#Ultima IV
5 messages in this thread
There's alot more to that in Ultima, though – there's giving blood, money, the
kill no/kill, not fleeing from battle, not answering questions incorrectly
(saying that you are the best in the world for instance), and more..
None of that, however, is truly a moral choice on the part of the player. Those
choices are FORCED on the player as part of the game framework.
Now if Ultima had allowed the player to CHOOSE his own path, even if that
mea HELPING the forces of evil to succeed (and had an appropriate ending to
match), THEN I would consider it a truly innovative game, because to save the
world, the player can choose his own path. Forcing a particular morality is no
better than not bothering with morality at all.
–>Steve Bennett
Hmm…well the player can choose his own path – please elaborate.
The player is given no real choice between good and evil. If he does good, he
proceeds, if not, he doesn't. There are no real alternatives to being good and
eventually saving the world, which makes it basically the same as every other
RPG in existance. I've long wanted to see an RPG where there WAS no single
ending, but various endings depending on the choices the player made. Every
RPG in existance today has one basic goal. Be good and do the right thing and
save the world (or rescue the princess or defeat the evil wizard or
whatever…). Haven't you ever once considered the idea of defecting to the
other side, to defeat the forces of good in your quest for incredible power? I
really would like to see games where the choices of the player make a
difference in the final outcome.
I take it back, somewhat… Alternate Reality, from what I can see, seems to
be allowing for part of that. At least they have guilds and rewards
specifically for those who have turned from the side of good…
–>Steve Bennett
Well you can do "bad" in Ultima and play the game, but you won't be able to
finish it. The game is trying to teach you something – I don't have a problem
with that. I don't think it's like every other RPG – it keeps track of
variables of your morality based on what you do in great detail – at least in
this kind of game. There are 8 virtues with specific things to do – and also
questions that are asked "Are thou the greatest warrior of the Realm" for
instance.
I don't know of anything with that kind of depth yet…