Ultima

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The Ultima series was a surprisingly influential collection of vidya RPGs. Nowadays it's mostly known as the first sign of EA's decent into capital E evil.

The short version? They were some 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 than just killing shit. The result is probably one of the most influential Western computer RPGs ever made: Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar. (Fun fact: the word "Avatar" for an in-game character starts with Ultima 4.) What was unique about it? It had a plot that was more than 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.