The “Ultimate RPG” – Again?

A screenshot taken from my recent adventures in Ultima Online.

The consensus seems to be that Dr. Richard Garriott has lost his marbles.   Some call(ed) him the father of online gaming.  Some only know him for the failure of Tabula Rasa.  Some know him as Lord British, the creator of one of best (if not the ultimate) massively multiplayer online role playing games.  Despite thinking he may have been replaced by some alien (hence his reasons for wanting to go into space), I feel some loyalty to him; some inexplicable duty to respect him, to tip my hat, and to pay attention when he actually writes something that makes sense.

I read Richard Garriott’s ‘Ultimate RPG Definednovel biography article.  He basically walks the reader through the history of Ultima.  Throughout the piece are these nuggets of wisdom that read like a list of ingredients for what makes the ultimate RPG.  Some of them are out there; actually, some of them are crazy and made me chuckle.  But some of them are truisms and some are statements that I believe are not given enough thought from the industry at large.

I’ve included almost all of them below.  Read on! (more…)

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