TheFlamingo352's blog post last week about morality system in RPGs cited 2003's Knights of the Old Republic as his first example, joking it showed his age. That makes him rather young to me, as the first game that popped into my mind was 1985's Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. It's the granddaddy of every morality system in games today. It and Ultima Online are the reasons Richard Garriott could never produce another good game again and still be regarded as one of the most influential game designers ever.

Before we delve into the meat of Ultima 4's virtues, I'll start with a little history. Ultima 1-3 were your typical fantasy RPGs with space shuttles, time travel, and demonic supercomputers (no, really). However, after that trio of hugely-popular RPGs, Richard started getting letters complaining about there really wasn't any punishment for the players running around killing everyone in town and stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. He decided they actually had a point and set out to make a game revolving entirely around being a good hero.

Ultima 4 has no great evil to vanquish. The people don't need a saviour, they need a role-model, and Lord British has asked you to become one for them. How? Master the 8 Virtues, claim the title of Avatar, and delve deep into the Great Stygian Abyss to read the sacred Codex of Wisdom. (Yes, you fight through the final dungeon to read a book.) 90% of the game revolved around mastering those 8 Virtues.

And what a diverse list of virtues they were! Three core principles of Truth, Love, and Courage were mixed to form:

• Compassion
• Justice
• Honesty
• Honor
• Valor
• Sacrifice
• Spirituality
• Humility

Each of them not only have a town dedicated to them (and a dungeon dedicated to their opposing vice which you had to clear), but a separate karma meter you had to fill for it. And you had to fill all of them; no cutting corners for the Greater Good.

Each virtue also had a character class dedicated to it, which led to a character creation process posing as a Personality Quiz: Answer 7 questions to determine which virtue is most important to you! For example, if your childhood sweetheart asks you to fulfill your promise to marry her while you're on a spiritual quest, do you abandon it to marry her (Honor) or continue with it regardless (Spirituality)? If several of your comrades are wounded in a pitched battle, do you help tend their wounds in the back (Compassion) or stay at the front lines to keep the enemy away from them (Valor)?

These questions pose some of the most prickly dilemmas in the game, as they highlight how different "good" choices can conflict with each other. I imagine that, as a D&D fan, Richard took inspiration from the "Chaotic Good vs Lawful Good" debates that still rage to this day. The 8 Virtues show how multifaceted and complex "Good" can be, as compared to the usual Good vs Evil morality.

The problem with most games' Good vs Evil morality systems is that people do not like to be evil. Evil play in games is a cathartic release, a way to unwind for a few hours rather than a story players want to tell. It is all a question of "do you want to be a dick?" And for most people, the answer is "no, I want to be good". But everyone's idea of good is different, and it is in the nuances of which Good behaviors you pick when they come into conflict with each other that make for a compelling story.

Games often fall into Good vs Evil morality systems because it is easy to apply the choice of "be a dick" or "help others" to every situation under the sun. A morality system focusing on the conflicting aspects of Good requires complex situations to justify it. It is the altruistic version of a sadistic choice, all the more interesting because it forces a decision between universal virtues rather than temporary characters.