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Richard Garriott: 'Exceptionally unusual pressures' helped tank Tabula Rasa
What truly happened with the sad tale of Tabula Rasa, the scifi MMO that had the full backing of Richard Garriott and NCsoft -- and yet lasted only 15 months before being shuttered? For the full scoop, it's good to go right to the source: General British himself. Garriott sat down with Eurogamer for a candid dissection of what went wrong with Tabula Rasa. Ultimately, he feels that he did not do enough to make the game the best it could've been. Initially, Garriott's team brought on several Asian developers to help shape the title to be appealing to the Eastern market. The partnership didn't work out, and after two years the team basically started over. By then, Tabula Rasa was already struggling. "So Tabula Rasa started its two-year late restart under exceptionally unusual pressures and with understandable corporate discontent, which made it very difficult to finish," he said. Garriott then acknowledges that the MMO's failure has caused players to be wary about his future projects: "Since Ultima Online was a fair time back and Tabula Rasa had its troubles, it makes perfect sense that people would go, 'I'm cautious as to what my expectations are.'"
Aion's third podcast takes on the east vs. west gaming approaches
The next video in the Aion podcast series is up, and this time the staff speaks on the differences in how the Western and Eastern markets perceive gameplay, and how Aion manages to stretch their Tower of Eternity across both markets. According to the podcast, the team has designed Aion with a global mindset -- such as tempering the experience grind with story and adapting the graphics to straddle the cultural preferences of both markets. In addition to that, they wished to bring new perspectives to the industry as a whole, including their take on flight and the use of PvP in PvE settings, such as the notorious Abyss.But don't take our word for what they said in the podcast when you can view it right here! We've embedded the video in this post right after the break, so hit "continue reading" to see what the Aion team has to offer!
