Space Tourism

Sure, Tabula Rasa was released over the objections of its development team that it wasn’t even ready for Beta. Sure, even as players ranted and raved about the craptacular state of the game, the team continued to work through the night to implement all the stuff they’d promised us on the back of the box. And sure, by the time the Great MMO Crash of 2008 sent every publisher scurrying to cut its losses, Tabula Rasa was starting to look like a good, interesting, unusual MMO. But it was too late.Because during this time, Richard Garriott got bored and distracted. How bored and distracted? Bored and distracted enough to go to actual space. He became all about going to space - or rather, he went back to being all about going to space. Garriott had actually purchased the first “space tourist” ticket with Space Adventures (he even helped found it in 1998), but following personal financial troubles in the dot-com crash, in 2001 he sold his seat to Dennis Tito - who now gets to be known as the first space tourist.These days, Garriott admits he went back to game development not because of his burning desire to see MMOs become a thing, but rather to make enough money to go to space.He didn’t actually fly to the ISS until October 2008, but Space Adventures announced his booking in September 2007 - right when Tabula Rasa was being shoved unceremoniously out the door.[ Anthony Fordham on Aug 11 2017 ]
See also: Lack of Direction; Cyberspace Adventures.