14 DAY TRIAL // Richard Garriott confessed during an interview with The Escapist that the fondest memories of his career lie with the Ultima IV game.
He is currently working on an ambitious project, Shroud of the Avatar, intended to revitalize the stale and streamlined experience of role-playing games by introducing more player interaction and less pre-assembled instructions to follow.
“I do believe Ultima IV is my most important work,” Garriott was quoted by The Escapist, further stating that the game represents “a clear milestone in RPGs” that brought a lot of innovations to the genre.
His hopes are that Shroud of the Avatar, once complete, will be able to deliver the same deep and engaging experience that old-school role-playing games did. An example in the spirit of older games like Ultima IV is the return of typed dialogue, instead of players just choosing from a limited list of options.
He aims to remove many of the conveniences that modern MMOs have made an industry standard, like automaps and quest logs pointing you in the right direction, doing away with simplistic conversations and “brain dead clicking to follow instructions.”