Ultima

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Ultima. It was a series of early, surprisingly influential vidya RPGs. Nowdays mostly known as the first sign of EA's decent into capital E evil.

The short version? One of the first Computer roleplaying games to get popular, Ultimas 1, 2, and particularly 3 were old school hack & slash affairs, with brief voyages into Science Fantasy just to liven things up.

After receiving feedback from his first 3 games, Richard Garriott, the author of Ultimas 1 through 3, decided to make a game about Virtue, rather then just killing shit. The result is probably one of the most influential games in Western Computer RPGs ever made, Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar. (Fun fact: the word "Avatar" for a in-game character starts with Ultima 4.) What was unique about it? Well, first, it had a plot that was more then an excuse for dungeon crawling or combat; the basic idea was to become worthy of being a champion of the realm of Britannia.

And he followed it up with 3 sequels that attempted to top it.

And then EA came. We won't speak about that.

But we will speak about how the first MMORPG, if you ignore MUDs, was Ultima Online, to the point that it coined the word "MMORPG".

If you want more detail, go google up "Spoony ultima". Guy is an idiot, but he gives a good overview of what the series was like, and why Ultima 9 is so hated. If it's still up when you read this, here's a version that cuts out the skits.