The Artful Gamer

On September 4th, the University of Texas Videogame Archive held a fundraising event to both raise money and promote the development of the new museum collection. An article over at GameSetWatch listed some of the memorabilia that were auctioned off at the fundraiser; one of those items was a pre-release copy of Emond’s book, “Ultima: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide”. A web search yielded few results, and I was compelled to contact Stephen regarding his soon-to-be-published book. He told me that not only was his book auctioned-off at the fundraiser, but he was an invited guest for the entire affair. I asked Stephen a few questions about his experiences at the fundraiser, his interests in the Ultima series, and (of course) his upcoming book.

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After reading psychochild’s critique of the industry’s failure to learn from WoW’s financial success, I keep asking myself: does this re-analysis tell us anything about how to advance the mainstream game industry?

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Above: Screenshot from Lothian’s burial in Ultima VIII: Pagan. (with respect and admiration)

I was saddened to read, courtesy of Raph Koster’s blog, that John Watson – a respected and well-liked designer/programmer/writer for many Ultima and Wing Commander games (among many others since) – passed away on September 9, 2007. After reading through the memorial page that has been set up by the Wing Commander CIC, it is obvious that his unexpected death has been grievous for his friends, family, and co-workers; I offer my deepest condolences to those who knew him.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Ultima series has always held a special place in my heart. I can imagine no better time than to write a full review of Ultima VIII: Pagan in light of this sorrowing news, and attempt to redeem what I think was one of the most underrated RPGs of the 1990′s (to which John is listed as the co-designer and a co-writer of). I will post the review and analysis in the coming weeks.

Above: How many times did you see this screen when you last played Fallout?

Throughout the summer there was an interesting thread in the Mobygames forums on the subject of ‘death’ in video games, in response to an article written for The Guardian. The general feeling among players questions the importance of death in games, and why it remains to be such a central part of the medium. I wasn’t satisfied with The Guardian’s article which doesn’t penetrate the issue very deeply, so I thought I’d take a stab at the notion of what death ‘means’ in gaming, and how (as designers) we might start to re-think the rather hackneyed game mechanic and come up with slightly more novel ways of making deaths meaningful for players.

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In some more oldie gaming news, thanks to the Boring Beige Box podcast I recently found out that Sierra On-Line’s visionary (yet financially doomed) massively multiplayer online service of 1991, The ImagiNation Network, has been given new life thanks to the ImagiNation Network Revival Project!

If you’re not familiar with the INN, or (like myself) didn’t have the chance to sample the service during its relatively short tenure of 5 years, here’s a short history lesson. And if, like me, you thought that MMORPGs began with the advent of Ultima Online – you’re in for a big surprise.

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When I was in junior high school, there were only a handful of kids with computers. Most of those who were fortunate enough to have a computer in their home weren’t interested in learning how to use them, and even fewer used them to play computer games. Except for a couple of kids that were in my grade. One of those kids, Willy, found out that I liked role-playing games and handed me an old creased black box while my social studies teacher’s back was turned. I looked up at him, wondering what I’d have to trade for the rather austere black box with the words “Ultima VII” on the front.
He shrugged and whispered, “Here. You can have it. I can’t figure out how to play it.”

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