Bonus Fact #1: The NPCs in Ultima VII all have their own lives with agendas, friends, and property. The team created so much detail to add replayability, as it was easy to get sidetracked and impossible to catch all the game's clues in one playthrough.
Bonus Fact #2: Raymond Benson, lead writer on Ultima VII, also did a stint as the official licensed novelist for the James Bond series. Naturally, he created the game's opening mystery story.
Bonus Fact #3: The antagonistic Guardian broke many barriers. He was one of the first voice-acted characters in any game. He also broke the fourth wall by addressing the player directly, giving sinister directions and advice.
Bonus Fact #4: Ultima VII put so much effort into their sound that people had to configure their computers with a special memory manager to run it. It also popularized the industry's most successful piece of middleware: the Miles Sound System, created by Origin employee John Miles. It's still in use today.
Bonus Fact #5: EA-bashing was a time-honored Ultima tradition, beginning in text when players were scolded for swearing if they typed "Electronic Arts." In Ultima VII, the leaders of an evil cult are EA executives and the symbols of EA's logo turn up as artifacts that must be destroyed to save the world.