Richard Garriott + Ultima 7 + Interview
Richard Garriott + Ultima 7 + Interview
Interview - posted by DarkUnderlord on Fri 1 May 2009, 16:48:49
Tags: Richard Garriott; Ultima VII: The Black GateCrispyGamer have the goods:
In Part I of our interview, the creator of Ultima reveals some little-known facts about Ultima VII, the origins of a room full of crazy children that caused a memorable family feud, and his feelings on selling Origin to EA so many years ago.
[...]
Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?
Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.
[...]
And so Ultima IV was a time when I realized that I wanted to observe people’s behavior and make sure that if they are supposed to be this great hero, they act like it. And that was the first time that was done in a game, and it’s still a very rare concept. I think Ultima IV did really well because of that.
[...]
With Ultima V I started saying things in the story, like the real world is not nearly as black and white. In the real world there are good guys that don’t necessarily appear as such; there are bad guys that might appear good. So I began to tell these stories that had more subtlety to them and they often included very layered or hidden commentary on what I thought were current social issues of importance. They may have not been as obvious to most others, but they were obvious to me. Whereas Ultima IV was fairly black and white, in Ultima V I wanted to bring up other systems, other ways in which people espouse virtue — which in my mind were untrue — especially in that period of time.Read page 3 to find out about the children room and how it almost threatened the game into not being published.
Thanks newsman!
In Part I of our interview, the creator of Ultima reveals some little-known facts about Ultima VII, the origins of a room full of crazy children that caused a memorable family feud, and his feelings on selling Origin to EA so many years ago.
[...]
Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?
Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.
[...]
And so Ultima IV was a time when I realized that I wanted to observe people’s behavior and make sure that if they are supposed to be this great hero, they act like it. And that was the first time that was done in a game, and it’s still a very rare concept. I think Ultima IV did really well because of that.
[...]
With Ultima V I started saying things in the story, like the real world is not nearly as black and white. In the real world there are good guys that don’t necessarily appear as such; there are bad guys that might appear good. So I began to tell these stories that had more subtlety to them and they often included very layered or hidden commentary on what I thought were current social issues of importance. They may have not been as obvious to most others, but they were obvious to me. Whereas Ultima IV was fairly black and white, in Ultima V I wanted to bring up other systems, other ways in which people espouse virtue — which in my mind were untrue — especially in that period of time.
Thanks newsman!
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