The former Ultima developer is evidently a bit down on the approach many big-name game developers are taking these days:

…one of his main problems with games’ stories is their tendency to be dude-centric — he warned the Gamescom crowd “if we don’t break out of big buff guys with swords and guys in tights and space marines in armor, we’re going to get marginalized in the way comics have been in the United States.” He also warned about attempting to ape blockbuster films by filling games with obscenely expensive visuals, as “we still fall far, far short of what people expect from a movie.”

Ultimately, the only form of storytelling Spector thinks games should attempt to emulate is oral conversation, as the person interacting with the game is equally responsible for shaping its story. “Player experience comes first,” Spector explained, “we have to allow them to show their creativity. No other medium has allowed them to do this. We are unique in the history of humankind. Every player becomes an author when they play a game.”

I, for one, don’t necessarily agree…or, rather, I take somewhat more of a both/and stance rather than an either/or stance on the issue. I’m in total agreement in regard to the importance of good, interactive conversation in a game — an Ultima hallmark, to be sure.

At the same time, I don’t see what’s so bad about some of the conventions* (the epic hero, space marines, whatever) that Spector seems down on. Yes, they are conventions, and yes, Spector has a reputation for attempting to defy convention…but the beauty of many conventions is that they resonate with people. We crave the stories of the epic hero, because we find meaning in them, and we connect with them. Not because space marines or epic heroes actually exist, but because they represent ideals of form and philosophy toward which our minds and imaginations are naturally, as if by design, drawn. (If you haven’t read John C. Wright‘s various essays on this topic, you’ve been missing out.)

Nor do I see what’s so bad about developers who have the solid foundation of a compelling, conversation-driven story adding in the cinematics and other visuals. Granted, if all a game has to offer are good visuals, there’s a problem there, sure, and I’ll grant Spector his point in that regard. But the visuals/plot dichotomy is not an absolute, and there are lots of great games out there that offer both. Granted, the visuals don’t quite aspire to the quality of Hollywood movies…but is that such a bad thing? I can’t be the only one who’s noticed that the overall quality of Hollywood’s productions has been in steep decline over the last decade**, whereas the quality of games has been on the rise, overall, over the same period of time. These days, I’d much rather play a game like Mass Effect than watch the latest piece of sci-fi drivel to appear on the big screen, or the television.

And what about games like Starcraft — a great game, by any metric — which use visuals and cinematics to great effect in order to drive the plot of the game forward? Starcraft‘s mechanics really don’t allow for a lot of conversation in the first place, yet the game is both fun to play and tells a good story (again, thanks to its expensive, but well-made, visuals).

As to the “still making cartoons” bit…this is the man who is helming Epic Mickey. As in this Mickey. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course — Epic Mickey is actually a very interesting concept. However…

* To be fair, some conventions (heroines with DD cups and combat uniforms that fail to rise even to the level of undergarments) could probably be done away with.

** Much the same can be said for the quality of Marvel and DC comics, and then over the same time frame, and then precisely because they abandoned the conventions that really resonated with their fanbase in some misguided effort to become more gritty, edgy, and politically relevant. Captain America getting bagged by that sniper was Stan Lee‘s shark-jumping moment, if ever he had one.

The former Ultima developer and Epic Mickey mastermind is, apparently, very interested in doing something with the Duck Tales franchise next:

In a new interview with Industry Gamers, he now says that, “A day does not go by where I don’t tell somebody at Disney: ‘Uncle Scrooge, come on! Donald! Huey, Dewey, and Louie! Come on, let me do a duck game!’ So yeah, I would love to do a duck game.”

Of course, being the animation geek that he is, Spector prefers the Carl Barks version of Uncle Scrooge and the nephews, so we probably won’t get any Fenton Crackshell cameos (even though that would be awesome). If Epic Mickey does take off, you never know what franchise Disney may let Spector put his own spin on next.

It would seem that if he is able to have his way — which is, I suppose, to say “if Epic Mickey doesn’t bomb” — Warren Spector will be sticking with Disney for a goodly while, and bringing his unique brand of warped awesomeness to whatever other franchises Disney is willing to hand over to his care.

Personally, I think a Darkwing Duck game headed by Spector might be interesting. Or something set in the darker Gargoyles universe.

This is just a Photoshop job, not a real screenshot. Sadly.

I was told the most interesting thing today.

