Non Magical/Mystical Toggle

So, before I get to my question, which I am sure the majority of you on here could at a minimum care less about and, at the most mock me for even making such a suggestion...
I discovered Ultima as a teenager and was quickly sucked into the world of Brittania and all that Lord British had to offer. My initial exposure was Ultima IV and I think the premise is what drew me in...virtues, honor, compassion, etc...Add into that the magnificent story-telling and the gameplay that surrounded it and I was hooked. However, the more I played the game, the more certain elements began to trouble me because of my upbringing and the mystical elements contained therein. Since this is a game still in development, might I suggest an option in the game settings that would toggle all elements pertaining to mysticism and magic into elements that are not rooted in magic, but rather more natural elements. For example, creatures that are "undead" could be substituted with real threats instead, even if it were something as basic as dangerous animals. And instead of mixing potions and spells. the player would instead create homeopathic remedies and weapons (sarin, anthrax, etc...). Also, symbols such as the ankh and other "pagan" imagery could be substituted with images that are not religious in nature. I get the concept and some of the imagery even has its place because we all have the right to believe what we want to believe, but when I discovered that Richard Garriott was creating a new epic adventure I could not help but wish it was something I could play without troubling my conscience. I know that I am not the only one that feels this way about said game elements, and I don't intend to minimize the efforts of the production/programming team to even consider such a request, but I know there would be hundreds if not thousands of more people willing to support this game if such an option were available. I would even be happy to be consulted on suitable substitutions if something like this were even possible. I truly hope this is a game that I can play someday...I never thought I'd get so excited about a game again in my 40's as I did when I was a kid.
Thanks for your time and consideration.

 

If you don't have mystical / "evil" elements to the game, then you find yourselves running around killing lots of dogs and criminals without a trial. This is why evil is put in games, so good people can kill stuff, without the morale baggage.

 

If they ever implement the $2.25M stretch goal of mod tools, I hope it has enough flexibility for you or others so they can create a game conversion to implement whatever symbology you want, if only for the Single Player Offline mode.

 

Same difference.

 

I appreciate the feedback and I also understand that you think they are one and the same. I respect your opinion, but I also respectfully disagree. Perhaps if I provide my history specific to the game Ultima IV it may shed some light on my request and why I feel that way I do. However, before I get to that, please understand that I am not asking for an all-encompassing change to the game itself. Instead, I am asking for a setting in the launch menu that would allow adventurers such as myself to toggle the mystical elements on or off, much the same way as many games allow you to toggle gore/violence/adult content on or off. All other users would still get the game exactly the way you want it.

So, for any who care, here is my real life experience, all of it 100% true.
I was 13 years old back in 1985 when my best friend, a self-described computer "geek", introduced me to Ultima IV - Quest of the Avatar. I cannot tell you how many hours we spent playing that game at his house, but I can tell you that I was so enthralled and engaged in the "Quest" that I somehow managed to talk my mom into buying our family an Apple IIe computer (for my "education") and I quickly installed a "borrowed" copy of the game on my own computer so that my friend and I could play "together" while talking on the phone at all hours of the night. Keep in mind that neither of our parents were aware of the content of the games we were playing (back then there wasn't much to worry about for parents and their kids computer usage).
Here is where things get interesting. My best friend's father was a minister in our church. One evening while we were together at his house, he came into the room and informed us that he had been having some wild, crazy dreams in the past few weeks and he hadn't been able to figure it out, so he was asking if we had been reading any mystical books or watching any demonic movies. We had not. We did mention that we had been playing Ultima and he asked to look at the box. There was mention of "hellspawn", "daemons" and "long-dead wizards" on the box and that was a big concern for him. He told us that he thought the game was related to his nightmares and asked us to uninstall the game and not to play it anymore. The thought was very disappointing to us, but we conceded to his demands and removed the game. We lasted about two weeks without Britannia before my friend came up with a brilliant idea. My friend was a self-taught programmer and he informed me that we could reinstall the game and then, by way of a binary code editor, replace all text references within the game to wizards, daemons, etc... with non-mystical replacements. We quickly did so and resumed our travels as the Avatar of Britannia, doing Lord British's bidding. All was well...or so we thought. Less than a week after we resumed playing the game, my friend's father came to us again and told us that the dreams had stopped for a while but had recently began occurring again. He asked if we had lied to him or ignored him. We explained what had happened and he appreciated our honesty and our efforts to de-mysticize the game by altering the text. However, when he asked about the graphics within the game, we couldn't deny that the images, however pixelated they were, still represented and portrayed things that were demonic. That was the end of our time together playing Ultima IV at my friends house. Now, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't ever play again. Since I had the game at my house I went ahead and finished my quest without thinking much about the effect the game may have on my household. Years later, after maturing and fully appreciating the situation for what it was, I long for the experience of playing such a well-crafted game with my children, but at the same time have no desire whatsoever to expose them to the mystical, even demonic, elements that are woven throughout the game. That is why I was excited to learn of this new endeavor and to see that the development is taking place in the manner and fashion that it is. In no way whatsoever am I minimizing the amount of effort it would take to create and implement a duplicate set of text and imagery that could be toggled on/off for those with my same concerns. I do, however, know that the effort would be greatly appreciated and most likely result in greater profits for the game publisher if all the people that feel the same as I do had an option that allowed us to purchase the game without damaging our consciences.
In conclusion, I understand completely that such a request is daunting and out of the ordinary. In fact, the only way I could see it working would be in the offline single-player version. And even if that were the case, that would be WONDERFUL!!!
Thank you for your time and consideration
-Warez Wolf

 

dude its a fantasy game, you have about as much chance as the people who protested the name of The Two Towers and those who protested about Harry Potter. If magic offends your religion then this game isn't for you

 

I sympathize with the fact that there are some parents out there who have a problem with the content... though, personally, I don't understand it. Christians have been using magic and magical creatures for allegorical purposes for centuries, in a way to argue for Christian virtues. The Arthurian cycle is a good example. The tales of King Arthur were all about promoting chivalric virtues, which were rooted in Christian teaching. St. George is known for his defeat of a dragon. A modern example is C.S. Lewis. And not to forget, even the Old Testament has plenty of references to monsters, like dragons, giants, unicorns, leviathans, behemoths. In the New Testament, Revelation has references to monsters that are unleashed.

I'm just throwing that out there... not because I want to be critical of your beliefs, but because I don't think what you're asking is feasible, and hope you will decide to enjoy the game anyway.

 

Again, mod tools. If the devs never make those, I'm sure there will be some in the community that will create them. It's inevitable, for there are third party mod tools for just about every modern game now. Until then, you can enjoy the game yourself and decide then if it's appropriate for your children. And if it's not, they can wait till they're older or when the mod tools come out, whichever comes first.

 

Yea, it would have to be a player-driven effort to create the mod.