Inspired By Your Honour, Ultima Forever Reveals New Virtue Card
The Ultima Forever Facebook page has revealed the latest virtue card, Honour.
You chose to give an honourable advice in our latest quandary. The gypsy reveals another card.
This was in response to the most recent Facebook poll:
When you meet this troubled fellow, he is asking for your advice: “Me daughter asked me somethin’ rather embarassin’. It seems her an’ that Smith boy been gettin’ frisky lately. How do I put this…she wants some lambskin sleeves for his um, well you know. ‘It aint right!’ says I, ‘yer only 16!’ What am I t’do?”
- “She’s 16 and without child? I thought this was a medieval world?” – 92 votes
- “Give her the jimmy caps or have another mouth to feed. It’s your call buddy.” – 65 votes
- “It’s time for you and her to have a nice long talk, she needs proper education.” – 193 votes
It seems they have decided to use the proper British and Canadian spelling of “honour” on their Facebook page. I can’t remember how many times I messed up in Ultima IV at the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom by not using the American spelling “honor”.
Head on over to the Ultima Forever Facebook page to join the conversation.
That’s seriously a question they put up? I’m kinda… turned off of Ultima Forever a bit. That’s the sort of mentality I’d expect in New Vegas, where immaturity ruined large portions of the game.
It is interesting that this scenario is a question of honor. The first response probably represents the virtue of Snarkiness (with its mantra being ‘meh’). The second seems a question concerning Sacrifice vs. Pragmatic Covetousness vis-à-vis blackmail. The third response seems to vaguely cover the Principle of Truth and leaves open the door to an exploration of intentions and consequences. So honor… hmmm… I’m not really seeing the connection.
What is wrong with the setup is that the Avatar-ite (since the player is following in the footsteps of the Avatar and is comparable to a disciple) is expected to make a snap judgement based upon the statement provided by the father. If the question was left at “What am I to do?” and the Avatar-ite responded with “I can talk to your daughter if you’d like.” then a whole quest chain would open up with the protagonist exploring the intentions of those involved:
1) Is the girl being pressured to have sex by the boy? (boy dishonorable)
2) Is the boy being trapped into a relationship by the girl? (girl dishonorable)
3) Is this just a couple expressing their feelings physically? (honorable)
4) Is this just a couple of kids just getting their freak on? (maybe both dishonorable towards the parent? or a none of the above?)
Sure, I am making a leap by connecting those questions to an exploration of the Honor virtue, however, it’s still a much better approach than how they are serving it up because it allows for investigation instead of snap judgments and snap opinions.
I am thinking that perhaps if they had the Avatarite answer a question with a choice of questions until the NPC arrives at a solution would be a better approach and a much more enjoyable game than this glorified internet “How ethical are you?” questionnaire.
I think this is just promotional, I don’t see how the answer reflects virtue either… unless…
Oh, I know how it connects to honor!!!
The word choice is laid out in such a way to assume the character is either a pirate, or of pirate origin. Who says ‘Me daughter’ and use such broken Britannian English.
So, as we all know, a very important mayor of Trinsic, the town of honor might I remind you. He was also a pirate, and wished to keep it a secret. Although, he tells you he’s from buc’s den…
Either way, connection made. I don’t see how the answers relate to any one virtue. They all seem like pretty apathetic answers. I mean, if someone comes up to you with a serious problem, and I’m supposed to be some sort of pillar of virtue. Is a one sentence response really a virtuous act?
I s’pose it fits the virtue of honour if you think about how “Honour” always worked in virtue questions. Honour was following the law/what your ruler says, no matter what or who it screws over. In this case, I can only assume from the question that the legal age for sex is over 16, in which case you should stop this evil thing.
Of course, considering 16 is legal in many places in the world, many religions/societies don’t say that you can’t have sex before marriage, etc, it would seem that the person who wrote the question is just incredibly narrow-minded.
Narrow minded if the writer expects us to assume that’s the law, yes, all we have is the discomfort of the parent; it’s arbitrary what the legal age of consent happens to be in Brittan or Sara Brae or wherever, but the question does not define that.
But is Honour really about legality (or Loyalty)? Is Lord Blackthorn’s regime and all Laws of Earth automatically honourable, or only if you’ve pledged yourself to them? I thought hono(u)r, as the bridge between Honesty and Valor, was about standing up for truth, no matter of legality or fealty? That’s how I’ve always seen it, but I haven’t played that many ultimas.
Hopefully these questions are to inspire discussion and not a display of the creators understanding of the Virtues. Then non poll Questions are more effective in that light; as Kindbud says, there are layers to uncover.
I’m always baffled by all these discussion about the Virtue Questions when Ultima IV actually asked you to possibly condone torture and cheating !
Remember these questions:
Thou art sworn to uphold a Lord who participates in the forbidden torture of prisoners. Each night their cries of pain reach thee. Dost thou:
– Report the deeds
– Keep thine oath and ignore the deeds
Thou hast sworn to do thy Lord’s bidding in all. He covets a piece of land and orders the owner removed. Dost thou:
– Refuse to act, thus being disgraced
– Keep thine oath and unfairly evict the landowner
No third choice back then !