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[IMG News]

GameTap is offering a new article, this one examining Richard Garriott's RPG classic, Ultima IV. The fourth in the popular series, which inspires fond memories for many long time RPG players, Ultima IV introduced a deeper, more complex storyline beyond the usual hack n slash.

Designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott had already made a name for himself with the first three Ultima titles. These turn-based role-playing games borrowed rules and mythology from Dungeons & Dragons, infusing them with innovative plots involving space and time travel. They were definitely significant works, and by converting the traditional tabletop experience of D&D to home computers, they paved the way for the PC and console RPGs we know today. But aside from the technological feat of computerizing complex RPG rules, they were hardly revolutionary.

Ultima IV, on the other hand, most definitely was. Not through its technological advances, since it looked hardly better than Ultima III. And not through its fundamental gameplay, since it played like only a slightly evolved version of what Ultima had been doing all along.

No, Ultima IV was a revolution simply because of its theme. Your goal here was not to save the world from an evil magician or a diabolical computer; your goal was to save the world from itself. Lord British, the benevolent ruler of Britannia, notices that his people are lacking in direction and focus in their lives, and puts out a call for a leader to step forth and serve as an example of virtue to the populace. If you wish to become this leader--this avatar of virtue--your job is to learn, study, and implement the Eight Virtues: honesty, compassion, valor, justice, sacrifice, honor, spirituality, and humility.

For the rest of the article head over to the site below.

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[the Battle Cat]

IMG News, on December 6th 2007, 06:06 AM, said:

Lord British, the benevolent ruler of Britannia...

Now just wait a darn minute here.  Lord Brixton told me that HE was the benevolent ruler of Britannia.  That's why I made him a moderator here.

[Eric5h5]

I have to disagree with the article to some extent...the gameplay was significantly enhanced over Ultima III in lots of ways.  For the first time in a CRPG, the most fun thing was not combat, but finding new towns and going around talking to people (using a primitive parser).  In fact, other than the Exile games which used essentially the same method, no other series since then has had interesting conversations like that.  At most, you get to pick from a list of responses, which isn't half as fun or involving.

As for Lord British, remember that this was back in the '80s.  Lord Brixton has usurped the throne since then.  So I'm not at all sure about the whole "benevolent" thing.

--Eric

[the Battle Cat]

Eric5h5, on December 6th 2007, 09:02 AM, said:

As for Lord British, remember that this was back in the '80s.  Lord Brixton has usurped the throne since then.  So I'm not at all sure about the whole "benevolent" thing.

Quite right, I've come to the realization now that when he said "malevolent" I believed he was just trying to say "benevolent" around his hair lip.  No matter: good - bad, what's the difference.  Everybody is going to wind up crushed under our jackboots regardless.

[Marble]

Eric5h5, on December 6th 2007, 10:02 AM, said:

I have to disagree with the article to some extent...the gameplay was significantly enhanced over Ultima III in lots of ways.  For the first time in a CRPG, the most fun thing was not combat, but finding new towns and going around talking to people (using a primitive parser).  In fact, other than the Exile games which used essentially the same method, no other series since then has had interesting conversations like that.  At most, you get to pick from a list of responses, which isn't half as fun or involving.

As for Lord British, remember that this was back in the '80s.  Lord Brixton has usurped the throne since then.  So I'm not at all sure about the whole "benevolent" thing.

--Eric

I always found it interesting that Spiderweb and others moved away from the parser.  It takes more involvement to think about a phrase and type it in than to click on your dialogue choices until they are exhausted.  Obviously it can be more frustrating as it will lead to lots of "I don't know what you're trying to say"-style responses, but it's worth it IMO.  It would be neat to go through Spiderweb's games through the years and look at the dialogue systems.  There was the parser, then in Exile 3 you were able to click on highlighted words in someone's dialogue to "ask" about that, and then there's the Geneforge/Avernum style conversations.  Realmz, back in the day, usually boiled your conversations down to "Yes" or "No" (though occasionally options were given).  In a way, this was very effective, since it allowed one to make up the rest of the actual conversation in one's head.  It's that aspect of imagination that's being lost in the drift toward increasingly literal scenarios.