Tabula Rasa: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall

[RadarX]

The love and hate of current and former Tabula Rasa players could write an entire book about it's rollercoaster ride from fame to finish. While it might be easier to diagnose what killed this science fiction MMO game, we have decided to go a different route. Our tribute to Tabula Rasa highlights every important event and milestone from the few months before launch to the announcement of it's last days. Take a look inside for the complete history of Tabula Rasa.

February 2008 - Only hinted at before, the developers discuss the PAU (player armor vehicles) and what they will look like. This generate excitement amongst community and quickly becomes a very popular topic of discussion. Just a few days later, the Korea Times reports NCsoft CEO Jee Jae Ho is disappointed with disastrous sales. Whether based on truth or the ills of post game development, the Austin office is downsized.

Tabula Rasa: A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall

[megaflux]

be really interesting if you had a chart to illustrate subs to go along with this.

gaming needs more laser rifles.

[RadarX]

I wish I did too. I'd be speculating but I can assure the line would go down steadily.

[kitsunegirl]

Honestly, I would have loved to seen what they did with the return to earth bit. I think that would have been enough to make me go back and play it to see what its like. >.>

Maybe some enterprising Korean will buy the game and fix what Garriot messed up. ^.^

[Medeor]

I really enjoyed TR, but it was never going to be my main game so I would have been one of those customers they hate - restart my sub for a month or two and then unsub.


With the premium monthly sub of $15, a game has to be a weekly login. If it is less than that, I won't be there too long, please see the bookshelf of games i've unsubbed to over the last 3 years. If they could make money at $4.99 a month I would sub to that game and not care if I didn't log in all the time. Heck, I'd probably forget and just let it rollover forever. Just don't go to microtransactions, I still want a fixed price.

[Lushi]

As I've mentioned in the past on another forum I frequent, TR was an absolute blast to play before July 2007. In July of that year, they started to make changes to the game that seemed to mimic other MMOs. Experience was harder to gain, mobs were immune to damage, and a host of other changes took place. I don't know if they just felt people were leveling too fast, or something else was going on, but those few changes took a great game and killed it, in the span of just 1 month.

RGs arrogance about the game was also a turn off. He proclaimed that other MMOs were all similar, not breaking the mold. The patches they put in simply made TR more like the other MMOs that RG bashed. Combined with the Logos that were basically pointless, and the lack of character customization, and this game had fail written all over it before it even launched. Which is a pitty. I enjoyed the environment and the combat.

Here's hoping something positive can come out of the TR ashes.

[Vella]

That was a really good read. It's interesting to see the progression of the game from the beginning.

TR is a decent game, it's just too bad it didn't have quite enough going for it in this currently tough market.

[NeuroMan42]

I grew up playing all the RG games. In fact Exodus was my first RPG on a computer. I have lost all respect for RG and his crew of Starr Long and others. I will never deal with NCSoft or anything that the RG Crew ever touches again.

RGs arrogant castle-living self can lick this "Clean Slate."

[Anacche]

TR was a blast with so much to offer especially in terms of innovation.

Now that the game is dead in the hands it was in, I hope they either make it open (ie: private servers) or sell it to somebody who will re-develop its downsides.

[Thork]

This game is still living?