Garriot before his space journey.

Late last year, legendary game designer, Richard Garriot announced that he would be leaving NCsoft to pursue "new interests" that were realised while he was staying aboard the International Space Station.

It turns out that his departure from NCsoft wasn't voluntary, and that the "open letter" from Garriot to Tabula Rasa players was in fact penned by NCsoft executives. In effect, Chris Chung head of the North American Branch of NCsoft informed Garriot that his time with the company was "over" and that the time had come for them to "part ways".

As a result of this, and after some research and legal consultation, Garriot has filed a law suit against NCsoft to the tune of US$27 million. At the centre of the issue is "stock options" which would have been available to Garriot for years into the future if he had resigned instead of being terminated.

Garriot's compliant, filed to the U.S. District Court of Texas explains the issue in more depth:

In... November 2008, Chris Chung, President of NCSoft's North American operations, informed Mr. Garriott that NCSoft has decided to "part company." Although Mr. Garriott objected to his dismissal, Mr. Chung insisted that the decision was final - Mr. Garriott had to go.

As Mr. Garriott prepared to leave NCSoft, however, Mr. Garriott learned that NCsoft had internally re-characterized his termination by Mr. Chung as a "voluntary" resignation from the company. This mischaracterization had profound and detrimental effects on Mr. Garriott's stock options: if NCsoft terminated Mr. Garriott's employment (which it did) then the options - worth tens of millions of dollars - would remain in effect until 2011; but if Mr. Garriott resigned voluntarily (which he did not), then NCsoft might have terminated those options ... within ninety days of his departure.

Garriot explained to the company that problems could arise due to the miscommunication, as they now have, due to the court case, which Garriot (and his lawyer) argue that

NCsoft forced Mr. Garriott into a Hobson's choice of exercising his options... and forced him to sell into one of the worst equity markets in modern history...

According to GamePolitics.com, Garriot found out about all this, when he was in Quarantine after returning to Earth from the International Space Station. As a result of these damages, Garriot alleges that more than US$27 million in damages have been made, excluding any legal costs.

It will be interesting to see how this one turns out...