tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post122954688772226250..comments2024-03-28T23:14:06.156-04:00Comments on The CRPG Addict: Game 139: Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)CRPG Addicthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comBlogger200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-19900981606000138372024-03-26T01:10:00.240-04:002024-03-26T01:10:00.240-04:00"Nystul the mage (named after RPG designer an..."Nystul the mage (named after RPG designer and origin employee Mike Nystul"<br />This sent me down a bit of a rabbithole of researching the origins of things (spoilers - you're correct, but I had decent reasons to doubt and found interesting details along the way). My first thought was that this was a really weird coincidence, as there was already a famous wizard in D&D named Nystul, who I was sure first appeared well before Ultima VI was released. A little rummaging confirmed that this was the case - Nystul is one of the council of eight in Greyhawk (along with names you might recognize from Baldurs Gate spells, like Mordenkainen, Tender and Otiluke), and his name survives in D&D rules to this day in the form of the spell Nystul's Magic Aura. So it seemed to me much more likely that the Ultima devs saw a famous wizard who had been established in tabletop publications for about a decade by this point, and just ripped off the name. However, there was indeed an Origin Employee (who has gone on to Kickstart some RPG projects more recently) named Mike Nystul. Was this a coincidence?<br /><br />It took a bit more digging, but I was able to find out that the same Mike Nystul actually played in a D&D campaign with Gary Gygax in 1978, along with his brother, Bryan Nystul. It turns out his character from that campaign is the wizard on Greyhawk's Council of Eight (who are mostly or possibly all player characters originally). Oddly, the spell that bears the name Nystul appears to have been suggested to Gygax by Mike's father, Brad, who was a stage magician and thus liked the idea of a spell that could be used to disguise magic as another kind of magic.<br /><br />Tl;Dr - Mike Nystul managed to get two different famous wizards in unrelated RPG universes named after him.Snarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-18486984094970050322024-02-19T01:29:12.222-05:002024-02-19T01:29:12.222-05:00"These are simple tropes and simple reversals..."These are simple tropes and simple reversals, but no one else has played around with genre gameplay tropes like he did. And he himself hasn't shown these kinds of instincts after Ultima Online."<br /><br />No kidding. One of the youtube series I've been enjoying watching is "Worst MMO Ever" by Josh Strife Hayes. (For those that don't know, the series doesn't just look at bad MMOs, the name comes from the origins of the series, where he played a terrible mobile MMO and wanted to see if he could find a worse one, so he now plays every obscure MMO he can find).<br /><br />Anyway, Richard Garriott's most recent game was not found to be near the better half of the list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8oss_hss3ICanageekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03770924810559440307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-85786288962782952632023-09-13T06:09:26.074-04:002023-09-13T06:09:26.074-04:00@Tristan Gall - I very much agree with politics an...@Tristan Gall - I very much agree with politics and/or morals (good-and-evil) questions being sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit in art; and it feels much better when it's implicit and not preachy. Take, for example, the Narnia saga - and the Lord of the Rings. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were Christians and could not help inserting some of their views into their work. But Lord of the Rings seems much, MUCH less preachy than Narnia. Even the God him/her/it-self is never present in Tolkien's world in any form other than the form of VERY rare miracles and coincidences, and the story itself shows us why EXACTLY is mercy still worth it in the world full of evil. Compare this with "Lion Jesus", eh...Lorigulfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-31059653863596126662023-09-06T10:45:03.243-04:002023-09-06T10:45:03.243-04:00If there's one type of comment that should be ...If there's one type of comment that should be banned, it's posts talking about what we should and shouldn't comment about.Iffy Bonzooliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07519858732154180575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-42310615030433164462023-09-03T21:40:39.162-04:002023-09-03T21:40:39.162-04:00I think there are two sorts of 'politics' ...I think there are two sorts of 'politics' you get in art. There's the explicit kind, when the author is intentionally commenting about some aspect of humanity, and there's the implicit kind, when the author's norms are revealed by the work they've created. The Ultima series is replete with both explicit and implicit politics!