The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a common interest group that aims to further
the interests of people involved in the video games industry, has decided to honor Lord British (aka Richard Garriott
of Ultima Online) by placing him in the group's Hall of Fame. Lord British will join previous winners of the
prize like Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright and Sid Meier.
It's not clear what benefit the games industry and Richard will get beyond this token
gesture. Do you respect Lord British any more because a board consisting of representatives from Sony, Microsoft,
Nintendo and Electronic Arts thought he was worthy of an award? Surely a better way to further the "industry" would be
to encourage start-up developers to create brilliant games, rather than slapping meaningless awards onto people we
already admire. Is an industry "Hall of Fame" really necessary?
