Richard Garriott: "Kids today!"
Ultima creator and private astronaut Richard Garriott has issued a short response, on Twitter, to this bit of admittedly sorry news.
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Kids today, indeed.
And a follow-up comment:
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Ultima 4 is foundational. It is just no longer the definition of an RPG.
I think most of my own thoughts on Professor Abbott, Ultima 4, changes in game design over the years, and the intransigent and unwilling class have already been articulated, so these tweets are presented as-is and without further comment.
But please, good Dragons and Dragonettes; have at it below, if you like.
My current worldview is already about as dim as could get short of sacrificing virgins in an effort to summon daemons to destroy all humanity, so the news really comes as no surprise. Especially considering that the vast majority of modern games are essentially button mashing induced eye-candy delivery systems that give players a false sense of accomplishment, wrapped in ever more disturbing excuses for a story. Obvious exceptions include rare games like the Gran Turismo series and the recent Civilization incarnation.
I’m am surprised that Garriott responded at all, which I’d have to guess meant he was actually a bit saddened/angered by the news. In the end it’s good that he saw it, because since he’s trying to stay relevant by creating new games he really needs to know the kind of fools that constitute a consumer base he’s going to be dealing with.
Fortunately games that don’t target the casual or sensory-overload crowd can still be extremely popular these days.
Well, Ultima 4 has always been near and dear to Garriott’s heart; that’s why he insisted on its free release some years back (after it had exhausted its sales potential, natch).
I take your point about modern games, even if I don’t quite think it’s that bad yet. Or rather, that it isn’t that bad in a still-significant number of cases; there is a lot of dreck out there, but there’s a lot of good stuff too…some of which is more in the button-mashing category than in the epic adventure category. Well-made games can still be found.
Of course, these days it’s a bit more difficult to quantify, given the vast number of platforms that one can play games on. What I’d consider a great game on my iPhone might seem less than stellar on my laptop or desktop PC, right? But then, I’d be looking for different things in those cases; the iPhone game has to keep me entertained for (at most) the 20-minute train ride to work; the PC game will need to be worth an hour or two of my time, at minimum.