f13.net

Anyone keeping up with what is happening with Tabula Rasa?

Seems like it has completely disappeared off the radar.

edit - learned to spell.

Edit- changed title spelling of Tablua as well. I thought you mispelled them both on purpose!

The space chick on their website showed up topless in Playboy along with other videogame characters. That's news, right?

"We don't know if we'll ever recover from the scandalous behavior of our polygon starlet," Richard Garriot was not quoted saying.

Seriously, I betcha Tabula Rasa was delayed again.  The really ambitious ones run by big name game designers always are.  Gamestop figures a Summer 2007 release date.

beta ought to be announced soon then.  If not by end of Q1, I would have doubts for any Summer release. 

What strikes me is that I fail to see anything ambitious in all the stuff I read about Tabula Rosa (the soap version of Tabula Rasa, as rosa means pink in some languages...).

Wonder how much time (years) you can spend rehashing old codes and ideas...

My capacity to beat dead horses is unlimited.  Richard Gariott, however, is testing the patience of his investors.

ahh vino rosa... 6/1/07 is what gamestop is listing as release date. Wonder how much money is going down the drain on this?

Last I heard, it was still a FFPS(Fake First Person Shooter) with only PVE included. So it's Neocron minus PVP with Richard Garriot's name stamped on it?

If you listen closely, you can hear NCSoft's wallet emptying down a drain somewhere in Austin, Texas.

That is just Lum's monster salary. Best-selling authors and former ranters don't come cheap, ya know!  :-D

Thanks for fixing the title!  Though the first one was more accurate sounding.  If you said it out loud!

I hope something they make turns out top notch because uh... they look to have massively expanded their operations while at the same time suffering subscriber losses. Auto Assault was a miserable failure, City of Villains was half baked, Guild Wars never caught on outside the US (but at least it caught on inside, or else they'd have NO popular North American games), and TR is not likely to make much of a splash in the Diku pool.

It completely lacks any form of recognizable IP combined with a name that I'm not sure most people can even say correctly on their first try. It's some fishy hybrid of future space shooter and RPG, but if you ask Lord British about it he'll tell you that it's designed with casual gaming in mind. You know, all the casual gamers who want to play a space shooter alien planet fake-fps. Huge market.

And it's been in development for how long now? Originally it was supposed to be developed by the top brains behind Lineage 1 and Ultima Online... yes, the ultimate MMO from the kings of the first generation! And it likely had some rock-star salaries to go with it. But of course that didn't work out and the game was scrapped.. at least twice I think?

Honestly they should have stuck with that crazy psychedelic mythical acid trip with the giant harp wielding class. This current version is a snooze. And a hard to pronounce snooze at that.

I've been keeping an eye on this for about a year now, and...

/snore

I've got hope for the game, since it's not "Come hither so that I might brain thee!!!" hack and slash fantasy diku MMO number 270,981,749,857.  But I just don't see it happening.  I really really want this game to be good.  But it's bothersome that the official website for the game seems to be stratics  :|

Funny thing is I can't decide which one of the two incarnations (the "all star US/Korea team" or the more recent "Garriot Family only") of Tabula Rasa sounds more uninspired.

I vote for "scrap both projects now". Please.

I love(d) both versions of TR, but I'm with SnakeCharmer. Even having played a few iterations of it, I give this about a 50% chance of ever coming out. They've done a lot of work, but Garriot doesn't strike me as someone who launches a game just because of inertia.

I WANT to see this come out of course, but it's got a way heck of a lot of challenges (different UI, not-usually-successful theme, warcraft-domination of AAA MMO space, newbies to genre wanting more of WoW, etc).

I have little hope that it's released and if it is, I have no hope that I'll like it.  I was sort of interested when I first heard of it, in it's original form, but since the idea has been changed, I've completely lost interest. 

I want to be a Garriot fanboy, but this project reeks of meh.

The original design looked so crazy it might work. The new stuff indeed reeked of meh, from the little I've seen (the media they released when they scrapped the old design). And I'd probably be target audience for something like their new design, casual planetsidish action. I'd give it a chance, though.

The original idea was too weird for even my taste. I can deal with either a completely unique background or radically new mechanics. Throw both at me, my eyes glaze. And when I saw screenshots of a pink unicorn with butterfly wings, I was done. I'm a heterosexual happy with the many feminine parts of his psyche. That was too "10-year-old girl with pink glitter nail polish" to stomach.

I thought the new approach had promise. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything at E3 that lived up to the promise. I haven't given up on it yet, but after such a protracted development, I fear that it will either be shoved out prematurely or cancelled.

Um.
Yeah.
My interest just went to zero.

That may very well be one of the best things I've ever read.

When I saw the screenshot of that unicorn I said "sweet, I hope I can beat that thing over the head with a magical harp twice the size of my body."

Alas, this game was never meant to be.

