Ultima II, Dwarf Fortress and Nostalgia - A Cruel Mistress
adamantyr wrote:
IThe one thing really lacking, though, in the earlier titles is the sense of mystique and the unknown. When I read an early review of Ultima 2, it sounded like a living world you were stepping into. I remember someone telling me that the first town you visited had some kind of festival going on... I'm not sure how he got that impression, since there's no such thing in the game's dialogue, but clearly imagination lent a large part of the verisimilitude to the games. If you don't have that, then it's just another game, really, with finite boundaries. The ONLY game I know of that has actually come close to a living world is Dwarf Fortress...
Dwarf Fortress has intrigued me, but I haven't tried it as of yet...
As for Ultima II, I had a somewhat similar experience. My friend Brian had an Apple IIe back around the time I had just gotten my C-64. My other friend had an Atari 8-bit. Anyway, when we were at my friend Brian's house, the Apple IIe, which was in the living room and featured a green screen monitor, was being played by his brother. What did he have on it? Ultima II. It seemed magical at the time, especially since this was before I played my first CRPG, Phantasie (again on my C-64 and again an unforgettable experience). When Brian described the game to me, he was talking about traveling to various planets and all the other features of the game.
Still not having gotten around to playing it to this day, though very much wanting to, it was with great disappointment that my modern understanding of the game - based on countless Web reviews and opinions - is that the game is actually not that great and even Garriott kind of dogged it due to conflicts with Sierra (which in turn tried to screw him with "Escape from Mt. Drash"), even though superficially it sounds huge in scope. Certainly that magical memory and the game's description can NEVER live up to the actual experience of the game, particularly today, when I'm jaded by my experiences with dozens of videogame RPGs since.
Regardless, I think it's important though as a videogame historian for continuing to expand my first-hand understanding of videogame history to be sure to play as much of the series as possible at some point, which was the intent of that earlier posting I referenced. But yeah, a LOT of older games are colored by nostalgia, which is often a false or elusive memory (Penn & Teller's did a recent episode of Bullshit! on that very subject). This happens with all genres of games, but particularly videogame RPGs, as there is a LOT of story to fill in or remember more vividly than it actually happened.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
*************************** Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.
IThe one thing really lacking, though, in the earlier titles is the sense of mystique and the unknown. When I read an early review of Ultima 2, it sounded like a living world you were stepping into. I remember someone telling me that the first town you visited had some kind of festival going on... I'm not sure how he got that impression, since there's no such thing in the game's dialogue, but clearly imagination lent a large part of the verisimilitude to the games. If you don't have that, then it's just another game, really, with finite boundaries. The ONLY game I know of that has actually come close to a living world is Dwarf Fortress...
Dwarf Fortress has intrigued me, but I haven't tried it as of yet...
As for Ultima II, I had a somewhat similar experience. My friend Brian had an Apple IIe back around the time I had just gotten my C-64. My other friend had an Atari 8-bit. Anyway, when we were at my friend Brian's house, the Apple IIe, which was in the living room and featured a green screen monitor, was being played by his brother. What did he have on it? Ultima II. It seemed magical at the time, especially since this was before I played my first CRPG, Phantasie (again on my C-64 and again an unforgettable experience). When Brian described the game to me, he was talking about traveling to various planets and all the other features of the game.
Still not having gotten around to playing it to this day, though very much wanting to, it was with great disappointment that my modern understanding of the game - based on countless Web reviews and opinions - is that the game is actually not that great and even Garriott kind of dogged it due to conflicts with Sierra (which in turn tried to screw him with "Escape from Mt. Drash"), even though superficially it sounds huge in scope. Certainly that magical memory and the game's description can NEVER live up to the actual experience of the game, particularly today, when I'm jaded by my experiences with dozens of videogame RPGs since.
Regardless, I think it's important though as a videogame historian for continuing to expand my first-hand understanding of videogame history to be sure to play as much of the series as possible at some point, which was the intent of that earlier posting I referenced. But yeah, a LOT of older games are colored by nostalgia, which is often a false or elusive memory (Penn & Teller's did a recent episode of Bullshit! on that very subject). This happens with all genres of games, but particularly videogame RPGs, as there is a LOT of story to fill in or remember more vividly than it actually happened.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
***************************
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.