Ultima creator Richard Garriott’s Blockchain MMO sells NFTs for real estate

Richard Garriot, creator of Ultimate series of classic role-playing games and part-time astronaut, has a new project. It’s called Iron & Magic, a blockchain MMO, has just unveiled its official website. Originally discovered by Massively OP, the site shows a series of terrain locations among screenshots and digital walkthroughs of fantasy environments.

“Buy land in Lord British’s kingdom,” reads the banner above the squares.

Who is Lord British, you might ask? Lord British is Garriott’s longtime alias, both his online handle and a character that has appeared in Ultimate game since launch. Ultimate was one of the biggest RPGs of the 80s. It became a design touchstone in the years that followed, spawning several sequels and a popular MMO. The series influenced everything from other MMOs to immersive sims and the CRPGs that dominated the 90s. Garriott was inextricably linked Ultimate as a brand and even as a concept.

Lately, however, Garriott has found hits somewhat harder to come by. Recent pushes into the MMO space, which Tabula Rasa and The Shroud of the Avatarhave either fallen apart in flight or failed to launch. Tabula Rasa made it about a year and a half before they closed their doors. The Shroud of the Avatar found early success on Kickstarter, but delays and changes in direction saw it eventually crumble into dust. As a result, Garriott has been looking for other ventures. The son of an astronaut, Garriott has been busy knocking billionaires into space as a private astronaut and spent time as a deep-sea diver.

Between adventures, Garriott has been looking for a new project. Iron and magic is that project. The man who created one of the most beloved RPG franchises in the history of the medium is spreading digital real estate.

He has chosen an unfortunate time to enter web3 gaming. Cryptocurrencies have been going through it for the last six months to say the least. Bitcoin and Etherium both fell in value, and even “stablecoins” suddenly started moving around in a way that could not strictly be considered stable. The NFT market crashed spectacularly, with outlets like Cointelegraph reporting an 85% drop in average prices found in metaverse projects built around NFT property sales.

As many early buyers quickly discovered, there is very little you can do about a piece of digital real estate that suddenly becomes worthless.

Which brings us back to Garriott and the purchase of land in Lord British’s realm.

Garriott and his development partner Todd Porter sat down for an interview with PC Gamer in April to spill the beans on the game and its connection to the blockchain. Most of it is the same web3 waffle you’ve heard from hundreds of other developers in the space. Ownership of digital assets (such as the said property). Play to earn. Garriott put it this way: “We’re certainly doing more for the players than just, when they put down their money, they play the game and all they get out of it is 60 hours of fun.”

As we all know, free time is worthless if you don’t earn a fraction of a fraction of a cent for every hour you play. A normal reaction to having a hobby under capitalism! Completely healthy!

Anyway, I’m sorry, Richard, but that’s a pass from me.