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Wednesday, March 5, 2008Dev Corner: Tabula Rasa - State of the Game
In the last few weeks there’s been talk about the future of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, the financial impact of the game on NCsoft as a whole, and the state of our development team here in Austin. I think it’s important to clarify what is going on and what our players can look forward to in the near future, because there is a lot to look forward to. NCsoft has committed a lot of money and resources into continuing post-launch development of Tabula Rasa. We have been putting new content into the game every few weeks, and we will continue doing just that. We have already added more upper level content and new features like Hybrids, and we’re working on tons of exciting content, such as Personal Armor Units (mechs and mini-vehicles that players can use and will grant them new abilities). Other features we are planning include Command Opportunity, where players will get the ability to summon entire squads of upgradeable NPCs to fight for them. Clans will be able to battle over control points, which we are building specifically for clan versus clan gameplay. Another addition we’re working on is Flashpoints, which are missions that start dynamically in a region for a number of players, whenever certain criteria are met. Richard Garriott remains involved in, and dedicated to, Tabula Rasa. Even while training for the opportunity of a lifetime—to go to space—he’s been in daily contact with our team, providing guidance and continually challenging us. I would be remiss if I don’t clarify the matter of rumored “massive layoffs” within NCsoft North America and the Tabula Rasa team. While the game has not taken off as quickly as we had hoped, we also launched in an insanely competitive time frame, with several well-known intellectual properties launching follow up products at the same time. However, the fact of the matter is that we are transitioning from a pre-launch crunch-mode development team to a live service team. This is standard in our industry—you ramp up to launch a game and then ramp down once it’s live. This is what we are doing over the next several weeks, and it only affects the Tabula Rasa team. Once all is said and done, we will still have a substantial live team for industry standards. As you can see by the new features we’re working on, we’re still planning on lots of great content and updates all year long. There has been a lot of talk about Tabula Rasa lately which doesn’t match the reality of the situation. I hope I’ve been able to shed some light on what is really going on. We have become a more flexible team and have put procedures in place in order to deliver more focused, timely content and fixes much faster than before. This has given us the ability to support our players in a much more timely fashion, which they seem to appreciate and we plan to continue. I can’t close this column without mentioning Tabula Rasa’s community. They have been invaluable in helping us determine the priorities for the game moving forward. We deeply value our community’s passion, commitment, and dedication to the game. They continue to provide us with excellent feedback and ways to improve Tabula Rasa. We have a lot on the horizon for Tabula Rasa this year, so stay tuned to our website for more updates on the game. Thanks for your time! Starr Long, Producer of Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, NCsoft North America |
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3/06/08 6:57:03 AM#2
Suma sumarum Executive TR producer is training for the opportunity of his lifetime—to go into space. Development team who gave us patch every 2 or more months will be changed with new dev team who has no clue about TR whatsoever. They will continue to listen community like they listened before and cos of this we want be provided with official forum instead devs will surf around unofficial forums around the world to collect some feedback. Stay tuned... |
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3/06/08 10:10:43 AM#3
Anyone else getting tired of hearing the same old load of vapour? Only thing semi-new in the post was the flashpoints - the rest has been mooted (with not even a soft and fuzzy ETA) since well before it went live
yet more unsatisfactory propaganda
"There has been a lot of talk about Tabula Rasa lately which doesn’t match the reality of the situation." Actually I think a lot of the talk accurately matches the situation, but then I live in the real world
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3/06/08 3:44:44 PM#4
- 5 patchs in 4 months = average 1 patch a month. |
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3/11/08 6:41:14 PM#5
I thought they took down the forums right after the beta went live That or its not easy to find taking down the forums only means you dont want to player to comunicate with each other IMO
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Originally posted by Malzor442 The "feed back form" is not hard to find it is right on the main page of the website says " feed back form" on the left side just click on it |
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3/11/08 7:59:42 PM#7
Originally posted by wide52 the feedback form does not let players communicate with each other. IMO, it's always suspect when a game doesn't have official forums.... especially an MMO. |
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Originally posted by SalvatorisYea i see your point I thought that was strange to but i guess since they do link to a form on a fansite they figure it is enough. But i do see Devs and GM's in the general chat alot talking to players. |
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Reklaw
Hard Core Member
Joined: 1/07/06
Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves. |
3/12/08 1:14:35 AM#9
Originally posted by Salvatoris
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3/12/08 11:55:17 AM#10
