The End of Tabula Rasa - The Conclusion to the Exclusive Interview

[Cody Bye]

As we draw ever nearer to the eventual closure of NCsoft’s Tabula Rasa, the MMO community continues to gesticulate over the details of the closure, what prompted the sudden about-face, and what the developers at Destination Games will be doing after the inevitable shut down of the game’s servers. Last week, I posted the first portion of my extensive interview with Auto Assault’s Scott Brown, an individual who has been there, done that, and lived to tell about it in terms of MMO closures. In the final section of our two part interview, Scott and I discuss the true meaning of beta (not to be confused with the true meaning of Christmas), the chances of reviving a game after it has launched, and the notion of creating an amazing MMOG. If you haven’t checked out part one, go and do it now then hop over to our forums and weigh in on Scott’s thoughts!

Ten Ton Hammer: Is there any way a game can be saved once the game underperforms at launch? Is there a way to resurrect the game?

Scott Brown: I don’t think so. In my opinion, if you launch dead, you’re dead. You can always keep those few fans that you have, and there will always be a small percentage that is into what you built, but changing public perception is almost impossible. A great example of this is Windows Vista. People have decided that Vista is terrible, and it doesn’t matter what Microsoft does: Vista will always be terrible to the people.

To read the rest of the exclusive Scott Brown interview on Tabula Rasa's closure, click here!

[Annatar]

Good read.

[merlik]

Very interesting interview. I do agree that open beat these days need to be a polished game. That is what killed Age of Conan I think. It was a very good game, but there were just too many bugs and they promised things that were never delivered. I prefer wha Warhammer did and just come out and say certain things can't happen and be honest, then later, give those things for free. But it has to be done far enough in advance that people don't feel like they are getting less of a game when something can't be included.