As the good reader is probably aware, a port of Akalabeth was recently released on the iPhone (or, more correctly, iOS) platform, Apple‘s mobile device operating system. The good reader is also probably aware that I’ve had some contact with Mythic Entertainment. Mythic, as most hopefully know, basically holds the rights to the Ultima name at present, and produced the most recent expansion to Ultima Online.

Well, it turns out that Mythic would be very interested in any effort made to port Ultima 4 to the iOS platform, so much so that they would work to get any functional, well-implemented port published on the Apple App Store under the EA Mobile label.

So…if anyone out there has some experience with development on the iPhone platform, and if such a person would be interested in creating a port of the original game, which offered context-dependent controls not unlike how the Akalabeth port does: here’s your big chance. Not only to remake an Ultima title (and a darn fine one, at that), but to get it officially approved and published.

As Aragorn, son of Arathorn, asked: What say you?

I added the project entry, but forgot to mention that Sergorn Dragon’s Ultima project (which I am also working on), Return to the Serpent Isle, just posted its July update, the biggest news in which is that the team has recruited a professional composer to craft its score.

I’ve heard some of his work; it’s incredible.

As well, a new version of the project’s spell system modification for Neverwinter Nights 2 has been uploaded to the Neverwinter Vault. They have also overhauled the NWN2 GUI, developed a custom injury system which is partly inspired by Dragon Age, and published a currency system and a death and resurrection system.

In other words, it has been a busy month for the team; we’ve made excellent progress.

The Titans of Ether have updated the media section of their website with two exciting new additions. The first, which graces this article (in a condensed form) as a preview image, is the latest version of their world map. The second is a fan-created version of that classic Ultima tune, Stones.

(hat tip)

I was just reading about the new Going Rogue expansion for City of Heroes, the principal new feature of which is that “[f]or the first time in the game, heroes and villains will be able to switch sides with an interesting set of morality quests.”

Morality — and its consequences on the game world — have been a growing trend in games for a number of years, and one can in particular point to any number of BioWare games to illustrate the example. Knights of the Old Republic featured a fairly simple derivation of the “karma” system common to earlier games (various Ultima titles included, to a degree). Games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect boasted more complex morality systems that moved beyond the somewhat Pelagian basis of the karma counter, tracking good and evil on separate scales rather than allowing past evils to be undone or smoothed over by later good deeds.

Indeed, in many such games and game series, the moral choices made in one game are — or can be — carried over to the next entry in the series, reshaping the game world and playthrough experience in ways both small and large. (And yes, I’m totally stoked to see what Mass Effect 3 does with this notion. In fact, I’m saving up my “True Renegade”, “kill all potential ally species” playthrough for its release.)

Now, no Ultima title that I can think of ever really implemented a formal morality system, in the sense of something that the player could track (certainly, nothing so apparent in-game as e.g. Mass Effect’s Paragon and Renegade score bars). At the same time, a rudimentary morality system was in place in many of the Ultima titles. Stealing when a shopkeeper was present brought the guards down on your head; attacking someone in the presence of witnesses could mean a similar guard-delivered beat-down. Some Ultimas also presented you with situations to challenge your Virtue. Supposedly, there was actually a more evolved karma system than this in some of the Ultima titles, but I never really noticed it…even when I tried to play through the game in the most asshole-like manner possible.

Indeed, about the worst that would happen is that the people I stole from or pushed around would stop speaking to me…for about a day, maybe two. After that…why, yes, they would gladly sell me that two-handed sword.

Now why, you might ask, am I musing about this at all. Probably, you’d rather I get off my fat butt (okay, it’s not that fat) and get those downloads restored. And yeah, I probably should do that as well. However, I’ve twice now been asked by a certain Mr. Paul Barnett, who has been “looking to collect thoughts and views that fans have about Ultima.”

So in the absence of my ability to contact him in return, I’ve decided to launch something of a new feature here at the site: I’d like to collect everyone’s feedback about aspects of the Ultima games. And this is the basic format that such outings will follow: I’ll open up with some musing about something or other, and then invite comments.

Leave your thoughts and tell your friends!

From Gameinformer:

An Austin, Texas, court has awarded Ultima creator Richard Garriott $28 million over what it determined was his forced departure from NCSoft in 2008.

