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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Lecture: Video Game Development: Past, Present, and Future
Speakers: Richard Garriott, CEO and creative director at Portalarium and Starr Long, executive producer at Portalarium.
Abstract:
Join one of the founding fathers of the video gaming industry, Richard Garriott, and his business partner, Starr Long, as they discuss the past, present, and future of video gaming.
Speaker Bios:
Richard Garriott began designing computer games while still in high school, and published his first commercial game, Akalabeth, in 1980. His Ultima series of role-playing games remains one of the most successful and longest running franchises in entertainment software history. In 1983, Richard and his brother, Robert, established Origin Systems, at which many influential game designers launched their careers. In 1992, Origin was acquired by Electronic Arts. In 2009, he cofounded Portalarium, where he is CEO and creative director of his latest game, Shroud of the Avatar, which has raised over $4 million through crowd funding.
In 2008, Richard journeyed to the International Space Station and became the sixth private citizen to fly in Earth’s orbit, becoming the first second-generation American in space. He has invested in related ventures such as the Zero-G Corporation, X-Prize, and Spacelab. Richard is currently chairman of Space Adventures, Ltd., the world’s premier private space exploration company.
He regularly hosts the Austin Shakespeare Festival on his estate with his creation of a Shakespeare’s Globe replica.
Starr Long has been making video games for two decades. Starr started his career at Origin Systems, where he was the project director of Ultima Online, the longest running massively multiplayer online (MMO) game in history. In 2000, Starr cofounded Destination Games with Richard and Robert Garriott, and later that year, it was acquired by NCsoft. In 2009, he joined The Walt Disney Company as an executive producer, where he produced eight minigames in Club Penguin (including Pufflescape, the second most popular minigame in that virtual world), Club Penguin mobile, the Disney Parent App for Facebook. His Disney Connected Learning mobile apps ranked in the top 10 in iOS educational and kids games. In 2013, he joined Portalarium, where he is executive producer of Shroud of the Avatar.