Development
Richard Garriott has stated that he began writing this game when he realized (partly from letters of enraged parents) that in the earlier games immoral actions like stealing and murder of peaceful citizens had been necessary or at least very useful actions in order to win the game, and that such features might be objectionable. Furthermore, organizations like BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons) were drawing attention to the supposedly satanic content in role-playing games in general, and the demonic nature of the antagonist of Ultima III, as depicted on that game's box cover, was a good target.
The official biographer of Richard Garriott, Shay Addams, wrote:
| “ | "He decided that if people were going to look for hidden meaning in his work when they didn't even exist, he would introduce ideas and symbols with meaning and significance he deemed worthwhile, to give them something they could really think about." | ” |
The concept of virtues was inspired by a TV show about the Avatars of Hindu mythology, which described the avatars as having to master sixteen different virtues. The eight virtues used in the game were derived from combinations of truth, love, and courage, a set of motivators Garriott found worked best, and also found in one of his favorite films, The Wizard of Oz. The game took two years to develop, twice that of both Ultima II and Ultima III. Garriott described the playtesting as "slightly rushed" to make the Christmas season; he was the only one to finish playing through the game by the time it went out for publishing.
Richard Garriott stated he wanted to become a good storyteller and make certain the story had content. He states that 90% of the games out there, including his first three Ultima games, were what he called "go kill the evil bad guy" stories. He says that "Ultima IV was the first one that had ethical overtones in it, and it also was just a better told story."
Read more about this topic: Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar
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