Richard Garriott inglese

Richard Garriott, also known as Lord British, is without any doubts the father of Computer RPG's. The great Ultima series (until Ultima VII, at least), and the "crazy" but very successful idea of Ultima Online, made a legend of him. However, he has also been subject of many critics: every RPG's fan remembers all the initial problems of Ultima Online (that involved tribunals, too), a not-so-good Ultima VIII: Pagan and an Ultima: Ascension that is everything except the deserving end of the incredible Ultima's saga.

Anyhow, he is surely the most important person in the Computer RPG's scene, and our cover story about RPG's absolutely can't leave him out of consideration. So, one evening, a small group of Nextgame.it's reviewers had the honour to directly talk with him, and you can read the results of that chat after this small introduction. And these results went well beyond our imagination: if you read the interview until the end, you'll surely find why!

Nextgame.it: Hi Richard! Thank you very much for coming!

Lord British: Thank you, for inviting me.

Nextgame.it: so, let's start with the first question that is obviously on Ultima Ascension. Many people said that Ultima Ascension could be better with a 2D graphics and a bigger attention for the interaction and the story. The development of a new 3D engine stole too much energies from your group? And why you didn't buy the license of an existing 3D engine?

Lord British: Most 3D engines are designed for specific types of games. Most available engines work best for "level" based games. These games load all the map and textures for a level and thus are very fast, but limited to one area at a time. Ultima's are about wandering in an open world without boundaries. Beyond this our desire to have day/night/stars/weather and many other unique features drove us to build our own engine.

Nextgame.it: Still on Ultima: Ascension Ultima Ascension has been criticized by many users: the complexity that characterized previous title has been sacrificed for graphics and visual impact. The plot of previous Ultimas is still unmatched, as the interaction with the NPC and the complexity of dialogues, which all the players considered inadequate in Ultima: Ascension. Ascension is more "arcade-adventure" than "RPG"... Now, dispassionately (and without considering the success from the point of vinew of sells, that is also connected with the great past times of Ultima), do you still think that this is the worthy end of this extraordinary saga? Are you still sure that you took the right choice?

Lord British: After every game, I ponder what things we did right and what things we might have changed. I am very confident that most of the decisions we made this time are the ones we would still make again. The only things I might change were things like, certain improvements we might have liked to areas such as NPC and monster AI, Performance of the US version on certain 3D boards, bugs in the US version, etc. Over all, I am still very pleased with the move to 3D and other basic design aspects.

Nextgame.it: And, still about this topic, what do you think about the words that Bill Randolph said on the Ultima Ascension's official forum?

Lord British: Bill Randolph has said many things, to which do you refer?

Nextgame.it: The words he said about Ultima: Ascension being EA'a game and not your game. Do you remember them?

Lord British: Hmmm... I'm not familiar with that comment.

Nextgame.it: They generated many discussions... You'd like to change only the AI of the Npc or completely their role in the game? Someone thinks about how in ultima7 they acted like real people. In Ascension they seem not so integrated with the world.

Lord British: Correct... We had great difficulty getting monster AI to work well and appear smart, we had similar difficulties with NPC's. I think all of us wish we had found a better, smarter, more reliable solution. Perhaps Next game, as we always say.

Nextgame.it: Origin is going to develop only on-line games starting from now. Do you think that the programmer should lose the function of narrator and leave the creation of a story directly to the players? People don't like stories anymore?

Lord British: Not at all! I feel that providing people stories to become part of is still very important. It is just difficult in an online setting. I feel the best games will do both... Both allow players to adventure together, yet also let them accomplish the solution to a great provided story. It will be a few years before we see this done well in games.

Nextgame.it: Ultima: Ascension was the end of a saga, if we don't count Ultima Online 2. We know thank you are planning a new world, and that it's still a secret. However, we'll try the same: could you tell us something about it?

Yes, I am planning a new world. However, my small core team may do a small web based game as a break first. We may not start on the new world for a few months. When we do, the new world, so far, is really a ground up new concept. It still will feel very much like an Ultima to me, in the sense of a living, breathing seamless world. A world with a complex story involving social issues... The setting I am most fond of right now is a near future, one most similar to Blade Runner, Dark City, 5th Element etc. GA

Nextgame.it: Fallout?

Lord British: Close... Not quite as baren/ ruined.

Nextgame.it: Ultima On Line is a great game, the only one since Ultima VII that gives to the players the sensation to live in a real world. In Ultima Online 2 do you want to innovate more the graphics and the interface, or the concept of the game?

