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The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.
Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.
Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
The games we love reveal something true about who we are, and about the world that made them. They Create Worlds is a podcast about the people, technology, and forces that built the video game industry.
Through video game history, the show looks at how culture, business, and technology shaped what we play, tracing the choices and circumstances that led to the games so many people around the world enjoy.
Each episode digs into where games came from, who made them, and why they were made the way they were. Business decisions, technological shifts, and creative choices all shaped what ended up on screen, and the show covers all of it together, not just one piece in isolation.
Hosted by Alex Smith and Jeffrey Daum, They Create Worlds grew out of long conversations about the strange corners of the industry and the patterns that only show up when you look across companies, platforms, and decades. That conversational feel remains, built on careful research, clear structure and editing that makes even the deepest topics easy to listen to.
History turns out to be less settled than it looks. New documents surface, memories conflict, and the clean stories about why things happened the way they did rarely survive contact with the evidence. The show digs into all of that, following the creative and business forces that pushed and pulled on each other, and uncovering the human stories that lie beneath the games so many people around the world enjoy.
New episodes are released twice a month.
Episodes

Sunday Aug 01, 2021
The Prophet of the Avatar
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
TCW Podcast Episode 143 -The Prophet of the Avatar
In part two of our look at the Ultima series we start with how Richard came to the morality system that became a central feature of the franchise. Using a combination of features he likes from various worlds religions, his own experiences, and so on Richard crafted the eight virtues that the play, who would become the avatar, would have to emulate. In the following two games. The story focused on how not all choices are black and white like in Ultima V, and how without all the facts you may be fighting against a group that may just be trying to survive. This is a fascinating look at morality in videogames that is unprecedented at the time, and is rarely, if at all, emulated today.
Download Ultima IV: https://www.gog.com/game/ultima_4
Museum of the Avatar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIaOiMH8SKg
Softline Interview: http://www.applevault.com/magazines/softline/v3n1/origin.pdf
The Eight Virtues Explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wFzZx-L4LI
Ultima IV Apple II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYGFh3I3IG4
Ultima V Apple II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GvWMmlfmgs
Ultima VI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nBWuV_E6Eg
TCW 038 - Origin Story: http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/origin-story-1489274251/
New episodes on the 1st and 15th of every month!
TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com
Twitter: @tcwpodcast
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds
Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com
Alex's book is available for preorder and should be released through CRC Press in December 2019: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1
Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode - Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download:http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode
Outro Music: RolemMusic - Bacterial Love - http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love
Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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