That's a really cool idea. As I am secretly (read: slowly to the point that nobody could tell that I was actually doing it) writing a game, I wonder if you wouldn't mind expanding on that idea. I probably only ever played the first Ultima game and I totally forget it :-) I'd be grateful for some insight since it's a mechanism I was hoping to incorporate. Feel free to ping me at my email address in my profile.
It's been a long time and I worry that looking back, the material might not hold up. Here is a short interview I found about some of the machinations behind the series (although it doesn't seem very subtle): https://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-ultima-s-morality-182729...
Wow! That article is gold! Thank you so much for linking it. I'm going to have to find a way to play at least Ultima IV (Edit: GOG has Ultima IV available for free. It seems to work well under wine, but you have to use the offline installer list just under the "Download" button). Some choice quotes:
- I realized that in all three Ultimas [before IV], I had created games in which the best way to min-max the game was to be un-virtuous. [...] I was not going to allow that ever again!
- I have and continue to find that headlines, and especially things that give me a sense of moral outrage happening in the world around me, are the best sources of plot ideas for the games I work on.
- Most game villains, he said, just “wait in the final level for you to come kill them,” sitting patiently on their thrones while you min-max and level up by killing NPCs. “I wanted my new villains to be worthy of your hatred!”
- Far too many perpetual conflicts in the world are sustained generation after generation due to these deeply held beliefs and grudges that prevent any real progress from being made [...] Honestly I don’t know how we are going to solve this in the real world, but I think it’s important to play out in a fictional world, so we think about it.
This is pretty much exactly what motivates me to write a game. I remember someone (probably on HN) saying that they had to kill some insects as a child before they understood what death was. You can't learn without experience, but there are some things that you don't want to learn from experience (as my ex-paratrooper friend likes to say, "like how to pack a parachute"). I really want to create a safe place for people to experiment and learn, but most games actually reward being a jerk ;-)
I also find it interesting that he singles out "outrage" as being the best way to create villains. It's one of the things we are explicitly encouraged to avoid in conversations on HN. The conflict and drama in the game comes from the justified hatred and outrage in the villains. I'm sure there is a lesson in there somewhere...
