Posts Tagged Tabula Rasa
Bye bye, erm, Tabula Rasa
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on November 22nd, 2008
No-one can really say, hand on heart, that this was a surprise.
While the games media was very quick to pile in whenever Tabula Rasa looked shakey, and perhaps over-zealous in their declarations of its impending death, the truth is the game was never in that good shape subscriber wise. It never did as badly as Auto Assault (which had problems beyond the game itself), but it was never called a ‘hit’ internally. At least, not with a straight face.
For me, personally, it was symbolic of the last attempt by NCsoft to do something a little bit different. At least, it was when I joined the company in 2004 – when it was still ‘unicorns in space’, and before it became Starship Troopers. Having said that, a year after the reboot, I really liked what I played in 2005 (and still maintain that if by some miracle it could have been released then, it would have been a hit) but by 2007 it was never, ever going to be serious competition to… well, anything really.
I know some people will use this as an opportunity to spout craziness like “Sci-fi MMOs don’t work!” but in reality, the truth is the same as it’s always been: not-so-great games don’t work. They can do okay, for a while, but they’ll never be hits at launch.
Nope, you need to give those not-so-great games some time; whether it’s in development (assuming you know what you’re doing and just need more time) or in public release (assuming you listen to your community and know what you’re doing).
Sadly, Tabula Rasa didn’t get it.
Garriott… innn… SPAAAACCE!!
We have blast-off. The first ever games designer… in spaaace… etc.
No, the date wasn’t ringed on my calendar. I vaguely remember being told he was going up in mid-October, but I never paid much attention to the exact date even at NCsoft, so thanks BBC. I hope he has a safe and successful flight, and that he feels it’s worth the THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS (approximately) that he paid for the privilege.
That’s a heck of a lot of money to follow in Dad’s footsteps. If he wanted to save money, he could have gone Virgin Galactic, who’ll be charging a lot less – but then Richard’s going to be up for ten days, not ten minutes.
In case you’re wondering, that eye-popping budget was never bandied around much at NCsoft when I was there – but not for the reason you might be thinking. See, it’s all Richard’s money. (Nope. I didn’t think Ultima was that big either.) Not a penny came from NCsoft. Which is good. Because otherwise right now you’d probably be wondering just what else that cash could have been spent on.
Instead of just thinking: “So how is this supposed to help Tabula Rasa, exactly?”
Yeah, work can be weird
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related on July 9th, 2008
Got someone to throw a glass of water over a colleague today – and caught it all on film. Boy, some days… more on what that’s about soon enough.
Working hard on everything Leipzig. Pay attention to Twitter, if you’re that way inclined (or if you’re not, the most recent updates are on the front page here) and you’ll get a minute-by-minute.
Okay, you won’t, that would be stupid, but you’ll get occasional random updates when I’m too busy to sit and type here. Tonight my brain isn’t functioning enough to do anything more creative, so you see me here, rambling.
Let’s see. Read the rest of this entry »
Podcast, episode 3 – Tabula Rasa talk
Posted by Rockjaw in MMO-related, Pimpin' on June 22nd, 2008
I almost forgot! This went live on Friday after a few delays. If you’re fed up of listening to the sound of my voice, then this is the episode to download; I’m hardly in it!
Yep, this time out I hand over the MIC to Avatea, who talks for quite a while with Starr Long, Tom Potter and Victor Meinert – all of Destination Games, who in case you didn’t guess from the title are responsible for Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa. If you’re a TR fan you should give it a listen – and even if you aren’t, quite frankly… I mean otherwise why am I making all this effort??
As always you can listen to the podcast via a live stream, subscribe to it, or download the MP3 and do whatever you like with it in the comfort of your own home. There’s even a transcript! So enjoy.
Oh, and I’d love to hear (as always) what you’d like to see in upcoming episodes.
Official, and non-official, Facebook stuff
Posted by Rockjaw in Community, MMO-related on June 7th, 2008
I’ve noticed in the last few days that a few people have been becoming ‘fans’ on Facebook of this City of Heroes Page. While it’s cool that people want to be fans of COH, I wanted to point out to y’all that it’s not an ‘official’ page. (There isn’t an official ‘Page’ yet, but there will be.)
One of the big issues with Facebook Pages is that anyone can create them, and they don’t get vetted as official or not. As a result there are lots of well-meaning fans who create Pages that are totally unofficial. While there’s nothing wrong with this, I just wanted to point you to some Pages (and Groups) that I know are official, because we set ‘em up. If you’d like to become a fan/join a group, and want to get the inside scoop direct from the source, then join these. Read the rest of this entry »
You said what?