Lord British: Hmmm.... Ultima Online 2 is a very different game from Ultima Online. First we are trying to make the players actions and their person to person interactions much more robust. So your Avatar is much more sophisticated. Combat as well is much more compelling. The world is a much better 3D than even Ultima: Ascension. Of course we will still have all the skills and world detail as Ultima Online but with new structures and interface. The setting as well is quite new, more of a blend of medieval and future, like some of the earliest Ultima's. We are also trying to improve the story telling aspects, yet I feel this game is still early on the evolution of Multi-Player story telling.

Nextgame.it: If Ultima Online 2 will represent the future of online RPG for Origin, in what the new game with the new world will be superior?

Lord British: Ah, well whereas Ultima Online 2 is still a classical Ultima game in structure, the new game, I code named "X", is very different. It is centered around party based adventures rather than purely from a large seamless map, but it does have also a large seamless map. Also, I intend to let players add content to the game as well and make real money for their contributions. The game play style will not be based so much on advancement either...

Nextgame.it: Exciting... so people may work playing ?

Lord British: I feel games like most every MMP world today reward players who spend all day/night over beginners and casual players too much. So, I want the rewards of long play to not be superiority as much as economic for their contribution. Hard to describe well without giving it away, but I have great faith in the idea.

Nextgame.it: In Ultima Online one of the biggest problem is that much people don't play that game thinking about a "role experience" but more about an action game. How you'd like to change it in Ultima Online 2? Just with the story or with some particular rule?

Lord British: Interesting problem... In any large community of people, you will have multiple goals of players. We will do our best to understand these differences and make them work together or at least live separately. I favor true role - playing over action combat games. I feel this is what people play over long periods of months for. However, we still must have a fun, compelling, slick combat system even for role playing, I believe.

Nextgame.it: Ok, so everyone should be free to play how he wants. Now a particular question. Ultima Online teach that living in a really free land, with few laws and a lot of freedom is difficult. You think that a direct democracy via internet should create the same problems in the real world?

Lord British: Interesting!... I believe the internet and especially the anonimity it provides people, has been a social negative. In fact in the new game "X" I intend to give people 1 and only 1 character at a time, thus they will not want their 1 real identity to get a bad wrap. No running off and switching to another character. I feel the internet at large has this same social misconduct issue. Technology will ultimately catch up however, and I feel in the long run it will be a positive force.

Nextgame.it: X will be a sort of real life, a "alternative real life" in which you can work... So, will it be something more than a simple massively multiplayer world?

Lord British: X is more than just an alternative reality... X is also a true story telling game. X has both a MMP world like Ultima Online and has "missions" you accomplish with your parties.

Nextgame.it: Did you ever think that a new player could get annoyed of the game after few hours if he has to start in the "newbie dungeon"?

Lord British: Yes, I believe you need to provide people the ability to pass on newbie tutorials when they are ready.

Nextgame.it: Talking of missions and subquests... Aren't the sub-quests becoming too many? Aren't the games becoming too long? The quests are often introduced only to allow the characters to become stronger: if the "growing skills" of the character would be removed, unuseful quests could also be removed and the game could be focused around its main plot. So they would be shorter and less dispersive. They could also cost less, if they would be shorter...

Lord British: Interesting point... Most games have a minimum cost to develop which is pretty high, for which you must charge a minimum price, for which people expect a value of time of entertainment. After the base cost it is small extra to add more content relatively, which feeds the issue you describe. We have considered doing "episodic" entertainment, such that 1 engine runs a series of smaller games at less cost. However, people are usually less excited by game 2, as the technology is unchanged. We are still in a technology driven market. I feel we will be as long as computers keep advancing so fast. So, I suspect this problem will stay for a while.

Nextgame.it: A step back: the problem of "newbie dungeon" is that is not realistic that the first thing an Avatar must do is to go in a dungeon to kick monster... what do you think about it?

Lord British: In tutorials, we often sacrifice "reality" for teaching all the basic aspects of a game, thus after the initial experiences, one is well prepared for anything that comes later.

Nextgame.it: You have always been known as "Lord British"... But how much of Richard Garriott is in Lord British? Before answering, remember that in Ultima Ascension Lord British is a fairly "flat" figure (and he is very old, too), while in the jails of Britannia there is a character that is very similar to you, who is apparently mad, that shout to be Lord British...

