The Escapist - Richard Garriott Interview

The Escapist has an interview with Richard Garriott on his vision and "why he thinks most games just aren't good enough".  As you'd expect, MMORPGs and Tabula Rasa take up a chunk of the text but the comments on Ultima IV and "The Hero's Journey" make it worth the read:

But then there's the second aspect of what makes a virtual reality interesting or relevant, which is "Why am I there, why do I want to be there, why do I care to be there and why is it important to be there?" And so I tried to attack that problem, especially starting with Ultima IV, where I came to the realization or decision that a major problem I saw in most gaming - especially most fantasy roleplaying gaming - is that they all still, to this day, have the same general plot. Which is, you're the hero and you know that because you're told so in the introduction. Your job is to kill the bad guy, and you know that because you're told so in the introduction.

In general, having played those games, the bad guy doesn't do anything particularly bad other than he just waits for you in the final level for you to come and fight him and kill him. And in fact, what you as the player do is you pillage, plunder, maim and steal and do whatever it is you can to do to become as powerful as you need to be to come and knock off the supposed bad guy.