merryjest: To address the original post-- I'd say that to play the original Ultima 4 as a younger gamer, you have to have a historical perspective of what games were like at the time that Ultima 4 was published, and why it was different--- and also whatt games were capable of at the time.
The majority of game plots at the time were the usual rehashed D&D "Kill the big foozle" plots, and throughout the game you could basically pillage and plunder innocent people, steal their stuff, and never suffer any repercussions.
Ultima IV changed that by actually having those actions carry repercussions. A code of ethics was also at the core of the game, and for the first time in computing gaming history, the goal of the game was not to kill the foozzle, but to attain enlightenment. That's a dramatic change from everything that had come before, which had essentially been recycled Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons (indeed, the first three Ultimas were guilty of that .)
Ultima IV was a huge game changer in the way RPGs developed on the computer--- all of those moral choices and moral conundrums that you see in games today had their start with Ultima IV-- the creators of the Elder Scrolls series list Ultima IV and VII as the two most influential games for them.
The game being primitive? Well... yes, it is primitive by today's standards--- the game came out in 1984, and for its time it was very revolutionary. If you play any roleplaying game from that era, you will find it to be primitive by any standards. You're foisting contemporary gaming expectations onto a historical game, which isn't the way to go about it at all- you need to keep in mind the severe limitations in technology ... and if your game got too big, it would have to ship out on multiple floppy disks, which made shipping the game that more expensive, so designers had to strike a balance between immersive mechanics and story and not bankrupting the company. In fact, one of the things that ended up forcing Origin to sell out to Electronic Arts was the number of floppies that Ultima VII took up-- due to a market crash and a weak Texan economy at the time, they were never able to recoup the loss.
If you can't play the game with a historical context, then I suggest you start with the Ultima VII set of games- they are the most accessible games for modern gamers. I would also suggest you purchase a book called "Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games" by Matt Barton. It is an incredibly good read, and it should provide you with the actual historical context you need to appreciate games like Ultima IV, and give you an actual understanding of why IV is a milestone in the history of computer gaming, and why it is always considered such an important game.
On the issue of virtue design--- you actually need to look at the lore of the land and the ethics of Britannia as laid down in the documentation. Having those three virtues go up isn't without its logic:
Honor is the upholding of one's word and integrity before others and oneself.
Honesty is holding regard for the truth- not falsifying reality nor deceiving others unjustly.
Justice is treating people and situations the way they deserve to be treated, giving just deserts to the good and the bad alike.
One of the things that make the Britannia setting such a compelling place is that the Virtues aren't some floating abstractions, or some cliche cults that you can separate and exclude: all of the virtues are interrelated in one way or another because they were derived from three principles: Truth, Love and Courage, where each virtue is created by the combination of one, two, or all three principles. That's why the Quest of the Avatar in the game is so important-- all virtues being interrelated means, in the context of the storytelling world, that the Avatar him/herself is an example that ethical virtue is possible, and that the principles practiced in Britannia are not isolated concepts that do not affect each other.
There is a reason, after all, that Origin's motto was "We create worlds"--- and, until EA bought them out, it was true.
That being said, retro gaming as far back as the early 80s isn't everybody's cup of tea, so disliking IV is neither rare nor a huge deal-- I don't know why this was downrated... as a self-avowed Ultima 'fanboy', I don't get my knickers in a twist if someone doesn't want to deal
Again I only played 4 and I also have 5,6,7,and 8 (no Underworld 1+2, 1+2+3, and 9)
Mabye I would like those games better than 4.
