Dr. Richard Garriott de Cayeux is an icon in the computer gaming field and a game designer for more than 35 years. He is the father of “massively multiplayer online games” and also credited with the creation of the gaming terms “avatar” and “shard” (for divisions of servers). He and his games, including the Ultima Series, have been inducted into the Computer Gaming World Hall of Fame. He has built three leading gaming companies: Origin Systems/Electronic Arts, Destination Games/NCsoft and most recently Portalarium, with offices in Austin and New York City, where he is building the successor to his previous works now known as “Shroud of the Avatar.”
Garriott is also the sixth private astronaut to have lived aboard the International Space Station.