New York Game Awards and GG! Fest tickets (which includes the big, Supergiant Unplugged live concert) are now available! They’re going quickly. Get them before they sell out!

The New York Videogame Critics Circle emerged from very humble beginnings. Just before the 6th Annual Awards, some of our members gathered at founder Harold Goldberg’s living room to shoot a bare bones video tribute video for its Legend Award winner, the great Richard Garriott. Joining us were Dan Ackerman, Sherri L. Smith, Jason Cipriano and Christopher Byrd. In the background, you can see the various 3DS games of the time, along with Goldberg’s book, “All Your Base Are Belong to Us.” Today, Goldberg’s games and books are more organized, as is the Circle and its lauded Playing with Purpose programs.

The Andrew Yoon Legend Award is more than just a title given away at the peak of the Awards show, it’s meant to show that there are true believer visionaries within the gaming industry, and we at the Circle are hoping to highlight them one ‘thank you’ at a time. As we grow closer to the 15th Annual New York Game Awards, and subsequently our next Legend winner,  we at the Circle would like to remember one of many legends we’ve highlighted: Richard Garriott. 

Richard is not only a second generation astronaut, but also a pioneer of one of the most legendary gaming titles out there, Ultima. From the humble beginnings of gaining the nickname “British” from high school friends, Richard Garriott first got into gaming through the legendary Tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons. As soon as he got his hands on computers, Richard got to work creating some of the first CRPGs (Computer Role Playing Games) to date,

Much like Richard’s career start, the Circle’s 6th Annual Legend Award tribute was equally as simple. Among the game-packed bookshelves of Harold Goldberg’s living room, members of the Circle spilled their hearts out for Richard Garriott and his reverence as the forefather of CRPGs. The great Lord British is not one to forget easily, of course. 

It has been a long time since the early 1980’s, and CRPG as a genre has grown tremendously thanks to trailblazers like Ultima showing the world that they could exist. Now, with hardware such as Nvidia graphics cards and terabytes of RAM, there’s no telling how high CRPGs can fly. Perhaps they could even reach space like their pioneer once did as a real-life astronaut. 

The days of the Critics Circle’s GG Fest & 15th Annual Game Awards are soon approaching, and we’re more than excited to give praises to our next Legend Award winner come the day of the Awards Show!

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