I dunno. If I was allowed to shoot the unicorn, I'd be okay with that. It's like if there was a game that was based on Saw, only the victims were hated CGI/animated/Muppet characters from movies --- I'd play that. I'd love to see Jar-Jar trying to cut his own foot off with a hacksaw.

And for the record -- fucking hated Saw. But I'm not a fan of horror or slasher flicks, and I watched that under duress.

You need to watch The Thing (1985), Hellraiser and Hellraiser 2 before you say that.

I've seen them. I can think of only a handful of horror films I truly enjoyed, and many for reasons unrelated to horror. I was fond of the original Scream because it managed to parody horror while also BEING a quite faithful horror flick. That sort of balancing is hard (Galaxy Quest pulled of the Sci-fi version), and I applaud it. Even if I'm not fond of the genre.

I am quite fond of Alien, and that's as much horror as sci-fi.

The Thing was 1982, but I agree.  I don't normally like horror movies.  I thought The Exorcist was stupid and laughable.  The Thing, on the other hand, is genuinely grim and creepy.

Tabula Rasa would sell more copies if it was a slasher MMO.

Like FEAR, but online, with more blood. Mmmhmm.

I thought Hellraiser sucked. It was no House of 1000 Corpses or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I haven't seen the Thing, heard good things about it but always forget it when I'm at Blockbuster.

Hellraiser made me laugh.  The Thing made me cry.  The Thing is one of my favourite creepy films.

Alien was definately a great horror movie.

And I can't believe no one mentioned Jaws yet.

I hated Jaws.  It's not horror, anyway.  It's about fish.

Critters > *

Classics from my childhood that I will never forget: Orca and Blood Beach!

(http://www.games.net/screens/108345/36690-3-2.jpg)

You thought the new humans vs aliens background and mostly "borrowed" mechanics had promise? I don't see anything unique in Tabula Rasa. It's like they took a blank slate and filled it back up with the same old shit.

I think it actually does have promise. If they are sharing IP amongst NCSoft products, does that mean it has a chance of feeling like CoV? Because CoV set in a deeper mmo world could be cool.

Lightweights.  You don't know what weird is until you've spent five minutes inside my brain.  Anyway, the weirder, the better, that's what I think.  Unicorns with filmy looking wings are cool.  It'll be like My Little Pony... only with horns.  And wings.  You know you wanted one when you were a lad.  You envied your sister's toys, didn't you?  You can tell us.  We won't judge you.  Much.

I think there should be pornacorns. Unicorns with giant dildos bobbing on their heads.

Put it into production, immediately!

I don't care how wierd the first version seemed, it had a ton more appeal to me than the most recent version.   I liked the depth of the language, the combat, and even the foofy pets.  I was hoping that would be my next MMO until they changed it, damn them!

I wasn't specifically looking forward to it, but the original did seem more interesting.  I do not see what is so bad about the faerie duocorn that made y'all give up on the game right then and there.

QFT

The more I've seen of the new version of the game, the Starship Bloopers version, the less I find I give a shit.

If they can get Denise Richards and Dina Meyer to do some nude cutscenes, I may find a bit of time to play...

I wish to know more about this game you propose Wayabvpar....

What if it can bring CoX-style gameplay? I'm reserving the right to hate this game until it (if ever) reaches a retail state. Hell, I didn't even like EQ2 or SWG until at least a year after retail...

With a PORNACORN!

From the direction of this conversation, I summarize that TR is dead.

Ohh Zombies would be cool...

Even with CoX-style gameplay, it's still going to be a PVE-focused instance fest. I'm picturnig D&D Online at this point, only with science fiction. CoH was fun, but the grind of a purely (or mostly) PVE game got to me really, really quick. More PVP, less levelling plz.

TR played better than CoX to me, and I love how CoX played. Given the UI of TR, I am surprised they're not more focused on PvP. But not doing so they're effectively asking people to set aside their love of stats and drops for a game that requires more "skill" (in quotes b/c it remains to be seen by thousands) and try something new. Twitch for the RPG crowd at a time when we know damned well that the latter likes.

Innovation is still possible in this genre, and there can be money made. I fear it won't be made by TR though. As I've said, I've liked both versions of this game. I still don't think it's got more than a 50/50 shot of actually launching. The entire industry has changed.

I think they've spent too much money on it for Tabula Rasa not to launch, so I think it will come out at some point.

Whether or not it lives or just collapses across the threshold, coughs a few times and dies is another matter.

Agreed. If they were going to can it, it'd be canned by now. I think it will remind a lot of people of the DDO launch. Quiet and not very exciting. Their best shot will probably be at spending the first 6 months after launch refining the game to the point that people who are getting off the WoW train might find it interesting and refreshing and give it a try. Won't be huge, but maybe after a few decades it'll recoup the development costs.

The launch itself will not be big though, and if they try to make it big.. .well.. they wouldn't be dumb enough to release Auto Assault twice, would they?

