Unseen Dragon’s Interview with Richard Garriott on Serendipitous Story-Telling
In this hour-long interview with Unseen Dragon, Richard “Lord British” Garriott dives into the process of story-telling in the Ultima games. Topics include the origins of the Guardian, various story angles considered, and how the design of Ultima evolved over time. Richard reveals a number of nuggets of history while going into detail on a number of game design and story-telling aspects.
Good interview. I didn’t know about the history of the pentagram with the Knights Templar. Perhaps I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but did he say he came up with the principles of Truth, Love, and Courage this time?
I kinda dislike his notion about religion. Sure, if you’re born in a Mormon or Catholic family you’re much more likely to grow up believing in one of those religions. Same can be said if you were born in the developed world you’re more likely to believe in molecular biology. That doesn’t mean you only believe molecular biology on irrational unquestioning faith alone.
Truth, Love, and Courage came from The Wizard of Oz, didn’t they?
Garriott’s exposure to religion seems to have begun and ended in childhood, so it’s not really surprising that he has a fairly malformed (and, let it be said, immature) understanding of it. It’s a depressingly common viewpoint that he espouses, but the fact that it is a common misunderstanding doesn’t mean it isn’t still a misunderstanding.