Tom Potter, the new Lead Designer for NCsoft's Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, sits down with MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood to talk about his thoughts on the game and where it's heading.

MMORPG.com:

Can you give us an idea of your own personal game design experience?

Tom Potter

If you had told me when I was eight years old, "hey kid, you're gonna be making games someday", I think my head would have exploded.

Whether it was making my own rules for Axis and Allies, or actually sending Nintendo proposals in the mail (which were all kindly rejected), I always knew I wanted to be a game designer. But back then it really didn't seem like a viable career path. So I took a long detour through some other fields before realizing that is was in fact possible to make games and make it a career. I was a chemist for a while, but it just wasn't really fulfilling personally. So I made the decision to switch careers, and through a lot of blood, sweat and tears I finally got a chance to join the industry. Prior to joining NCsoft I worked at Iron Lore Entertainment as Lead Content Designer. While there I worked on Titan Quest, Titan Quest: Immortal Throne, and a little bit of Dawn of War: Soulstorm. I joined NCsoft initially as a Senior World Designer and was responsible for making maps and instances. I just recently transitioned to the Lead Designer role which is really a whole new set of challenges. But the team is really fantastic and we're making strides towards making TR better and better with every update.

Read the whole interview here.

What weak questioning!

How about asking why they have destroyed the class 'Engineer' resulting in me and many others joining the thousands leaving the game?

Or perhaps why they put out patches on the test server and then ignore player responses to them?

Or why patches are invariably released broken or which break other elements of the game even when those problems are highlighted by players on the test server.

Or why they are concentrating their efforts on pvp when the majority of players left in the game have little or no interest in it and would much rather have some substantial new playable content?

Tom may have gotten his dream job as Lead Designer, but under his lead a high quality game is dying. Even those like me who loved the game will not be coming back now that alternatives like AoC have raised the bar. Every patch since February 2008 has eaten away at the playability and fun factor of TR and now Tom and his minions are simply re-arranging the deckchairs on a ship sinking because they themselves torpedoed it. Enjoy it while it lasts Tom but make sure you are wearing a life-jacket.

Personally, I started playing a couple of months ago and I really like Tabula Rasa.

I don't play as a engineer, though...

The latest changes they have been making seem quite interesting, in particular the substitution of Prestige for the assault/defense tokens, and the new clan control points.

:(  Mass Effect comes out this week.  I really LOVE TR, but....  Gah!  :D

1) revamped Crafting

2) revamped use of the Logos (part of the lore the game was sold on, but serve no purpose other then a small percentage opening powers)

3) revamped classes OTHER THEN SPIES AND SNIPERS!! Honestly, Spies and Snipers are the pretty blond that get all the attention, while the underappricated brunett sits idly by... Soon, the brunnette is gonna hit puberty and it'll be to late! Focus on the other classes!!

There's a list Tom. I hope you do better then Paul. The best thing you could do is take RG's name off the game, since essentially his name is all the fat,  limey, scab has done for the game. 

Make these happen and I'll play until KOTORO comes out.  

Too little too late.

I actually forgot that I even played TR until I saw this article. That's how memorable this game was and I played it for a couple of months.

TR blew its chance to impress and attract players. With AoC out, WAR coming this fall, and others on the horizon, it shouldn't be long until it suffers a dreadful fate. Maybe Sony can buy it.

The game wasn't bad, there are just so many small things...

Copy and Pasted questions + Copy and Pasted responds = nothing that havent been said before.  I actually know less after reading it then before (if that's even possible)

But hey,, those 2 weeks of playing TR was great wasn't it?!

Right now we're really focused on making the clan-owned control points fun and compelling.

I have to agree with Roadshow. The folks that are left, could care less about pvp and even less about clans. I told NC to get the pvp thing out of their heads in the beginning. But like most devs..if they think its fun to play at their office..then EVERYONE must think its fun. Personally, I play a lot of online FPS, FPS style rewards I'd like to see. Unlocks or medals, pins, badges, ranks. Instead of posting pvp ranks on their official web site, how about MOST CONTROL POINTS CAPTURED...for the week..or total.  Most Bane vehicles destroyed. Most bane killed this week. Highest kill/death ratio. You know, give us things to shoot for that actually make the game fun.

LOL @ not having ANYTHING (no sarcasm) to do past level 50.

Loved the game in the begining, but endgame killed it for me, not to mention the endless attention to the spies/snipers when every class in the specialist tree was in desperate need of fixes and tweaks.  *cough medics - demos - engines* Everytime they even attempted to touch a specialist class they broke it more. I gave them more than enough chances. I even kept my measly 15 bucks a month account active just so it would "help" them financially to come back and fix things, while I sat and waited, not playing at all.

All it takes is a couple solid games to come out like AoC and it will take out whats left of TR. 

If you want something fresh and inovative, I recommend picking up AoC. Fabulous game.

What a bombshell. Should be a free MMO shortly IMO.  Archlord anyone?

I don't like there vision nor do i think it even makes sense.When i played it felt like me the mobs and a dead world around me.It felt like zones instead of a world.The quests were very boring.The crafting system uses terms that leave you scratching your head.I would get drops and because they were named with no common terms i wouldn't have a clue what it was used for.

The idea of an assault setup and defending control points works in first person shooters because that is ALL you do and expect to do.Why would anyone want to sit there and continually fight for a control spot and ignore the rest of the game?An example in a game i play FFXI,is BESEIGED .You wouldn't continually fight for the city and safe protection of the odd NPC[warp NPC]on a continual basis.This battle would popup once a day and give you a break to do other stuff in the game.

