Do you want to be the commander or the engineer?
It’s exactly the kind of question you’d expect to hear from Richard Garriott, the 47-year-old father of massively multiplayer online gaming. His titles, which have sold more than 100 million copies, let gamers assume the role of magician, warrior, or sci-fi super-soldier. In real life, Garriott goes by the nickname Lord British and dresses up in Elizabethan garb.
But on this May afternoon in a cramped classroom northeast of Moscow, Garriott is not playing a game. He’s fiddling with a joystick, but he’s training for a real-life mission as a cosmonaut. In front of him is a simulation of the control panel of the Soyuz spaceship. “I know you are great computer gamer, so here you go,” his instructor jokes in a thick Russian accent as he fires up the videoscreen so Garriott can practice a descent.
Welcome to Star City, Russia, the […]
Original post by David Kushner
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