There are costs associated with launching an MMO, though. Unless the box sales + subscriptions at least equals the launch and operating costs, you would be throwing away more money to launch a poorly conceived, executed, and received MMO. E.g. NCSoft wrote off $13.2 million in losses related to Auto Assault. It's not clear how much of that loss they could've reduced if they never launched AA and killed it sometime during its development but in hindsight they probably should've just shut it down before the last delay of the game, if not sooner, rather than continuing to work on it.

True, but it becomes a choice of losing all the money you've spent to date (as well as loss of reputation) versus spending a little bit more for the potential of getting your money back. It's either NO return at all, or the chance of some return at a higher price point. My belief in human behaviour makes me think TR will take the punt on a launch rather than pulling the plug entirely.

What AA has probably taught NCsoft is not to blow the marketing budget, so TR will be lucky to get a large enough cash to afford streamers and balloons for the launch party. It may even come down to Lord British reaching into his own pockets to supplement the cost of launch.

I have absolutely no inside track at all, but this game has already been canned. When the devs go this dark for this long, it's over. I am eerily reminded of UWOO (UO2) a few months before it was officially killed. The TR team is scrambling to meet a hard, survival-dependent deadline designed to give management reason to pull the plug.

Doesn't matter how much money has been spent in development. You can't launch unless you project an ROI. It's a lot easier to write off an expense than it is to continually justify paying the fees to keep a bad business going monthly and annually. If this was just Destination Games, then I can see the project moving along on inertia alone, for time in.  But this is NC Soft, and they have bigger things to worry about.

If TR continues to move forward, I project a switch to a microtransaction based model and ingame advertising support from Massive Entertainment.

That's a bold prediction, sir. If this were NHN, Webzen, or some other Korean company with an American development team under their wing I could see that as more likely, but NCSoft has yet to try micro transactions on a large scale (or maybe any scale?) in Korea. You think they're bold enough to take that leap in America first?

Interesting.

Yeah...I'm all about PvE instancing. EQ taught me I don't like to be forced to share a dungeon with whatever maladroit happens to stumble in. Multiple games have taught me I don't like PvP much in an mmo, the majority of people have more time to sink in and playing to be crushed isn't my cup of tea.

I've almost hit the level I was originally in CoH with my CoV Mastermind, and the only grind-related thought I've had is that I'm levelling a bit too fast. I debted myself last night so I can squeeze in the last 20-25 story arc in Sharkhead, something I thought would be ridiculous, given my last experience in CoH. Turns out I skipped a ton of content because my blaster wasn't good at soloing missions, so it felt like a grind. I'm only at the halfway point, so I don't know how much missions will carry me through the later game, but for now I have zero grind complaints about CoV.

My problem with DDO was that I didn't care for the gameplay itself, something about the mechanics never clicked. But mostly, low-level AD&D sucks and Eberron holds zero interest for me. Greyhawk for life, mofo.

I don't think it's a question of "bold", but one of last resort. I do agree though that the NC Soft of 2004 and the NC Soft of today seem to have very different styles. In 2004, they had the promise of GW, AA, TR and L2. That was a fun E3. Thereafter though...

I would have to agree with you on that.

Prior to Auto Assault, I saw an NCsoft who had made a moderate success with L2 (compared to the western penetration of L1), a massive western success with guild wars, and several promising titles on the horizon. They were acquiring new teams, building an empire, etc.

Then Auto Assault crashed, L2 started taking a hit in Korea, and TR said at E3 '06 that it wasn't going to make it out the door this year. They have a chance to turn it around. I think they have enough money that L3, Aion, and some other titles may come out as huge successes in Korea and continue the trend of saturating the west (especially looking at their current design changes to L2 which are getting far more western).

However, the near future looks very shaky. Dungeon Runners does not strike me as something that will be played by very many, Soccer Fury and Exsteel look cool, but they aren't MMOs, and TR is either not going to make it to release, and won't be huge even if it does.

They're riding on slowly dying Korean L2 and Guild Wars expansions for the next 2 years, while they build these finance consuming supergames like L3, Aion, TR... and continue to update L1 and L2 with free content expansions that include huge art and sound assets for free to the players.

In my opinion though, they could do something good by offering a "Station Pass" type service over here in the west. Give people L2, Auto Assault and CoX for one flat fee (the same $15 one). I'm not a marketting guy, but I don't think theres a huge amount of cross-contamination here. Not too many people have accounts for two of these games at the same time, so you're not losing much, but you gain by decreasing subscription losses as players simply move between games and try out games that they otherwise would never even give a try. I mean, Jesus Christ, I don't know if you've been to an EB lately, but the one around here has a sign up "FREE COPY OF AUTO ASSAULT WITH PURCHASE OF ANY PC GAME" If they're giving it away, why don't they give it to all their current customers? It could keep them subscribed for another month.

After a few more Guild Wars expansions are out, and they stop making much revenue from the original game, you can throw that in there too. Just, if you unsubscribe from the service you need to buy a retail copy of guild wars to play. Same goes for all those other non-mmo games they're putting out.

I don't know, maybe it's not the best idea, but when you look at the forecast for the near future... they need to do something.