NCSoft getting sued left and right.

Lol his game sucked and noone bought it and now its ncsoft's fault

Wow, NCSoft sure did some naughtyness there...

i thought it was in austin, i live in SA as well lol

It is in Austin. The court district just covers us (which is what I said).

...Why are people retarded? Damn, money corrupts anyone.

From a legal perspective, the alternative fraud claims are actually kind of interesting.

(For anyone who read the complaint and didn't notice, Claim #2 and Claim #3 rely on mutually exclusive facts. It almost puts NCsoft into a damned-if-you-did and damned-if-you-didn't situation, but there is still a fairly obvious out for them.)

I'd love to say more, but I'm a RL lawyer, so I won't.

He did not forget about the 90 days, he did exercise them within the 90 days period:

I think the main debate would center around him approving that "fake" letter to fans, saying that he has voluntarily left the company. If he was not leaving voluntarily, why would he approve that letter in the first place?

That part can make it difficult for Garriott in court.

My speculation? Chung probably convinced Garriott to leave voluntarily as his future in the company was over after the failure of Tabula Rasa. Garriott left but had a change of heart after realizing his stock options issue.

Errrr what exactly is he suing over?

I don’t know I think Garriot is probably going to end up losing the case in some way. There is a good possibility he won’t see most of that money returned back; especially since he is having it tried here in the states.

I’m sorry but Mr. Garriot is becoming the extreme egotistical version of what Peter Molyneux has been for some time. I remember when some of these people used to have some sort of humility about their own products. Now they simply ride on their own “great past” to get them by. I still recall what Garriot stated about Guild Wars being a “failed business model venture,” during Tabula Rasa’s development. Ever since then my respect for the man has dwindled away.

He wants a longer period for exercising his stock options, because NCSoft might recover from the financial disaster he caused?

btw. what happened to his former boss?
..his brother Robert

How does "retarded" correlate with "corruption?"

It's a shame they cant counter sue him for doing a crappy job. Tanking millions and mismanging funds for his own persuits sure lost ncsoft a lot of money.

lol i'd settle for that

NcSoft wanted him out in the worst way because he cost the company millions so I wouldn't be suprised if they fudged some wording just so they get him out asap. Though I find it quite interesting that it was ok when Richard Garriot announced he was going into space, NcSoft used his trip as marketing for Tabula Rasa. Operation Immortality I believed it was called. Either way, I wouldn't trust either of them. Arenanet needs to be smart and part ways with NcSoft. First Worlds.com and now Garriot. Sounds like some shady dealings to me.

lol yeah i bet it would

This reminds of that lame story where that laundry mat washed the man's underwear and tried to sue for $65 million. Lol, he lost terribly and now is the biggest douchebag and he lost a lot of money as well.

And he was probably highly paid too since he is such a big name. A highly paid exec that has been a disappointment to the company would be someone that the company may want to get rid of fast.

If he had stayed, he may have to sacrifice his dignity. If not, then he would have to sacrifice his stock options. Either way, was bad so perhaps he choose the lawsuit.

RA syncing I think.

The issue with Garriott and NCSoft is not the question here , no matters who is the lossing party. What matters to me is , how this will impact to ANET , Guild wars and Guild wars 2 release.

I suggest you all read this, for a lawyers perspective:

http://www.underdevelopmentlaw.com/2...4-million.html

Yeah, but unfortunately all the commentary and opinion in the world mean nothing. It's all about the judge and the lawyers at that time and we've all seen some really crappy lawsuits proceed that never should have, suits that have been dismissed that had a valid argument and even the best experts/judges/lawyers act as dumb as the rest of us.

Some posters have mentioned he isn't filing for wrongful termination. The reason is because he was employed in Texas, and Texas is an at-will employment state. You can be fired at-will if they give no reason. If you believe that you are discriminated against then you have a case on other grounds, but it's pretty difficult to prove something like that.

He's suing for 24 million. His trip into space was...25 million. Coincidence?

Guys, please understand. Lord British is just doing his job here.

You know, as a clown.

Sadly, Lord British is long dead. There is now only Richard Garriott.

If he has an issue with NCsoft, he should just do what every other normal person does...

Go to Random arenas America dis 1 and start up a debate...

thanks for that informations JR, it is worth tens of millions of dollars

Most states are at-will. Contracts give you the option of changing statutory or common law rights such as employment being "at will". In other words, the contract designates whether termination is "wrongful" and not the statutory or common law elements for at will employment. Discrimination and EEOC will, however, always apply. As with choice of law, you essentially opt out of your statutory/common law rights when you enter a contract and the law of the contract governs. Most executive agreements are not at will, but are at fault or at the will of the board. That is likely the only way Garriott could in good faith (to avoid rule 11 attorney sanctions) make the alternative cause of action claim for fraud, whereby he claims that the termination itself was fraudulent. He alleged that the board had not yet made a determination as to the disposition of his stock option agreement at the time he was fired.

tl;dr

Hope he wins.

What?!? why in Dwayna's name do you hope this idiot wins?

He nearly ruined City of Heroes with his insanity and he drove Tabula Rasa into the ground from stupidity

I think you got the message out of context.

The message was in response to those asking why he didn't file a wrongful termination suit against them. For the reasons both I and you (reiterated) he is filing a breach of contract suit instead.

A wrongful termination suit wouldn't do him much good unless he had very strong grounds as we both mentioned (such as EEOC), whereas a breach of contract suit is very feasible, again for reasons that have already been mentioned in the article and previous posters.

