito (American): April 28 - May 6, 2001
2. Mark Shuttleworth (South African / British): April 25 - May 5, 2002
3. Gregory Olsen (American): October 1 - October 11, 2005
4. Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): September 18 - September 29, 2006
5. Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): April 7 - April 21, 2007[7]
6. Richard Garriott (American): October 12 - October 23, 2008[8]

[Bone]

30/35 = 85%

Who would give away 85% of their fortune to ride in space?

Let's say best case he made 60 million...that's still 50%. I could understand if he was worth billions. 35 million would be a drop in the bucket.Again, like I was saying and MosBen said after me, the Ultima series was a cash cow long before he sold Origin. And in the early days he was in control of the company (the rock star days when a small dev team could all get rich off of a single game, like id software with Doom and Quake).

If you saw his property here in Austin, including the castle, village, moat, etc, you'd understand. The guy has money to spare even after this little vacation.

[LongStepMantis]

Again, like I was saying and MosBen said after me, the Ultima series was a cash cow long before he sold Origin. And in the early days he was in control of the company (the rock star days when a small dev team could all get rich off of a single game, like id software with Doom and Quake).

If you saw his property here in Austin, including the castle, village, moat, etc, you'd understand. The guy has money to spare even after this little vacation.

Anyone who has their own castle can afford $35m, end of story. :D

[rein]

If I had 31 million and it cost 30 million to go into space for 10 days, I would gladly pay it.