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Tabula Rasa's Community Coordinator leaves NCsoft
Here we are once again, saying goodbye to yet another talented NCsoft employee as they pursue a greater opportunity outside the company. And once again, we're saddened by the news, yet excited for their broadened horizons. This time it's Amy "Critters" Crider, former Community Coordinator for Tabula Rasa.Crider took over the community role earlier this year from April "CuppaJo" Burba, when she left for the Dungeon Runners team. Since that time, Crider has won the respect of the TR community through her work with in-game events, fansite interviews and more. Taking her place will be Dane Caruthers, who you may remember from our PAX08 interview earlier last month. We wish Dane all the best in his new role, and Amy continued success with her new venture.
Richard Garriott and special guest join TR's Friday Night Fights
In the past, we've reported on some excited bouts in Tabula Rasa's Friday Night Fights, but nothing compares to what they have in store for you now. Next Friday, July 25th, Richard Garriott will be facing up against two time featherweight boxing champ Jesus Chavez in the C.E.L.L.A.R. Arena. This will be held on the TR Test Server starting at 6pm Central time. They will be in C.E.L.L.A.R. 3, which can be accessed via teleporter from the barracks in Alia Das.If you're new to Friday Night Fights and aren't sure how it all works, TR's Community Coordinator Amy "Critters" Crider has assembled a handy Q&A which you can see right after the cut, as well as a hilarious promotional video created especially for this event. We hope to see you there!
NCsoft fires one back across the bow
A few days ago I wrote about an article in the Korea Times that took aim at NCsoft's 2007 fiscal report by calling Tabula Rasa a "financial disaster." The ensuing explosion both here at Massively (the comments section) and abroad (a direct reply from the Korea Times writer himself) was akin to the Bane dropping a mortar round smack dab into the middle of our little virtual compound. Other sites reported on the Korea Times article in the same manner. And Amy "Critters" Crider, TR's official Community Coordinator, even issued a public warning about said reporter and said article. But NCsoft didn't stop there. David Swofford, head of NCsoft's North American PR department, fired off a response via a statement given to the gang at Crispy Gamer. It's a doosey! Swofford said, "The Korea Times English edition story is full of inaccuracies... No one at NCsoft said the product is a financial disaster." He comments on a great may things, including the cost of the sci-fi MMO: "The TR development did not cost $100 million... I don't know where that came from."Ah... justice is served. If you've been following this situation here you owe it to yourself to click on over to the Crispy Gamer site and check out their full article. It's got more searing rebuttal from Swofford (kudos to them for scoring this by the way). Then come on back here 'cuz we so want to hear what you have to say about this!
Tabula Rasa not in the dumps after all?
Earlier this morning we posted an article from The Korea Times that -- on the surface -- seemed to herald very bad times for NCsoft and Tabula Rasa. After talking with our contacts at NCsoft, things may not be nearly as dire as the writer of that article made it seem. The cliche "take things with a grain of salt" was coined for a reason, and as you'll see... this appears to be one of them. According to what we were able to uncover this very same Korea Times staff writer has earned a reputation for writing sensationalized articles about NCsoft. In the last year he apparently has "reported" particulars from conferences that he never actually attended.Here are a few nuggets of knowledge that Cho Jin-seo "forgot" to mention:
NCRage goes toe to toe with "Critters"
NCRage (a new website dedicated to all things NCsoft, so you know I'm a member) recently sat down with Amy "Critters" Crider, the Tabula Rasa Community Coordinator, and talked about her role, the community program, and what the dev team is working on next.Rage asked her about the interesting dynamic between TR and the fan community, specifically in regards to the fact that unlike CoX, Tabula Rasa does not have any official forums. They're all run through third party fansites. Part of Critters job is to work directly with them by promoting their features and events. She personally visit them daily to address or note hot topics, and provides "official" responses on a regular basis. In fact, the community is so important that issues in the past have been bumped up on the "To Do" list. One example given by Critters was item rarity. The whole concept was "introduced to make mission rewards more important and make it easier to recognize an item's worth." Plus, several emotes were added based on player suggestion.Be sure to check out the whole interview with Critters. It goes without saying that NCsoft knows how to run an MMO. The players make the game, and giving them this much access, attention and say is undoubtedly something that other, less gamer-friendly MMOs, should take to heart.
TR's CuppaJo dings, promoted to management
Tabula Rasa's lovely and lively community manager, April "CuppaJo" Burba has gotten the thumbs up from management to move on to greener pastures... situated a couple offices down the hallway. She's taken on the rank of Associate Producer for Tabula Rasa in recognition of her efforts on the game for the past three years. According to her letter to the community at large, she'll be taking on a sort of shepherd role, goading new patches through development from design to execution, as well as performing triage in outage issues and things like that. We hope she enjoys her new position and (we hope) expanded paycheck.Taking her place as the main community contact will be Amy Crider, better known to most players within the community as Dev_Critters. CuppaJo promises she'll poke her head when she can, and when Critters is on vacation. We, for our part, welcome our new Critters overlord (overlady?) and hope we've all got years of fun community events ahead of us.[Via TR Vault]