The fact that there is a contract makes it a contract suit and not a wrongful termination suit. I think you're talking about the concept (which in this case is basically the same), whereas I'm talking about what he has to actually call it in court.

While, due to the contract, he may have been wrongfully terminated in respect to that contract, it's usually called breach of contract. Wrongful termination is usually used to mean other things in the state.

Contracts may vary state by state, but at least in Texas they will not change common law rights. In other words, you can sign a contract with an employer here and in the eyes of state employment laws it usually doesn't mean jack. However, it does give you recourse in a breach of contract suit if either side does indeed break the contract. In my industry, here in Texas, we see this happen all the time. You can't sign away your rights any more than the employer can sign away theirs.

If you have a contract with an employer (by industry) that is written up in a way that gives specific reasons they can let you go, and then they let you go without those reasons having been the case, you have a breach suit possible, but you will not hammer them for wrongful termination in the state's eyes. If, however, they don't have those reasons and you suspect they terminated you for something like an EEOC violation, then not only do you have a wrongful termination suit (in particular EEOC), but you also have a breach of contract suit against them for whatever that contract had guaranteed.

I'm not a lawyer so there may come along a lawyer that challenges this practice that stands up. I'm only reciting what I have personally seen in my industry and a few others here in Texas. You especially see this come up (though rarely worth the breach suit for either party) with contracting companies where the contracts and/or employees turn over frequently.

Again though, you have the concepts right, I think your answer was really towards the people I was answering. When you have a contract butting heads with law (common law or otherwise as is the case in Texas), law usually prevails, regardless of what you signed (as far as direct guaranteed rights are involved).

EDIT: Other states may be different, even though they are at-will states. I'm a Veteran, a Texan, and an American so I can't say I am too familiar with how other states handle their business (nor have I ever had the desire to) :-)

If that idiot wins, or worse ... I suggest Anet looks for a better publisher. Otherwise NCSoft 'flag titles' such as Aion and GW2 will introduce more and more and more and more microtransactions to pay for dying company. At least, it's the way I'm looking at it.

I think that people do not understand the terms of the lawsuit. It all comes down to whether Garriott quit or was fired. Just about any real job out there has the same rules: If you quit, then you don't get much if anything. If you're fired, then you may be entitled to a severance package.

Garriott's contract basically has a stock option clause which turns out to be a so-called "golden parachute" should he get fired. He gets a crapload of money if NCSoft lets him go in other words. There are exceptions to this, such as if he did really stupid things to intentionally get himself fired.

Apparently the "farewell letter" that was posted to Tabula Rasa was not written by him, and it was actually NCSoft. Garriott himself says that he didn't have a problem with it at the time. However, he discovered that NCSoft then used this tactic to basically say that he was effectively agreeing that he was quitting the company. Later, Garriott realizes that because he is officially listed as "voluntarily leaving", then he's not getting a golden parachute after all. He then sues saying that he should have gotten more money because basically NCSoft fired him, and he didn't actually quit after all.

I think that anybody could have seen that Garriott didn't leave voluntarily from NCSoft. It's not much of a secret that Tabula Rasa was a big failure, and the blame has to go on Garriott himself (my gosh, it was called "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa" officially). Not to mention that only days after Garriott "quit", Tabula Rasa announces they are shutting down all servers. However, the fact that Garriott didn't say anything or complain when NCSoft told everybody that he was quitting sure implies some kind of consent. In all likelihood, the case will be a difficult win for Garriott. He is probably hoping that NCSoft, rather than waste money and resources on a legal battle, will just settle out of court for a few million dollars.

Regardless of what you think of him/NCSoft, if they partook in the shenanigans he claims, he deserves something. Pretty dickish move on their part if it's true.

Here's a question:

Why don't they? I mean, this is a team that left Blizzard to make a free MMORPG!

If they have the balls to leave Blizzard, they certainly know they can leave NCSoft anytime they want.

"I will not pretend to understand how exercising the option to purchase shares at the same time forces one to sell. If anyone knows the answer to this I would love to hear it."

So, any lawyers out there know how NCSoft could have forced Richard to sell his stock right away?

Possibly being an "Idiot" or not and whether he was known for "stupidity" by some or not, he was still screwed over and should get what he deserves.

Anyone have a link to a copy of the stock option agreement?

I've read the complaint a few times now, already have a pretty good idea how I'd defend if I represented NCsoft (which I don't). I'm wondering if there's some clause in the agreement that answers the "forced to sell" question. (I don't know of anything that would force him to sell, and I'd point out that the article JR linked and the complaint's own allegations about income tax liability are pretty much opposite each other. Questions like that are how people avoid 12(b)(6) motions I suppose.)

"Allegedly" screwed over.

I still don't understand how he was forced to sell his stocks when he quit.

And if he was fired instead of quitting, why did he write such a nice good-bye letter?

I think this is it: (it's linked in the article)

http://legalplay.typepad.com/Garriot...20agreemen.pdf

Article 8.3.1 sounds interesting:

If he voluntarily resigns, all stock options which have been vested will be canceled in 90 days.

Does that mean he'd LOSE his stocks if he didn't sell? If so, the question of whether he voluntarily left or was fired becomes pretty important.

But he screwed Anet,so basicly them screwing him back is a good thing?

Anet is not NCSoft.

(Unless you are referring to another incident where Richard screwed over Anet?)