Confessions of an RPG Developer

The other way to skin a cat
There are those, though, who were inspired by D&D in a different way. Where Garriott admits in his high school days that he found strict adherence to the die-rolling and statistics management side of D&D incredibly tiresome, Joel Billings, former CEO of SSI, thinks it was the tactical side of the game that made it so compelling. And when his company released the Gold Box D&D games to unprecedented commercial success, he was vindicated. A die-hard wargamer at heart (growing up in a family of veterans tends to do that to you), Billings was never too roused by Elves, Orcs, and magic arrows. It wasn’t until Paul Murray and Keith Brors – designer and programmer of SSI’s first Gold Box hit, Pool of Radiance, respectively – pointed out the tactics involved in D&D that he took interest. ‘Most of the games that were out while we were doing Pool of Radiance, like Ultima,’ Billings remembers, ‘were, you know, more that sort of, “One guy wanders around the world” adventure games. And what Paul had done a little differently with one of our RPGs before Pool, Wizard’s Crown, was tactical combat – more like a war game, you know? You had your party, and you’d go into battle, and you’d move the pieces around.’

If you’re of the Garriott school of thought, you might find it a little surprising that SSI’s vision of RPGs followed the D&D structure much more accurately than Ultima ever did. This was probably helped by the fact that SSI was the first D&D licensee in the games industry, but more important was the Gold Box series’ dedication to tactical combat. ‘I think what we were doing was much more like pen and paper D&D,’ Billings argues, ‘because, when you think about it, TSR was originally called Tactical Studies Rules – they later became TSR. And that’s because Gary Gygax created a miniatures rulebook to do combat, and then they wrapped all the role-playing stuff around it. That’s my understanding of how D&D came about. So it was really a tactical miniatures game, at least initially. And that’s what Paul and Keith really liked. So we had the expertise in that field, and we showed them we could do it.’

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And, it would seem, the tactical features in the Gold Box games were exactly what gamers were looking for. ‘D&D and all the other miniature systems that were out there really had the tactical combat,’ Billings notes. ‘You sat down, and you had your miniature piece, and you’d go into combat You didn’t really see that in games. We gave them that.’

If it was SSI that paved the way for the supremacy of D&D-style gameplay over the RPG scene throughout the ‘90s, it was Garriott and his Origin pals who gave the genre its soul. Now almost a given in top-tier RPGs – particularly those made by BioWare and Obsidian Entertainment – moral and accountability systems were nonexistent in games before Garriott found the ethical honey pot. And, contrary to the popular opinion that deep games sell like positions at Gary Glitter daycare centres, Ultima IV – the first in the series to implement such a system – outsold all the previous Ultimas by a very large margin. In that game and all subsequent Ultimas, you weren’t just judged on how well you slaughtered the end-boss; the way you treated those around you affected your reputation as a hero.

Garriott explains why such gameplay mechanics are important: ‘If you look at most of the greatest works of classical literature, the most compelling stories often do use a classical story arc you might have read about. You know, where you have the hero’s journey, where the main character starts off as someone who’s weak or has a personal flaw, and who’d be the unlikely person to face the great challenge in the story. And, of course, through perseverance and personal growth, not only do they save the universe or whatever, but they also grow internally. It’s a powerful story, and you identify with it a lot – it’s also very useful when making good game stories. So I think that games that don’t focus on personal growth and change are missing out on an opportunity to create something that isn’t just fun, but also meaningful to the players – lasting fun. And it will become nearer and dearer to their hearts as time goes on. It’s more than just, “Hey, man, this is a good distraction for the next hour.” It’s, “This is something I enjoyed on a very deep level.’’

Later Ultima titles took this even further. Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988), for example, highlighted the flaws in fundamentalist philosophies and authoritarianism through a complex, cleverly-paced storyline; Garriott’s moral system served as the benchmark on which all characters and ideologies were judged. It was a new way of creating heroes and villains in the games; where once all you had to do to be the bad guy was dress in black, own a dungeon, and scowl like Steve Bing passing a kidney stone, now your actions had to reflect Garriott’s model of evil.

The next two Ultima games – The False Prophet (1990) and The Black Gate (1992) – expertly took advantage of this new mechanic. The first dealt with issues of racism and xenophobia with allegory; the second focused on deceitful evangelism and religious manipulation. Garriott maintains that his greatest contribution to the RPG genre was developed in these games and their predecessor, Ultima IV – collectively known as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ trilogy.

‘I think my main contribution,’ he muses, ‘was that attempt to create a virtual world that had a level of depth and meaning beyond simple diversion. And what’s interesting is that when I first started down that journey in the mid-’80s, I wasn’t sure how well it would work at all, and whether the player would appreciate it or simply reject it because they didn’t desire an educational layer in their gaming. Of course, Ultima IV ended up outselling all its predecessors and jumped up radically. It quickly became the foundation on which all the later Ultimas would be based. You know, it started a new trend in RPGs – there are many RPGs coming out now where you don’t just choose your class and abilities; you actually go through little ethical parable tests at the beginning, in order to do a personality test on you to suggest a role. And I think the fact that people have picked that up and followed in its footsteps implies the value I’ve brought to the genre.’

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With the later Ultimas, Garriott not only showed the world that traditional fantasy could deal with complex themes, but that videogames as a whole were capable of being just as philosophical, provocative, intelligent, and stimulating as other artforms. Origin seemed invincible; by the time The Black Gate was released, Garriott (and the world) knew he’d made his best game yet. But trouble was on its way, and its name was EA.