Another thing i didn't like was that the weapons felt more like PEW peW than a cool weapon.I guess i am spoiled by the best weapon game ever unrealtournament.I'm used to combo attacks and dodging and different weapons mean alot in different scenarios.I am also spoiled after playing EQ and FFXI just about every aspect of gaming has already been covered and unique ideas like sub jobs.So it's not really just tabala rasa but every game that comes out now has to offer something in the advancement in gaming or it just feels OLD and boring.

I might also add  that the mapping was nothing brilliant either.Each zone had a few buildings and maybe a tower then another part would have boxes and walls .It really looked more like a game that was made for console gaming.Like i said i been spoiled by seeing some amazing mapping efforts done for unrealtournament.I enjoyed quake as well but the maps for that game were not so good IMO anyhow.Of course the mapping in TR also felt extremely linear,something i hate with a passion.So really there wasn't one thing i could honestly say i enjoyed about the game or it's design ,so no wonder i could never stay online more than 15 minutes a time before i had to logoff the game.

I am sure we all are waiting for that huge effort/complete game,but for now we would accept a game that picks one area and really beefs it up.It might be the battle system,the armour/weapons or maybe even the job/class design,maybe a cool co op designed around questing/epic questing who knows but something has to stick out and be enjoyable .

I can tell you where this game is going.......

*flush*

Well, I consider TR as a perfectly casual experience between playing AoC and EVE Online. Its a colorful ride, with good enough graphics and fast paced combat. I like it, I'm going to play it till i hit lvl 50. If they will run out of content by then I will cancel my subscription, as simple as that.

Tom's vision is heading towards PvP but he forgets or doesnt know that it was an issue ages ago. Now with small number of players concentrating mostly on soloing or casually grouping through harder instances, PvE is the name of the game. And it needs more content. CP are cool to camp, hunting through zones for bosses to gain Prestige points is fun, why not make more of that instead making up player owned CP's? What for? What would they do with it? Who would fight them? NPC Bane? They have it already when defending normal CPs.

This game wasn't and isn't succesful so let's not kid ourselves that  more money will be poured into it , letting devs give players PAUs or space stations...

I enjoy it though, but won't shed any tears when it's gone.

It was advertised as PvE game with solid story and interesting guests.

Ended up and going into direction of of some form of PvP "thing".

I can't quite get how you can make something good by designing PvE game fo eyears, just to totally change your goals after release.

And if you were to make it PvP then it should be Bane vs Human. Flying "select few" to Bane planet just to kill each other is just stupid. And doesn't make any sense game lore wise either.

It's hard to believe how people involved in this game could have wasted amount of money that was invested, and came up with what we have today.

And above interview just confirms IMHO there there is just no hope it will ever become a game it was advertised as.

Well damn,  I think if Tom was reading through the comments, he might feel disheartened.

I played TR beta and got a few 30's (via cloning).  Never picked up the game until the 3-day trial.

Really looking deep into the game mechanics, I can see a good game trying to escape, but there is a long way.  I feel bad TR is receiving such bad feedback, and I hope they are able to realize the game they wanted.

I was very excited about TR. And even renewed sub 2 times in hope I will like it "this time".

I still wish it would be taken into a promising direction.

I just don't think PvP is the right path. And it is only path TR team is taking game on to.

I wish TR all the best. Though I don't believe best is what awaits TR.

And just have to add that lack of official forums is doing more harm then good.

I realize forums are usually full of whinners and complains. But if you will filter out those you are getting valuable feedback from you player base.

Hope above doesn't sound too much like a rant :)

Originally posted by pmcubed

Well damn,  I think if Tom was reading through the comments, he might feel disheartened.

And well he should be. His prediessor's did not leave him with a golden egg. They shuffled off a wilted, dieing plant. It will need lots of love and improvement if its ever to grow to fruition.

Originally posted by Jpizzle

3) revamped classes OTHER THEN SPIES AND SNIPERS!! Honestly, Spies and Snipers are the pretty blond that get all the attention, while the underappricated brunett sits idly by... Soon, the brunnette is gonna hit puberty and it'll be to late! Focus on the other classes!!

If you think that spies and snipers are getting *love* then I'd hate to see what your example of non-love is.  Nerf after Nerf after Nerf on top of Nerf mixed with Nerf... you're more than welcome to have the classes team look at re-balancing yours... I'm tired of trying to give them feedback on their idiotic nerfs then have them totally ignore it and tell us to learn2play.

It's not that the TR devs have had bad feedback - rather it's that they have ignored everything that wasn't being spouted by a fanboi luvvie

if, instead of basking in the glow of fanbois blowing smoke up their nethers, they had actually listened to people, TR would be a much better game, with a thriving subscriber base, and lots of happy campers

they didn't, it isn't, and we've all packed up camp and moved away

(me hears the fat lady warming up)

Originally posted by abhaigh

It's not that the TR devs have had bad feedback - rather it's that they have ignored everything that wasn't being spouted by a fanboi luvvie

if, instead of basking in the glow of fanbois blowing smoke up their nethers, they had actually listened to people, TR would be a much better game, with a thriving subscriber base, and lots of happy campers

they didn't, it isn't, and we've all packed up camp and moved away

(me hears the fat lady warming up)

I can't really say even if they listened to people that TR would have such a large subscriber base.  Its not that it's a bad game, they just half assed the control system.  It makes for a seemingly fun game but its somewhat close to the NGE. Granted the NGE would have been better if it was more like TR, TR would be better if it was less like the NGE.  Don't really know where that leaves it.

On another note Abhaigh, hows Experts-Exchange going for you? Saw you were on there, I gotta say I was somewhat impressed with your answer stats.  Good job.