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Richard Garriott: His Biggest Game is Space (A Documentary)

Forty-one years after man landed on the moon, your dream of following in Neil Armstrong's footprints may be all but dead. But if you're hoping to just get to space, and you're not an astronaut, hang tight and follow Richard Garriott's lead. The...

Forty-one years after man landed on the moon, your dream of following in Neil Armstrong’s footprints may be all but dead.

But if you’re hoping to just get to space, and you’re not an astronaut, hang tight and follow Richard Garriott’s lead. The video game pioneer – and the man who coined the indispensable term Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, or MMORPG – became one of the world’s first space-tourists in 2008, when he launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station.

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When Motherboard visited Lord British last year at his haunted house/amusement park/residence Britannia Manor in Austin, Texas, we discovered he doesn’t just have lots of space; he lives for it, and wants to give everyone the chance to go there.

Garriott is following in another set of big footsteps: his father, Owen, set a record for most consecutive days in space (60) and was at Mission Control during Apollo 11.

As Richard told us, he grew up in a neighborhood made of astronauts and rocket scientists, leading him to think that everyone would go to space. When told that his eyesight would prevent him from ever leaving Earth, his resolve was steeled. During his twelve days in space, he made the first sci-fi film in space, worked on interactive Earth software, and made some zero-gravity artwork. He also became the first American to follow a parent into space.

Now this self-styled “gentleman explorer” (and magician, by the way) sits on the board for Space Adventures and for the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million competition for private teams that aims to land a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit video, images and data back to Earth. Perhaps the winner will get a peek at the 1972 Russian rover Lunokhod 2 and the Luna 21 lander, which Garriott bought at auction for $68,500.

(Did we mention his house has a skeleton dungeon?)

See more on Motherboard about commercial spaceflight, NASA and gaming. And NASA gaming.