General Discussion

I was bored so i started reading up a bit on tabala rasa as i am still baffled as to why the creator of ultima made such a poor game that also had such a different approach from ultima's design.

I found out that garriot's company was actually purchased by NCSOFT and lots of there staff were removed/replaced and the direction of the game was totally changed and re coded.

I think as was in my case ,that lots of people believed this was garriot putting his stamp on a game and truly believed that his knowledge couldn't fail.After all i have read,i strongly believe that NC SOFT ruined this game,especially since i don't care much for anything they have developed including lineage ,a game i played for a few months.

I got the same feeling playing lineage as i did playing TR,it felt super boring and gameplay was VERY superficial.I mean i could actually watch tons of pre programmed/scripted bots kill methodically over and over ,then they would walk back into town following a botted path directly to an NPC for quest cash in.Besides the obvious bots and no GM support that cared about there game,i also felt like i was one of those bots,doing nothing but killing the same mobs and walking back in to cash-in.I remember reporting SEVERAL times the bot problems within there game,yet week after week the exact same bots were still there.

Now i read on the NC soft site that there customer support is top notch[lmao] and that they have a system whereby they can release tons of staff after game launchs such as TR ,yet continue the utmost support for there game...again lmao.This was talk by there staff leader starr long/john erskine trying to shed rumours that TR is not dead and they somehow are making tons of new content and moving forward with great strides even though the game is failing.They said it was a poor release date that hurt the game as there was to much competition to combat against.This could be quite true,but it doesn't matter,release a good prduct and you will get the public support.

IMO i don't trust NCSOFT's staff or game direction for ANYTHING they do or take part in.They come across to me as nothing but another cheap F2P developer,that actually charges for there products.I mean look no further than aeria games ,a F2P developer and you will see that there games play and look quite similiar.IMO aeria's F2P games are perhaps more advanced and a much better value for the cost.

To sum up my opinion,i truly belive that TABALA RASA failed because NCSOFT got there hands on this product and not because garriot has no clue in the sci-fi genre,an impression i got from other posts i read.I was even more shocked to read that most every gaming site gave TR great reviews and rated there gameplay as advanced and breaking new grounds.I didn't find anything to warrant there reviews.This makes you wonder if you can trust gaming site reviews at all.I think reviews were more a case of garriot's name being stamped on the product ,so they wanted the game to be a success even if the finished product was not.

This is all too bad because NCSOFT now owns garriot's company,so i doubt we will ever see anything great from garriot again in the future.Perhaps one day if he can break free from NC and start his own company again.I doubt this will happen because he is getting to the age of no return.

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Originally posted by Wizardry
I was bored so i started reading up a bit on tabala rasa as i am still baffled as to why the creator of ultima made such a poor game that also had such a different approach from ultima's design.

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Raph Koster had as much to do with Ultima Online as Richard Garriott. People tend to forget that, but it's a very important fact. You can now see the difference in how Koster handled SWG and how Garriott handled TR.

I disagree with you, however. Tabula Rasa is a fun game, but it's not a classic MMO and certainly not a sandbox-style MMO like Raph Koster likes to make.

Changing staff on any developing product gives it two possible outcomes: death-march where the product never comes out or it comes out lack-luster which TR did. Because of this, you can say NCSoft is responsible for the fiasco of TR, but Garriott at numerous times, along with Starr Long, have stated there were cultural differences that couldn't be overcome by either Korean or US parts of the TR development team, which meant he (Richard Garriott) had to let go almost all of the Korean team and some of the US team, and start fresh. Such a decision is very risky and costly as they probably literally dumped millions of lines of code and hundreds (to thousands) of manhours of art assets from their HDDs. All in all, there is still fault to leave at Garriott's foot regardless of what hero worship status you may offer him (because every developer that gets an inflated ego is sure to fail regardless of their own individual skill in code and design).

-- Brede

I agree that NCSoft Customer Support is abysmal, but I don't think NCSoft gives that firm a hand in the development of titles they publish, just look at Dungeon Runner. 

Tabula Rasa does have its merits.  Although its noticebly missing development after release which is crucial to the success of a game.  The combat is much more fluid, and weapon choice matters.  Heck even ability choice matters.  This in my book ranks it higher then most games released.  Its instances are also the best in an mmo currently released.  I think the reason it failed are several point.  1st it couldn't draw people from the precious mmo they were attached to, 2nd they didn't advertise and hype the game up enough, and 3rd they didn't continue a well paced development after release.

I disagree it was released at a bad time due to competition.  Infact it was released in the midst of no competition and the mmo community seeking something new.  If they could have delivered on the game it was possible to be a big success.

*Laughs*

I get it.

Replace Tabula Rasa with Vanguard:Saga of Heroes
Replace Richard Garriot with Brad McQuaid
Replace NCSoft with SOE

Nice.

Originally posted by Shoal

*Laughs*

I get it.

Replace Tabula Rasa with Vanguard:Saga of Heroes
Replace Richard Garriot with Brad McQuaid
Replace NCSoft with SOE

Nice.

not really, TR was playable upon release, just boring as hell.

vanguard was a fiasco from the word go; both technically and content/play-wise.

I love NCsoft...they're brought us Guild Wars and CoX among other games. Plus, they will be bringing us GW2 and Aion soon too. Woot.

you love Arena Net and Cryptic Studios, NC Soft is just the freaking publisher that usualy ruins all, also that crap L2 was made by E&G an korean craptastic studio i believe.

NC Soft is just a big dam corporation, EA Wannabe, with no real developers or creativity.

Yet if it wasn't for them, they wouldn't be published games now would they?

And wasn't CoX bought by NCsoft?

Personally I think ncsoft has learned alittle bit as you see from things like dungeon runners and exteel, even if thousands of hours are wasted on little things no one cares about they still le