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Garrett
Joined: 13 Jul 2001
Posts: 74
Location: Munich, Germany |
| UltimaDot Feature: The Traditional Ultima |
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UltimaDot offers an editorial by Parcival today: <a href="http://ultima.rpgdot.com/index.php?hsaction=10053&ID=756">The Traditional Ultima</a> looks into the Ultima tradition and discusses the elements that are, or are not essential to a true ultima game:<blockquote><em>There is no need for an traditional Ultima to be made or published by Richard Garriot or Origin. No, stop! You don't have to disagree with me yet: this was already proven by the existence of Ultima Underworld I and II. And by now, Richard Garriot moved on beyond Ultima and Origin is a part of Electronic Arts. If that was the end of it, there would be no Ultima tradition: there would only be Ultima history.</em></blockquote> |
Mon Oct 13, 2003 9:40 pm |
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TheMadGamer
High Emperor
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California |
Parcival Wrote:
“As I hang out on Ultima related websites an forums quite a bit, I happened to notice that once in while people refer to something called 'the Ultima tradition'. Most of the time this is done when they try to prove some point they are making; like UXO being not a real Ultima or that there hasn't been made a proper Ultima since The Black Gate.”
I wouldn’t say that there hasn’t been a ‘real’ Ultima since, ‘The Black Gate.’ But I would say that, ‘The Black Gate’ was probably the best realization of the, ‘Ultima Tradition’ to date.
Parcival Wrote:
“There is no need for an traditional Ultima to be made or published by Richard Garriott or Origin. No, stop! You don't have to disagree with me yet: this was already proven by the existence of Ultima Underworld I and II. And by now, Richard Garriott moved on beyond Ultima and Origin is a part of Electronic Arts. If that was the end of it, there would be no Ultima tradition: there would only be Ultima history.”
I don’t know about this. It’s true that other people besides Richard Garriott can carry a computer game title forward with subsequent titles in the series. At the same time however, beginning with Ultima 8 marked a noticeable lack of focus with the Ultima Series. I believe this to be fundamentally about money, but also do acknowledge that starting with U8, Richard Garriott was much less involved with the series.
EA, a large organization, needed the Ultima series to be viable over a much broader audience than the niche demographic the series initially appealed to. For Richard Garriott and his fledgling Origin Systems, this niche demographic provided quite a nice living for him and his key employees. But for the goliath that is EA, this niche was ‘peanuts’ in terms of profit potential. Theoretically, I assume it is possible for people other than Richard Garriott to crank out a ‘Traditional Ultima.’ But in practice, these ‘other people’ haven’t been too successful, in terms of financial success or critical acclaim.
Parcival Wrote:
“Some other thing that are often referred to as an essential part of a true Ultima are the companions, the virtues and the fact it were single player games. These game elements are (or were at one time) very important parts indeed. But the companions and the virtues were introduced with Ultima IV and the previous ones had to do without them.”
This statement is without perspective. Not that the perspective I’m about to provide invalidates the statement, but when making such a statement – such perspective should be provided. The perspective I’m referring to is simply what Richard Garriott mentioned many times in various books about the Ultima Series – namely that Ultimas 1 through 3 were, ‘Richard learns how to make a CRPG.’ Not only that, but at the time, Richard Garriott did not know that making these games was going to become a life long career. It wasn’t until the completion of Ultima 3 that the notion of making a long term career out of making computer games began to entrench itself. And it was at about that time when he decided to create story arches that would span multiple titles in the series. Also, back in those days, the Ultima CRPGs were quite fantastic without the detailed storylines of modern Ultimas simply because something like Ultima had never been experienced in the past. The evolution of the Ultima series from Ultima 1 to Ultima 3 led to the birth of Ultima IV and the beginnings of ‘Ultima Tradition.’
