Valve founder Gabe Newell told students in 2013 that game developers often mistake the most interesting things players do for bugs. The anecdote is doing the rounds again, and it still holds up.
The story comes from a 2013 talk Newell gave at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin. The subject was “Productivity, Economics, Political Institutions & The Future of Corporations.” A new video from the Webknower channel has sliced the talk into clips, and one of them is a reminder that players have always found ways to make games their own.
Newell’s Warning to Developers
Newell makes a straightforward argument: developers should not always consider something a player does as a hack. He cites a concrete example from Ultima Online, the 1997 game that helped start the MMO genre, to illustrate his case.
Newell is responding to a question about how simple it is for hackers to break into game worlds and perform actions that creators do not want them to carry out. His answer is a caution against assuming that things are worse than they actually are.
He warned that developers frequently mistake hacking, or mistake a genuinely entertaining action by a player as hacking. He then described what happened when Lord British was killed during his first speech in Ultima Online.
Lord British’s First Speech
Early Ultima games put Lord British well out of reach for players to defeat. His hit points and other protections were immense, which made him a formidable obstacle for many players.
A ship’s cannon fired from the sea and the Skull of Mondain, a magical artifact, were among the favored means of striking him. Those who let their characters attack him were not attempting to break the game — they were trying to test it.
When Ultima Online debuted, Richard Garriott, the creator of the Ultima series, controlled Lord British. His murder was also a significant event in the game.
The Player Who Killed Him
Lord British was giving a speech when Rainz decided to wait for his moment. Rainz then used his top-level pickpocketing skill on a scroll from a person in the crowd, taking the fire field spell from them. The act was carried out without Rainz knowing whether it would work.
The sequence of events was not smooth. The server reset happened right before the event, and Garriott had failed to turn his character’s invincibility back on. Lord British caught fire and died.
Rainz was banned from the game as if he had cheated, even though he had done something that helped give Ultima Online its reputation.
What Newell Said About It
Newell argues that Ultima Online could have made its player-led storytelling more compelling than its official storyline if it had embraced the assassination rather than erasing the server and pretending it never happened.
The assassination of Lord British, he said, is a central text of MMO lore, and he argued that the event would have made for something more interesting than the ongoing plot of Ultima Online.
New hires will hear the tale of Ultima Online’s plot for years to come, even though the ongoing narrative itself has faded from memory.
The Skull of Mondain and Other Methods
Players in the early Ultima games had a wide range of ways to attack Lord British, including each of the following approaches.
- Blasting him with a shipboard cannon
- Using a magic artifact called the Skull of Mondain
- Pickpocketing a scroll with the fire field spell
The techniques presented demonstrate the constant creativity players have shown when pushing against the systems games put in place for them.
A Story That Keeps Getting Told
The snippet from Webknower has returned the account to public attention once more. Newell’s warning remains standing, as relevant as ever.
Game developers should not automatically label everything a player does as a hack, as the story of Lord British’s death shows. It also serves as a reminder that players are the ones who end up making the best stories.
Newell’s point is that the ongoing plot of Ultima Online is now forgotten. The assassination of Lord British is not.
See the video the story is built around at PC Gamer.
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