<br /><br />Given this blog delves into art criticism, I think readers need to expect the above sorts of discussion - even when their own take is that 'it's just a game'.<br /><br />That said, I think the author bashing can go a bit too far at times.Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-9151786131260650642023-09-03T08:36:38.433-04:002023-09-03T08:36:38.433-04:00For a white male child it is pretty innocent, yeah...For a white male child it is pretty innocent, yeah, because the hero is simply a "default" gender, sex and color person. For a non-white or a non-male child those stories can STILL work, by identifying with someone vastly different, although the more one is bombarded with the prevalence of white male hero, the more this nonmale/nonwhite child might start to feel uncomfortable just being themselves, or feel some discomfort from alway identifying with white/male figure, because there is simply no other alternative. So, for a white/male child it's innocent and trouble-free, he's privileged in this way, for nonwhite/nonmale child it's still pretty innocent, but troubling and the more discomforting, the more it continues. For the authors, though... Well, if authors have never developed past some kind of child, if they still in the world of "It's all about me, I'm the default kind of person there", then it's, too, sorta "innocent", in the sense of this formally-adult child not having enough perspective and intelligence to recognize something wrong with it. It's just like with animals being always neutral in DnD - they just are not intelligent enough to make an informed choice between good and evil; so are these less-than-adults, too, no less innocent than a bear mauling a child without any thought of "good' or "evil" in their beary head...Lorigulfnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-78291028108489049642023-09-03T07:10:53.058-04:002023-09-03T07:10:53.058-04:00Pretty much all the "political" underton...Pretty much all the "political" undertones come straight from the mouth of Richard Garriot and other members of the Origin team. Gnomanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13920812227941556716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-37753520734408719872023-09-02T07:18:46.791-04:002023-09-02T07:18:46.791-04:00I really don´t think Garriott was being so politic...I really don´t think Garriott was being so political as what people now think. You have to put yourself in the context of when it was created in the year 1990. Leftist activism is strong these days, but back then it was far less and in my opinion wasn´t much in the gaming world, or where it was, it was light and subtle. White males can be heroes too. We can´t just erase a race and gender because of CRT taught at universities today, even if the latter still has some constructive contribution to make, up to a point. Ultima is JUST a game. Most of the players back then were young, they wouldn´t have understood any political axe to grind anyway. Over the years people have analyzed songs, films and tried to say they had hidden meanings or motives. I´m calling rubbish on that. Things still are produced out of innocence and pure fantasy without agenda.Bayonetnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-73238899862721550902023-09-02T06:22:31.470-04:002023-09-02T06:22:31.470-04:00I doubt that's the mindframe that Origin back ...I doubt that's the mindframe that Origin back in 1990 was operating in. At least, not deliberately. <br /><br />Garriott has always struck me as the guy that has only read 3-5 books in his life and is super proud of it, because it makes his thoughts original.<br /><br />In many Ultima 9 interviews he mentions ethical hedonism like he was the first one to come up with it.<br /><br />What Garriott had back in the 80's and 90's were great game design instincts. Games had simple tropes and his genius was to work with those tropes and occasionally reverse them.<br /><br />Ultima 4 is a reversal of classic RPG tropes of maximizing stats at whatever cost, Ultima 5 makes towns and safe places more dangerous to the player than the wilderness, Ultima 6 reverses kill the evil demons plot, while also introducing a bloodless endgame sequence. <br /><br />These are simple tropes and simple reversals, but no one else has played around with genre gameplay tropes like he did. And he himself hasn't shown these kinds of instincts after Ultima Online. Joshuahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05221709065580128004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-78278665822847138802023-09-01T17:49:55.517-04:002023-09-01T17:49:55.517-04:00A little weird to be pointing this out 9.5 years l...A little weird to be pointing this out 9.5 years later, but it seems fairly important for posterity on this original posting for the game: Like, spoilers, but the entire plot of Ultima VI relies on upending the stereotypical conceptualization of a straight white male hero coming in to save the day. People arguing