Official forums are an industry standard. Every successful MMO has an official forum, and yes sometimes people get in to arguments on them, but they are also the number one source for game information. Every MMO I have played, when I want to find some info on the game, it is available on the official forums. The only game I can think of that didn't have official forums is Vanguard, and SOE corrected that problem when they took the reins. I can only think of a few real reasons not to have official forums... and none of them are positives for the subscribers. If they know people are really unhappy with their game, they don't want that unhappiness posted on a branch of their official website. If they know the game has huge glaring issues, but they don't want to discuss them with us.. or if they want to pretend that all your performance issues are the fault of your machine, and they don't want the players comparing notes on the issue.. maybe they are just too cheep or too lazy to maintain them.... or just maybe they know the game sucks, and they want to avoid our criticism. I can't think of a single positive thing effect to a game not having an official forum.But I can think of plenty of negatives. An uninformed, fractured community being at the top of that list. P.S. You said many other MMOs handle it the same way... please name a few. |
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3/12/08 1:18:38 PM#11
offical forums are one of the reasons you pay for a game there is no excuse for nc soft not to have them for TR the only reason is that they know they produced a shoddy game and dont want to see the coustomers complaining about it plus starr long's massive arrogent Ego wont allow him to see that people are complaining about the game and its not all joy and sunshine like the lies he constantly puts out |
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Originally posted by Salvatorisone big problem is (just like this form )are flooded with the same people over and over who just want to complain about the game and not be helpful in anyway. Just so people looking at the form will think the game is crap and not give it a try. Most are people think every MMO is at war or somthing and one has to come out the winner. Just like, I dont know how many WOW lovers insist coming on the board and saying how awful TR is.( even though they probably have never played it )guess they afraid TR is stealing some WOW customers or somthing. I dont get it , but thats how it is
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3/12/08 1:34:02 PM#13
The fact is in the beta they had a regular forum just like any MMO Now they dont And outside of NCsoft I dont know of a MMO that doesnt let there players comunicate , And talk about there game experiances both positive or negitive Which IMO (and just IMO mind you ) puts NCsoft below even the callus gaint SOE for customer apathy . Even during the beta they handled bug reports in a strange manner esp for a beta when a company WANTS bug reports , The more bugs you filed trying to help NCsoft out the more useless form letters you got flooding your mailbox crazy way to run a beta But you had the forums and contact with the Dev's which I believe helped way more than there bug reporting system Now if they do give you links to fansites all that does is dilute the sample of players you can comunicate with , Also being fansites the large sample of fans will be postive and most likey "fan boi" attack any frustration felt by the player toward the game , Where as in a officail forum you would also get players who might be experiancing the same frustration you are , And get a dev responce and perhaps effect a change or at the very least let them know how the players feel about it NCsoft just gives me the impression "This is the game play it , quit , or move on . No discussion allowed " BTW Im not here to detract from your experiance, In fact Im glad it was good , however I am here to let others know in general how I felt about NCsofts product and how they support it . |
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3/12/08 10:08:36 PM#14
Well, you can't really blame them. They made a bad product with tons of probblem. What do you expect them to do? Let all the complaints chase away the few unsuspected customers? The game is probably doomed anyway with bad word-of-mouth and a exec producer going awok. However, getting one unsuspected customer going for another month is another $15 to cover their ungodly development cost. |
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Originally posted by nariusseldon
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3/13/08 2:26:35 AM#16
The thing is - once a WOW player tries TR they realise how much time they are deliberately forced to waste in WOW with travel and collect X of Y quests. A couple of friends have said they can never go back to WOW as its such a time waster. As for the forums - it was known before beta started there would be no official forums. So it has nothing to do with the state of the game, or the people developing it. I think the conspiracy theorists have their tin foil hats on to tight its squashing their brains. |
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3/13/08 2:49:58 AM#17
One more reason to have official forum. I don't think someone who plays WOW would decide to visit TR official forum to post something. Even better i would allow posting only to the subscribers. |
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3/13/08 3:59:33 PM#18
Originally posted by wide52 I've never eaten feces, but I'm pretty sure it takes like crap. When everyone bashes a game, usually it means the game sucks. 10 years of MMO experience at work right there. ----------------------------------------- |
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Originally posted by nethervoidThis is very untrue, most people that get on here just a bash a game . do it just cause it is the cool thing to do or makes them feel "edgey" ( how ever you spell that) . Or like i said before are afraid that people will try this game and like it and there for leave there game. People who like the game are not here . they are playing , cause the serveres are always pretty full. I cant play the game at work or I would not be here either I would be playing.
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3/14/08 2:47:01 AM#20
wide52 what you are talking is nonsense. Let me repeat, advantage of official forum is that you can make only people with valid subscription can post. |
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