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NotM: Ultima Underworld-Mapping Progress
By Corvus | February 1, 2008
Continuing our examination of the ludic components of the narrative Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (UW) leads us to two very simple storytelling devices. Despite their elegant and immersive nature, very few modern videogames have taken advantage of the these powerful tools, preferring to use mechanics that force the player to turn their attention away from the storyworld. These two elements, like the magic system discussed in the last post, serve to keep the audience enmeshed in the narrative, reducing the need for manuals, notebooks and potty breaks… well, maybe not potty breaks.
The first component I’m talking about is the Automap. While the genre of DRPGs has frequently relied on diligent players recreating their dungeons on a handy pad of graph paper, UW is certainly not the first videogame to feature an in-game map. However, it is a shining example of implementation. Rather than present a world map with a “You Are Here” pointer, UW’s map is automatically generated as you wander the abyss.
This has an obvious benefit–the players don’t need to draw the maps themselves in order to keep track of where things are. Why is this a benefit? Because it keeps them playing the game, keeps their focus on the storyworld. If the player isn’t artistic or particularly good at determining spatial relationships with a game, they aren’t penalized for their poor mapping skills. And even when the player stops to check the map, they’re still dictating their avatar’s actions, not pulling away and becoming themselves, sitting at a desk, playing at a computer. There are ancillary benefits as well. For the explorer-type player, it gives them a strong sense of accomplishment to fully render out the map for every level (I know, I am one of those players). Finally, the automap can be invaluable at finding unexplored areas. Doors are marked on the map… including many of the hidden ones. So not only does the map make it easier to keep track of where you are, it actually entices the player to more fully and carefully explore the world.
All of that storytelling benefit and we’ve not even talked about the most important and revolutionary feature of the map. Not only does the map magically reveal the explored environment, but it allows you to take notes directly on the map itself. Such a simple, even obvious, concept and yet to this day, UW remains one of the few videogames to allow such a thing. Again, the benefits of this are that the player doesn’t need to stop playing the game in order to keep track of important details. The location of items and NPCs, notes about significant events, or visions, can all be kept directly on the map within the game.
The second component is how the game handles skill progression. As we’ve seen, great care was taken in UW to keep the player involved with the storyworld and this component is no exception. When creating your character, you’re allowed to pick a profession and that determines your starting skill set. You’re also allowed to pick certain key starting skills to further elevate your introductory abilities. The exact stats for these skills are available within the game UI, by pulling the chain under your character portrait and inventory.
As you wander the corridors of the abyss, exploring every nook and cranny, fighting monsters and talking to people, you’re earning experience points. When you’ve accumulated enough points, you’re informed (on the scroll at the bottom of the screen) that you’ve acquired a new level. So far, so standard. Once you’ve acquired a new level, however, you don’t pull up your stats screen and allocate points. Oh, no. Instead, you find the nearest Ankh Shrine and do a bit of chanting. What you choose to chant effects what skills improve. The room housing the Ankh Shrine on the first level has three plaques on the walls, each of which provide you with a mantra. One improves your martial skills, one your magical skills, and one your “other” skills. Chanting one of these three mantras randomly improves skills that fall into these categories.
As you explore the world, however, you find scraps of paper, more plaques and messages scrawled on the walls by previous explorers that let you in on more specific mantras, one for improving your acrobatic skill, one for strengthening your attack, one for increasing your lore, etc. Again, not only does UW place the leveling mechanic firmly into the fiction of the world, they use it as incentive to explore and an invitation to become a part of the living storyworld.
Next Up in The Series: The Plot Thickens When Ludic and Textual Elements Collude!
Tagged:ludic components, NotM, storytelling, ultima underworld. | 1 Comment »
February 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think this is what game writing should involve: attempting to show how certain gameplay, design, or narrative elements “allow some things but not others”. In this case, clearly the Automapping feature does some of the work that normally one of the Pencil’n'Paper adventurers would have done (the cartographer) which does remove of the interactivity. However, as you’ve rightly said: it allows for another kind of interactivity not possible – it allows us to focus on the atmosphere and story of the game.. allowing us to feel integrated with the world, and never stepping outside of it.