I heard about the CRPG book project a while back and being an avid RPG overlord and writer, I wanted to see if I could write an article or two (i.e. Use my  vast world dominating network to crush any opposition to the book) so I hunted down Felipe Pepe, the editor. A lot of my favorite old games had already been taken, but I saw that no one had volunteered for Ultima 7 yet, the most influential RPGs ever. You can see its far reaching influences in modern Zelda games, or any game made by Bethesda or Bioware.

I inquired why no one has taken this amazing game yet, and he replied that he wanted to get the CEO of Larian Studios, but he was unavailable too because he was busy working on Divine Divinity 2. I jumped at the chance to write this article,  The Ultima series holds a special place in my heart and to this day has a heavy influence on my life.  Luckily Mr. Pep said yes and off I went to write it.

I wanted to say so much I wrote a very in depth story with like of my typical humor and wackiness  while keeping with the serious nature of the game and how a game like this is even more relevant today then when it was released in the early 90s. I turned it in feeling proud of what I wrote.

My first draft was rejected.

Like the peoples of Magincia (a little in humor for those in the know), my pride destroyed me. It was only a two page spread and I had to talk about Ultima 7 AND the add-on ‘Forge of Virtue’ AND the separate game Serpents Isle. All in two pages. Out came the scissors. Snip. So long clever jokes.  Snip. So long interesting backstory. Snip. So long in depth view on how the game altered the foundation of the industry.

After swallowing that last bit of pride, I resubmitted the article and it passed. The sad thing is, I deleted the old version, I would have liked to post it here. But ah well. C’est la vie.

Feel free to check out Felipe Pepe’s book. If you are interested in RPG’s or history or both, it is worth a look see. It is a great look at how the industry started and how the CRPG industry became what it is today.

https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/update-19-crpg-book-released/

Thanks for reading.

Be Good.