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TR's lead designer answers your questions
How often do you get the opportunity to ask a big-time developer a question and actually hear their answer? Unless you travel to a gaming conference and stand in line for an hour, this isn't likely to happen, but on the next episode of TabulaCast, the hosts John and Matt will be interviewing Tom Potter, the leader designer for Tabula Rasa. They will be asking him questions submitted by the listeners regarding the game and his new role in the lead designer seat after taking over for Paul Sage last month. Of course, not all questions will be on the show, but only the very best will be chosen. This is a very exciting interview for the folks at TabulaCast who have previously interviewed some of the "leaders" in the Tabula Rasa player community including PlanetTR's main admin DeadRinger, Ten Ton Hammer's TR lead Tony "Radar X" Jones as well as both Community Coordinators: Amy "Critters" Crider and Tia "Avatea" from NCsoft Europe.
Tabula blogger travels to NCsoft Europe
Tabula Blogger recently got to take a trip to NCsoft Europe headquarters and meet the fine folks who make up the Tabula Rasa Europe team. It sounds like things went exceedingly well, as Tabula Blogger had all good things to say about their experience. You can read all the crazy exploits of the trip on this page and as an added bonus get to see some pretty cool sketch art. It also sounds like the Tabula Rasa Europe team has some very nice digs with a working space that includes a big TV, PS3 and some Rock Band action. What more could any geek ask for?We always love to see players in the community having these kinds of experiences with the people responsible for the live support and development of an MMO. It really helps keep the entire community invigorated and happy, which is a topic oft discussed here at Massively. So in other words: keep up the good work NCsoft Europe!
A tour through the new Tabula Rasa arena
The newest Tabula Rasa PvP arena, named the C.E.L.L.A.R. (Coalition of Enlistees Likely Looking for Aggressive Retaliation), has been gaining some attention since its introduction in Deployment 8 this week. This arena is set up as a boxing ring, complete with suitable equipment, colored corners and the whole nine yards. Earlier this week, the members of the TR MOG clan held a tournament in this arena, and we were lucky enough to attend. We figured we would take this opportunity with the tournament in play to snap some screenshots and create a handy guide to the arena for those who aren't familiar with it just yet.%Gallery-9822%
Win a sketch of your TR character
The good folks at Tabula Blogger and TabulaCast (I can say that they're good now, as I'm no longer the host!) have managed to create an amazing contest this week, with a fantastic prize sponsored by NCsoft. The rules are easy: simply write a Tabula Rasa-themed haiku and send it along to the podcast's hosts John and Matt for judging. The winner will have the character of their choice drawn by a professional artist through the Draw the World Together charity.This charity has worked with NCsoft several times in the past, including an event at the Omega Sektor earlier this year. All the money raised at these events goes to help fund the work of the children's charity EveryChild and their work with street children around the world.Help support this charity, Tabula Rasa and these generous fansites through this wonderful contest!
Tabula Blogger's birthday bash
If you could have any birthday wish, what would it be? Would it involve something extra special like an in-game event in Tabula Rasa? How about if the NCsoft European Community Coordinator showed up too? And what if she spawned countless high level Bane within Foreas Base for you and your friends to have their own special shooting gallery within a safe zone? It sure beats Pin the Tail on the Donkey!How many MMOs do you know that would do something like this for a fansite owner? I'm sure you could count them on one hand, but even in an unofficial appearance, it was extremely generous of Avatea to attend this small event for John, the owner of Tabula Blogger. Be sure to check out Tabula Blogger's post concerning more information on the event, including screenshots and an exciting video of the party-goers taking down some high-level Bane inside the base!
Tabula Rasa: A fan's P.O.V.
Misery may love company, but negativity breeds page hits. People are more fascinated with "misery" then they are with joy, and once the bad PR bandwagon gets rolling there's usually no slowing it down. Why do you think the evening news and daily newspapers are so rife with doom? It sells.Case in point: Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. Over the last few months TR has been the bane (pardon the pun) of gaming's misery lovers. But one fan of this funtastic sci-fi MMO has a different perspective. One that some of us here at Massively who play this game happen to agree with. In what amounts to a call to arms to the "silent majority" (those who play and enjoy the game but remain quiet in doing so) , as well as a defense against the horde of negativity, Tabula Blogger gives an unbiased rundown of the things that seem to be harped on the most (crafting, PvP, end game content)... from a player's POV, not a video game journalist's paid commentary.In particular I like the point made about how fast some players managed to "finish" the game and then had the audacity to gripe about no end content. TR has only been out five months (it launched in early November). Those who race to the end of any MMO within weeks of a game launching and then gripe about not having anything to do just don't get it. MMOs take years to make and aren't designed to be finished in mere weeks. They are not sprints (like single player frag fests), but marathons that should be enjoyed and savored. [Via Ten Ton Hammer via VirginWorlds]
How to find a fellow AFS soldier
In keeping with today's P.U.G. theme, we stumbled across another article today about how to find and enjoy the community in Tabula Rasa. Given the brouhaha over TR yesterday, we thought shinning a spotlight on this fun MMO would be beneficial.This helpful article (found on Tabula Blogger) provides an entire footlocker full of chat commands (i.e., "/whisper" sends a message to specific a player, "/group" or "/party" sends a message to your party, "/shout" or "/yell" sends a message to the map you're on) and suggestions on how to go about finding fellow AFS soldiers in the fight against the vile Bane. I've been playing this game since beta (and apparently have a far better outlook on TR than other people), yet I have never used the LFG (Looking For Group) Tab. Heck, I forgot it's there to be quite honest. But then, I'm not usually looking for groups (which is a whole other post I'm working on). However, if you are then it's where you need to be to find a group quick and easy like.