Also worth mentioning is the fact that Ultima VII Part II and Ultima 8 Pagan did not emphasize the 8 Virtues. However, in step with ‘Ultima Tradition’ was a worldview philosophy. In Ultima VII Part 2 it was about Chaos and Order – this philosophy was as detailed in the gameplay as the 8 virtues were detailed in the gameplay of, ‘The Black Gate.’ In, ‘The Black Gate’ there was even a sub-philosophy explained in great detail – this was the philosophy of The Fellowship, and was the antithesis of the 8 virtues.
So, perhaps the 8 Virtues aren’t needed. But in keeping step with the Ultima Tradition, there should be some kind of ethical philosophy by which your character is measured.
Parcival Wrote:
“And even if you think UO is not real, the Ultima Legacy has shown that it is very well possible to have a 'real' Ultima that is not a single player game.”
UO was a fun game for me. I really enjoyed it. But I enjoyed it for much different reasons than say, Ultima VII. At the same time, I still view UO as borrowing the Ultima label for marketing purposes. UO was simply a huge departure from what I picture when I think, ‘Ultima.’ Checkers and Chess both start with a ‘C,’ but they are very different games – both are fun too.
Parcival Wrote:
“Well then, what makes a game a real Ultima?' you might ask. Except for the Ultima label itself, there aren't many game element or features that all Ultima games share and this makes it nearly impossible to pinpoint one particular aspect and claim it to be an essential part of the Ultima tradition.”
I disagree. I believe that Ultima VII (both parts) marked the best realization of the ‘Ultima Tradition.’ By examining the features of those games, you can formulate much of what makes the ‘Ultima Tradition’ the ‘Ultima Tradition.’
Vast Explorable World
Interactive World
Interactive Objects
Party Members
This is just a simple off the top of my head list. There are of course, many more things that could be pointed out.
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The Poster Previously Known As NeptiOfPovar |
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Mon Oct 13, 2003 10:16 pm |
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Lord_Brownie
High Emperor
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 575
Location: Unfashionable arm of the spiral galaxy |
quote:
Originally posted by Neptiofpovar
EA, a large organization, needed the Ultima series to be viable over a much broader audience than the niche demographic the series initially appealed to. For Richard Garriott and his fledgling Origin Systems, this niche demographic provided quite a nice living for him and his key employees. But for the goliath that is EA, this niche was ‘peanuts’ in terms of profit potential. Theoretically, I assume it is possible for people other than Richard Garriott to crank out a ‘Traditional Ultima.’ But in practice, these ‘other people’ haven’t been too successful, in terms of financial success or critical acclaim.
I think this is what happened to Ultima in the end, the pressure by EA to make the title into a main stream title by changing the game elements effectively killed the series. The result with U9 was a game with a buggy release and with much less scope than earlier titles.
I am just begining to play some of these title and they are realy great. I can see the tradtion building from game to game. Changes and expasion of ideas about the world. Something that can only come from a dedacated team of makers.
While Ultima tradition is largely over to me, some of its elements live on in other games. Without the personalities of Origin, the evolution of their visions and dreams, and an unifying title, Ultima tradition is gone...EA got what they wont though, a franchise powerhouse CRPG name. They may make some great games called Ultima, but they will be well away from the tradition.
LB |
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Tue Oct 14, 2003 2:08 am |
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TheMadGamer
High Emperor
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California |
quote:
Originally posted by Lord_Brownie
I am just begining to play some of these title and they are realy great. I can see the tradtion building from game to game. Changes and expasion of ideas about the world. Something that can only come from a dedacated team of makers.
I think that was the main key back in those days - that first and foremost was making a really great computer game first, and worrying about demographics and marketing second.
I'm all for businesses to make a great profit - but the emphasis on gigantically huge profits (which leads to making games to a broader and broader demographic which = watering down/dumbing down games) first, and an interesting true-to-vision computer game second, has lead to some disappointing titles for those of us in the original core demographic niche.
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The Poster Previously Known As NeptiOfPovar |
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Tue Oct 14, 2003 5:14 pm |
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