about Lord British and the gang being bad authors may have not, like, played this game?Quarexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-65532631892593361372023-09-01T12:46:04.107-04:002023-09-01T12:46:04.107-04:00Every year or so I finally pick back up reading ev...Every year or so I finally pick back up reading every entry of yours, and at this rate I will catch up to you about the same time you catch up to the present with CRPGs. Regardless, I always enjoy my time reading, and I am thrilled to see you called this one of the best interfaces ever designed for a CRPG, because I have argued this point dozens of times over the years with people who inexplicably dislike it, and especially those who prefer Ultima VII's. Look, Ultima VII may have a better paperdoll system, but everything else about VI is superior in my estimation. Including the game itself, which is a little more controversial, but Ultima VII is basically "your party members all run off-screen and victory music plays: the game" whereas Ultima VI's turn-based simple yet tactical combat was probably not topped for a decade or more (Baldur's Gate ]I[ probably having taken notes from it, given Sven Vincke's frequent mentions of Ultima VII being the perfect game he was always trying to recreate and surely loving VI as well)Quarexnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-68313698909145456892023-02-01T13:57:39.875-05:002023-02-01T13:57:39.875-05:00very much looking forward to this series of posts/...very much looking forward to this series of posts/this game.<br /><br />as i've said: i was never really strictly into rpg's in the 80's and 90's, but this is a game i remember a little, because some friends got it and they booted it up and started playing it basically immediately without reading the manual, thinking it was going to be like u5.<br /><br />which is to say that no one read the manual [but me] and no one understood the interface [initially], but me. sooooo there was a weird gap there for about fifteen/twenty minutes where - though i'd never played the game - i sort of had to explain how it worked.<br /><br />it was an odd experience.<br /><br />[i tend to read manuals before i play games and then re-read the manual as i play a little to pick up nuances that i initially missed, because at the point where you're reading the manual cold, like that, sometimes, it's just words on a page and doesn't exactly make sense without seeing the in-game interface. [this is especially true in VERY old games that didn't even have screenshots.]]lostwolfehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11697299839262994456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-16795962557319559202021-06-08T14:48:53.387-04:002021-06-08T14:48:53.387-04:00According to the manual for VIII, the final trilog...According to the manual for VIII, the final trilogy is the Age of Apocalypse. And Ultima Online established, in its infamous beta test, that after VI Britannia split into multiple timelines called "shards." VII-IX are canon, in... two shards. <br /><br />Shard IX is not Shard VII/SI/VIII. The Avatar of VII/SI/VIII became a Titan of Ether, and presumably found that more important than saving Britannia from Red Thanos.<br /><br />Among the Ultima Dragons, there were three theories of IX: in descending order of popularity, they were the EA theory, the Origin theory, and the sabotage theory. To briefly summarize them: "EA killed Ultima;" "Origin was run so poorly IX was doomed from the start;" "Garriott sabotaged IX to damage EA." I'm an adherent of the sabotage theory.Lhexahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964132955838014919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-47442547088688755672021-06-08T14:04:36.383-04:002021-06-08T14:04:36.383-04:00Are the person before me said, gargoyles had previ...Are the person before me said, gargoyles had previously appeared in U3 as enemies distinct from daemons. U6 simply expanded on them, as they hadn't been given much lore previously.cyan-birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09877642186239966068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-14972908630405213342021-01-19T18:11:20.622-05:002021-01-19T18:11:20.622-05:00I played this so much in 91 that I knew (and still...I played this so much in 91 that I knew (and still know) the answer to LBs copy protections off by heart! Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02276908622984433604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-4289226959006385252020-03-25T19:25:49.252-04:002020-03-25T19:25:49.252-04:00Funny no one mentioned the score to the intro. It&...Funny no one mentioned the score to the intro. It's a really good composition, especially on piano - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIh_Ku7upO4<br /><br />Though I recognised it from all the OCREMIX tunes I used to listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f02DMhgtfaITristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-77284456676161436522018-05-13T08:16:37.168-04:002018-05-13T08:16:37.168-04:00No one remebers a talking seahorse and ankh from U...No one remebers a talking seahorse and ankh from Ultima 4? *sad*Kokshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03378976510544574341noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-24787097317585060832016-01-08T09:33:26.559-05:002016-01-08T09:33:26.559-05:00Early 3D games age pretty poorly because they sit ...Early 3D games age pretty poorly because they sit squarely in uncanny valley. I think once you hit the latter half of the 2000s you're getting enough polygons and high-res textures that the games will still look fine in 10 or 20 years.Tristan Gallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16769219573533545742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-55524428550741313262016-01-08T05:55:56.324-05:002016-01-08T05:55:56.324-05:00The Problem I have with remakes of old 2D pixel ga...The Problem I have with remakes of old 2D pixel games in a 3D engine is that, at least for me, 3D graphics get old and ugly pretty fast. While I can still enjoy the graphics of old 2D rpg today Dungeon Siege is a perfect example for the latter.fireballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01094871771537115267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-24986976921605550152015-07-16T12:28:53.916-04:002015-07-16T12:28:53.916-04:00I think something worth acknowledging is that Ulti...I think something worth acknowledging is that Ultima has always been very meta. Even going back to Ultima 1 having tie fighters, it's always been about breaking the rules, rather than adhering to them (even when they were rules Garriott invented in the first place!) I used to be annoyed by the inconsistencies as well, but on some level, I don't believe creating a coherent world was always the objective. Although the slogan is "We create worlds," I don't think it really means creating a mythology, so much as creating a world from a game design perspective, or a sandbox. I think Britannia's mythology is very much tied up with the fact that it is a video game, and there is a great deal of self-awareness in the game itself, so many of the choices made with the story are more reflective of ideas on how video games work, and less of how a fictional mythology might work. It breaks the immersion, sure, but it makes you think a little deeper on how video games function, which I think is a legitimate trade.Joet88https://www.blogger.com/profile/06298640825880372478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-89522408142994044662015-05-06T21:47:58.352-04:002015-05-06T21:47:58.352-04:00Then people here will be happy to learn, for more ...Then people here will be happy to learn, for more than a decade now almost, there is a fully online version of Ultima VI.<br />Other than a few tweaks for online balance and play ( much slower leveling, much better loot, the Orb of the Moons is the reward for completing the main quest), it is a full faithful port of Ultima VI.<br />the somewhat hard to read links on the left have the down load client, and the forums have the current IP, under the Server Status thread.<br /><br />link here:<br />http://ultimasixonline.thezogcabal.com/<br /><br />Enjoy ! hope to see you soon ( Kaisenne Goethal or Crimson Shirt )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-6631251306627814262014-04-07T15:12:05.973-04:002014-04-07T15:12:05.973-04:00Ultima 3 had Daemons and Gargoyles (and apparently...Ultima 3 had Daemons and Gargoyles (and apparently Manes) which were just recycling the same monster icon (like Balrons, Orcus and Devils, or Skeletons, Ghouls and Zombies). All (land) monsters in U3 existed in trios of slightly increasing strength.<br />I agree that there were several retcons and they just feel arbitrary.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13675280004907099195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-91272946721058231552014-04-07T14:35:45.446-04:002014-04-07T14:35:45.446-04:00Ditching Sherry? No way. Having a tiny mouse killi...Ditching Sherry? No way. Having a tiny mouse killing gargoyles with a boomerang is comedy gold (she probably can't ever wield bigger weapons unless you focus all the level ups on Str).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13675280004907099195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-35322930287768716802014-03-30T16:30:58.074-04:002014-03-30T16:30:58.074-04:00I'm not sure what you want me to explain. I ha...I'm not sure what you want me to explain. I haven't investigated <i>Ultima Forever</i>, so I don't know what it's like. CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6162314467762792782.post-68804687564031279392014-03-30T16:30:04.555-04:002014-03-30T16:30:04.555-04:00It brings up a cheat menu that lets you edit your ...It brings up a cheat menu that lets you edit your characters, edit the party's status, or acquire any item in the game.CRPG Addicthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01238237377918550322noreply@blogger.com