Actually, the title of the article series is called “Gaming Made Me”…but this instalment, by one Adam Smith, concerns none other than Ultima 7. It’s a fantastic featurette, and a wonderfully nostalgic look at what many hold to be the crown jewel of the Ultima series.

Ultima VII was the first game I played that made me feel I was part of a world that didn’t revolve around me and I believe it remains one of the best examples of its type. It’s an RPG that starts with a murder investigation rather than a dungeon crawl and that immediately marked it out. My first goal in Britannia was to talk to people, find out what made them tick and work out just what the heck was going on. While I was doing this, those people would work, eat and sleep. They were trying to get on with their lives and I was the irritating do-gooder poking my nose into their business.

…

Arrival in Britain was like entering a metropolis for the first time. Shops, taverns, a museum, the castle, crowds of people in the streets and businesses. There was nothing else like it. Of course, I look back on it now and realise that there were about four streets, one of each type of shop and just enough people to fulfill basic functions. But that doesn’t matter because here are some of the awesome things that I did.

I visited a bakery to buy some fresh bread because I felt me and my companions had been living on stale rations too long, having slept on a bedroll for two nights in a row. It was time to treat the whole party to a bit of the high life. While we were there, I learned how to bake by watching the process carried out by an NPC.

It goes into yet more detail, so do read the whole thing. Smith alternates between praising the game for its immersiveness, detail, and mechanics, and bemoaning that many of those same mechanics have become either too diluted or too cookie-cutter in modern games. His comments about e.g. making clothes as a gift for another party member are, I think, especially apt.

(hat tip: Cranberry Aka-Gallara, by way of Norwick Dragon, on the UDIC Facebook page)