Lord British: HA! The person in the prison in LB's castle, was of course the "real" me. It sort of has my face and in English and Japanese it even has my real voice (It was hard to do my lines in Japanese, as I don't speak it!). Also over time, The persona's of LB and Richard Garriott have become very intertwined. I like to put aspects of myself into the game really though the Richard Garriott influence is in the world feel and the virtues etc. not so much the personality of the LB character in the game... I hope..

Nextgame.it: Are you aware of all the unofficial free servers of Ultima Online all around the world? I tried one once and it's good but after all really distant from the great experience of the OSI servers. Do you think it's just a good advertisement for the official servers or a damage for your income?

Lord British: In general we are excited to see all the activity around Ultima Online. Even these servers. I am not worried about lost revenue, but we do worry about damage to the real Ultima Online code etc... In general, this should not be a worry, so we are mostly just honored that people weel they can/should do this.

Nextgame.it: So why Uo is not free?

Lord British: Ultima Online is not free, because it costs us millions of dollars a year to operate!

Nextgame.it: What's the new feature you're more proud of in Ultima Online 2?

Lord British: Lets see, in Ultima Online 2.... In Uo2, likely my favorite feature will be your Avatar and its interaction with other Avatar's. We have motion captured most all the activities, including... Avatar to Avatar contact.

Nextgame.it: Sex?

Lord British: Perhaps.

Nextgame.it: Meantime we prepare something more about Ultima Online 2 and X let see this... Last Friday Bill Gates announced the X-Box: from your point of view, do you think it's only another powerful console or it's something more? Will Origin develop for X-Box? What do you think about PS2, instead?

Lord British: Hmmm... EA is devoted to the PSX as a base line. It is still early for me to read response to the X-Box. I suspect Microsoft will put a lot behind it. Sounds to me like they are stabbing Dreamcast in the back, which they helped make... A usual Microsoft move. I feel Microsoft is a terrible monopoly, and so I have a hard time wanting to support anything Microsoft!

Nextgame.it: Ok, still a question on Ultima Online 2. What are the feature introduced in Ultima Online 2 to make user think that they are in a real world? To let them really play a ROLE?

Lord British: Ah... Well we have taken a similar approach to what we did with Ultima: Ascension, but with better learning. The world will ultimately have weather, day/night etc. As the world will be populated with real people we will have less issues with AI then we had in Ultima: Ascension. Yet still we have a much better plan for Ultima Online 2 in how NPC's and Creatures will operate. The world is also a much better designed 3D landscape and thus has better interactions than Ultima: Ascension with the environment itself. The interface is kinda cool too. Much more intuitive than before...

Nextgame.it: How, in a cyberpunk world like the one of "X", will be the social interactions? There will be politicians characters, factory worker and netrunners?

Lord British: In X... Yes, players will control much more of the rules of the game than before! But factory worker may not be much fun, so NPC's will do most repetitive work. No macroing will be needed or useful! (X has no "skills" in that sense)

Nextgame.it: Let's compare X and Ultima Online 2 from the point of view of Gameplay. Which are the main similarities? And which the differences?

Lord British: Well... Ultima Online 2 will feel like a blend of the best aspects of Ultima Online and Ultima: Ascension with some of the best aspects of even EQ and AC. X is a very different type of game... X is not about advancement, it is about creative contribution and story evolution. It is my hope that X will start a new sub-genre of even more true RPG qualities rather than rules and stats based advancement games.

Nextgame.it: in Ultima Online 2 the players can modify important aspects of the world, like social structure for example ? Could the player create a reign, for example ?

Lord British: In Ultima Online 2 we are still seeing what level of control players can assert over the world. Becoming an actual ruler, may be an inappropriate amount of control, but we are still looking into this.

Nextgame.it: What do you think about all the other Rpg games of the last years? We'd like to know your opinion about the Final Fantasy series, Baldur's Gate, Fallout and Torment. We'd like your opinion also as a PLAYER, and not only as a competitor.

Lord British: Interesting... I go through phases of playing lots of games, then playing very few. The last round of games I really got into was: C&C, Warcraft, Heroes of Might and Magic II and III.... Even Myst! I thought Myst was brilliant, played it to completion, was the only non-Ultima I have. C&C was also great, great diversity in the strategies that could be employed to win. Warcraft, was not as good as C&C but filled the need when I was tired of C&C. Heroes kept me captivated for months....

Nextgame.it: So you don't play a lot of others RPGs?