At the time of his departure, a letter was posted on the Tabula Rasa website saying he was leaving the company due to his interest in spaceflight (Garriott spent 12 days in space as a space tourist). In his legal complaint letter, Garriott said that although he approved the letter, in hindsight (after conversations with NCsoft’s head of North American studios, Chris Chung) he felt the letter was actually a set-up to try and prove that Garriott left of his own free will. Garriott says he never wanted to leave the company, and that he was forced out. This distinction is important, because Garriott’s assertion was that he lost $28 million in stock options simply because NCsoft claimed he left voluntarily versus being fired.

This story is lighting up the Twitterverse this morning, and I doubt it’s the last we’ll hear on the matter; NCsoft’s lawyers are already said to be working on their “next move” in what I’m sure will turn into a lengthy legal battle.

For myself, I just hope Garriott puts some of his winnings toward the Portalarium project and the development of a new title. He’s been talking about his ideas in this regard for some time, and it’d be nice to see them come to fruition.

Forum user Saxon1974 alerted me to the existence of the two MP3s linked from this forum thread, which feature an interview that Ultima creator Richard Garriott gave during the production of my personal favourite entry in the series, Ultima 6.

It’s not really the sort of thing that would merit a standalone entry here at Aiera, but I’ve uploaded the mp3s to the site and present them here for your listening pleasure, good reader.

Part 1:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Part 2:

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I was just tipped off to the existence of this remake thanks to an email from Zen. It’s a complete port of Akalabeth to the iPhone.

This is evidently a licensed effort, as the app retails for $1.99 USD. As such, I won’t be hosting the download directly; you will find a link to the Apple App Store in the project entry instead.

As if running the best French-language Ultima site and managing the ambitious Return to the Serpent Isle project wasn’t enough, Sergorn Dragon has taken it upon himself to take a cue from Ophidian Dragon and blog his way from Akalabeth through to Ultima 9…with detours through the Worlds of Ultima series and both Underworld games.

Quoth Sergorn:

I will be following a similar pattern for each game: a first post presenting the game, my relationship with it, and when it applies the version chosen for this playthrough. Afterward I’ll post blog posts and possibly some screenshots of my adventuring for how long it will take (which could take a while, or not so much considering I can end up devoting a crazy amount of time to such things when I put myself to it) with some final impressions once the game is finished.

He might even delve into some of the various ported versions of the Ultima titles, though at this time he has no fixed plans in that regard.

So…do be sure to check back with him from time to time!

I’ve just added a project entry for a very promising-looking Ultima 7 remake using the Neverwinter Nights 2 engine. As yet, the team has only released screenshots of their work, and in truth they may never release more than that since the remake was part of a game design course offered at a college in Singapore.

Still, in the hope that they’ll push something out the door in the next little while, I’ve added Team Exalted Crown’s offering to Aiera; check thou it out!

(hat tip)

That’s right…it’s been nearly a decade in the making, and it comes out today!

On this, the 20th anniversary year of the release of Origin Systems Ultima 6, it is with much pleasure that we announce the 1.0 release of Team Archon‘s Ultima 6 Project, for Dungeon Siege 1 (PC and Mac). Players will find a huge and exciting world waiting to be discovered:

• Travel throughout the lands of Britannia, exploring dark forests with bandits lying in wait, deserts and swamps teeming with monsters, and peaceful towns and villages filled with shops, old friends, and interesting people just waiting to give the player numerous and exciting quests to solve.
• Explore deep and dangerous caves and caverns full of treasure and hidden surprises. Bring your breadcrumbs to mark your trail, or be prepared to be thoroughly and completely lost, with your remains left to be found by future explorers.
• Sail the savage seas to explore remote islands, but be vigilant for there are sea monsters lying in wait for the careless traveler.
• Discover a hidden new world, far from Britannia.
• Encounter strange and exotic races, including the mysterious Gargoyles.
• Fight fearsome monsters, find pirate loot, solve a murder, and discover the truth behind the numerous attacks on Britannia’s towns.
• Learn the commerce of the land for fun and profit.
• Learn magical spells, search for magic reagents, and join guilds to gain special benefits.
• Those players with proclivities to the dark side can follow an “evil path”.
• And, last, but not least, ferret out the hidden Easter eggs.

Click on through to continue reading the press release. If you just can’t wait and have to start downloading the project package, click here for the project entry at Aiera, or visit the project website for additional download links.

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