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Richard Garriott, who is now spending more time thinking about space travel than virtual worlds, was kind enough to spend some time talking with us about the darker side of the Ultima series of role-playing games. This interview is a companion piece to The Black Gate Murders, an alternate playthrough of Ultima VII: The Black Gate that involves killing everyone in the game.

In Part I of our interview, the creator of Ultima reveals some little-known facts about Ultima VII, the origins of a room full of crazy children that caused a memorable family feud, and his feelings on selling Origin to EA so many years ago.

Crispy Gamer: I wanted to talk to you about Ultima VII because I’ve been playing through it and I wanted to see if the moral system you created in Ultima IV was still in there somewhere. Personally, I don’t think it is.

Richard Garriott: Sure, fire away.

Crispy Gamer: Ultima VII is one of my favorites in the series because it’s so immersive, interactive and easy on the eyes, but it is also very dark. To me it felt like you were tearing down what you created in the first six games. Would that be a fair statement?

Garriott: Ah, yes. Here’s how I would frame it. The first three Ultimas were really when I was, frankly, learning how to create a game. Ultima I was written in basic, Ultima II was the first assembly language program I ever wrote, and Ultima III was really the first time I felt that I had succeeded at creating a game, despite its level of sophistication. Ultima VI, V and VI were created at a time when I was learning the process of being a storyteller. They introduced things like the Virtues, etc. I began to pay much more attention to the craft of storytelling.

Frankly, Ultima I, II and III weren’t related to each other at all, in the sense that their stories weren’t connected. Ultima IV, V and VI were only related to each other in that I kind of realized that the series was going to go on for awhile, so I tried to pick up where I left off with each game.

Ultima VII (for me, the most important moment for the series since Ultima IV) was the first time I really sat down and said, “OK, what am I really trying to accomplish with this game?” I was trying to do things like set up stories and characters that would survive for more than one product. I had seen how people were reading into the philosophy I had put together with Ultima IV, V and VI, and so I was trying to — what you describe as “tearing down” — open it up, and say there are lots of other forms of thought that are either just as good or positive, or that might also seem good or positive but are actually quite dark. So I was trying to drive what I call alternatives.

Ultima IV, Ultima VII and Ultima Online are my favorites. And for me, the reason why VII that was true for was because it was a game where I most completely realized the virtual world I was trying to create. In other words, the depth of interaction and responsiveness of the world it played in.

Crispy Gamer: Was this the first game you worked on under the EA studio system?

Garriott: This was the first game that was published through EA, but it was created before [the EA buyout deal]. Ultima III was the first game that Origin published, and that directly affected Ultima VI in the sense that, after Ultima III, we started getting fan mail that would normally go to other companies. Seeing how people were interpreting and playing my games very much affected the way I thought about doing Ultima IV.

Ultima VII is actually the final game that was created in what I’d call a full level of independence. There were a lot of other pressures brought to bear that I don’t think necessarily favored my games after that.