Lord British: Final Fantasy's turn based combat bores me, but I love the fiction and world. Never got into it though. But I respect it the most of other RPG's. The others, Baldur's Gate and fallout, I hardly played, nor Diablo and some others. Those games were to stats and advancement based for me, rather than a compelling interactive story which is what I like in RPG's.

Nextgame.it: And what do you think about NeverWinter Nights and Vampire, the first two RPG that feature a "story-teller"? Do you think that the story teller could be a better approach than online persistent world for RPG?

Lord British: Honestly, those games did not capture my attention enough to know. Vampire looks good, but I never even looked much at NeverWinter Nights. Like I said, I go through phases of be captivated, then periods where all the games seem too un inspiring to me. It has been a year or so, since one has captivated my attention away from making games!

Nextgame.it: Mmm... But what about the "story teller" approach?

Lord British: I am not familiar with the "story teller" approach.

Nextgame.it: Do you think that use a brand new rules system gives more freedom to the programmer of an RPG than use a existing system like AD&D?

Lord British: I feel AD&D is not a good system for a computer game. It has nothing to do with freedom or ease to program, rather that playing on a computer is very different than on paper. Paper gaming is done in slow turn based ways, computer games, are more real time and immersive. On paper, when I used to play D&D we rarely used the rules even then. The game master would let the most clever person win, not the one with the proper balanced stats. Role playing is funniest when the roles are being played well. I care little for who has the optimised combination of weapons and stats. I like simple easy to understand rules. I was turned off by D&D when I returned to my old D&D rules gamer friends, after leaving high school, when we used to play by story telling and little rules and I came back to find them debating things like "Well I have a plus two sword, and I am standing behind you and your left arm band is less protected and so I get a plus 1 and then you are surprised, so I get a blah, blah, blah....". That was not role playing, that was miniatures rules for a combat game. I am into "role" playing, not inventory and stats management. "Role" playing games are much harder to make, and perhaps not as popular, but that is my mission in life.

Nextgame.it: We expect Ultima Online 2 to be something like a big improvement of Ultima Online, but still the same kind of game. With X instead you will experiment something completely new?

Lord British: Correct.

Nextgame.it: About X: you told that people could earn real money playing X... how ?

Lord British: Imagine... If you put on a play in the virtual world and could charge a real fee... Or, If you built a fun adventure with our editors, and people paid a fee to enter your theme park... Or, If you created some digital art that could not be duplicated, and sold it to them for their house... Or you made cloths etc... get it?

Nextgame.it: Do you believe in a future where people could chose their personal world where to live ? And then they can earn money only playing the game ?

Lord British: Oh, yes... I believe that if X works many people will quit their "real" jobs and live full time in the virtual world I am creating.

Nextgame.it: You never thought about a whole remake of the Ultima saga? A lot of people for example can't play Ultima VII anymore because with the new hardware and the new OS is impossible.

Lord British: We are discussing that. But no plan as of yet.

Nextgame.it: In 1991 Looking Glass created Ultima Underworld and it was one of the most innovative games ever with a great 3D graphics, a great story and most of all a great interface. Why after UW2 the Underworld series stopped, while the 3D engines were growing up with Doom, Quake and all the other 3D shooters?

Lord British: Good question... Bad planning is the honest best answer.Looking Glass is still doing great 3D games such as System Shock and Thief, but we were delinquent to to get them to do more UW's by now.

Nextgame.it: Ultima: Ascension is more similar to Ultima VIII or Ultima VII for you?

Lord British: Hmm... My goal was for Ultima: Ascension to be between Ultima VII and Ultima IV.

Nextgame.it: Finally, last question: tell us something of your free choice about X! Something EXPLOSIVE!

Lord British: Hmmm.... In X, your character will manifest your actions... What I mean by that, is that if you do good deeds, your player will look nicer. As you do evil, you will look more sinister. Sort of like Peter Molyneux is doing in Black and White... But! In addition... In addition, as players travel the world the world changes based on the prominence of player types in the area.
Thus an area of nice people will be clear skies, birds chirping etc., and automatically, a place filled with evil, will be stormy and decaying. Thus if in a nice village, suddenly a rain cloud appears people will be afraid that might be an omen that evil is near. Similarly, when in a dark city, if a rainbow shows up, the evil folks will look out for the do-gooder in their midst. How's that?

Nextgame.it: GREAT! MANY MANY THANKS!!! It has been incredible to talk with you! We thank you very much for your time and we hope to have chances to interview you again!

Lord British: Likewise, great questions! A good opportunity for me as well. See you all again!