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Richard Garriott blasts NCsoft with $24 million lawsuit
When Tabula Rasa shut down in January, we thought we'd heard the last of NCsoft and Richard Garriott in the same sentence. Oh, how wrong we were. Yesterday, Kotaku broke the news that Garriott was suing his old pals at NCsoft to the tune of $24 million for fraud, and generally being a bunch of fetid arsebiscuits. Details were decidedly skimpy, however - why would Garriott go after the company so long after his departure? What had gone rotten in the state of Denmark? This morning, GamePolitics added their .02 to the mix and upped the ante with the legal documents involved - and boy, are they illuminating. According to Richard's side of the story, it goes like this: Richard & co form Destination Games, and are bought out by NCsoft in exchange for some very hefty stock options. After Tabula Rasa launches, Richard gets tapped for a space flight he signed up for some years prior. After talking to NCsoft higher-ups, he is approved for, and goes on, extended leave to take his space flight. During this time, he continues doing PR for Tabula Rasa, including Operation Immortality. Flight (and PR stunt) successful, Richard touches down to Earth, goes into quarantine in Russia, and NCsoft calls him to drop the hammer - while he's stuck in Russia, decontaminating. No choice, no warning, nothing. "So long, and thanks for all the Bane."
One Shots: A final salute
While Tabula Rasa may have shut down all of the servers, this game is by no means forgotten. As many people head into their favorite gaming spaces this weekend to spend time with friends, at least one group will be missing their favorite MMO haunt. This salute to the end of Tabula Rasa comes to us from Mort, who sent along the follow brief note: [This is] a final salute to the fallen Earth from clan Kaka, [taken] at the Empire State Building. We have a few other final Tabula Rasa contributions, so we'll be adding those in the mix in the days to come - if you'd like to send yours and join the fun, feel free! If you're playing a game we haven't seen in a while - or likely won't see again - why not send in a screenshot? We like to see everything from rolling landscape screens to the intense heat of battle. All you have to do is email it to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game it's from, and a quick note about what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you credit for sending it in!%Gallery-9798%
Dismissed! The final moments of Tabula Rasa
Despite any glimmer of hope from fans that the game could somehow be saved, NCsoft's Tabula Rasa closed down last night in a truly epic display of community and developer involvement. It's not often that we get to see the last second of an MMO's life, so it's important that we showcase those videos depicting the final moments. Quite a few videos have popped up already, with many more out there on YouTube. We've collected and embedded a few of the very first videos available just below the cut, courtesy of iRacerMatt, our reader Poozle, Plukh and the wonderful tribute video at WarCry. Plus, be sure to check out our visual tribute to TR through a gallery of player screenshots.%Gallery-39348%
One Shots: Raising a glass
Those brave soldiers of the AFS have been battling bravely against the Bane as the final days of Tabula Rasa tick to a close. Where these recruits will head next is anyone's guess, but we're glad to see a Tabula Rasa screenshot showing a little slice of life from the servers before they're gone. Today's One Shots comes to us from one AFS recruit, Kazmanchoy, who sent this in along with the following note. With the end of Tabula Rasa coming at the end of this week, there's never been a better time to head to one of TR's taverns to drown your sorrows with some fine Corman ale. The well-stocked bar seen here is in the Staal Nightclub in Crucible, on the planet Arieki. Are you taking part in the final days of Tabula Rasa? If so, we'd love to see some of your screenshots and hear some of your thoughts on this game. Just email them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name. We'll post your pictures for everyone to see and give you the credit for reporting in from the front lines. %Gallery-9798%
How NCsoft should have done their layoffs
Adam Martin is no stranger to NCsoft or the game industry. We've already covered both his look into the failure of Tabula Rasa from his position at NCsoft, as well as his advice on how to approach customer service. His current topic, however, is a bit more edgy than usual.Adam takes a crack at the NCsoft layoffs, not only saying they were expected but also going further by giving advice on how to properly lay off employees and departments. He makes the point that the company is simultaneously doing two things: both cleaning up the mess of a partial layoff in the development department in the European offices and transitioning the company into the hands of Arena.net veterans rather than Destination Games/Origin Systems veterans.It may be a harsh situation, but Adam's post brings up many good points on how the whole thing could have been handled more effectively from a business stand-point. Check out his entire article over at his blog, T=Machine.
Tabula Rasa's new Mechs: How do I find them?
While we gear up for the official release of Tabula Rasa's Deployment 16 onto the live servers, which is rumored to happen later this week, we find ourselves excited for the features coming along with it. These are features we've been awaiting for months, and even if we can only enjoy them for the remaining two weeks, they're fun to play with nonetheless.One of those features is the drivable Mechs, or Personal Armor Units. These PAUs were announced very early in the game's development and have become almost a joke for the game's skeptics. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to give a quick little guide on how to obtain your PAU on the test server, and eventually the live server.
Tabula Rasa honors biggest fans by naming in-game items after them
As I mentioned in an earlier post regarding Tabula Rasa's Deployment 16 hitting the test servers, one interesting feature included with this patch was this tidbit: 40 unique weapons named after players. This might be something you glanced over as you searched for more info on the PAUs, but this simple addition has made so many people excited, including myself.The official list of immortalized players hasn't been released yet, but from the buzz at the PlanetTR forums, the ones who were honored are quite happy. I've skipped the plural narrative here to gush a bit about how much something like this means to me and presumably, the other 39 people honored as well.
A timeline of Tabula Rasa
As Tabula Rasa approaches its final lap, the community retrospectives continue to arise, showcasing the best and worst that the game had to offer. Over at Ten Ton Hammer, they've compiled a short run-down which chronicles the rise and fall of NCsoft's failed sci-fi shooter.Beginning in August of 2007, open beta rolled out, in what easily became tens of thousands of beta testers. Reviews for the game were mixed as the NDA lifted, and the polarizing opinions that later defined the game's community came out in full force. From there, the game suffered a few personnel changes and brought out its biggest guns when Richard Garriott announced a promotional tie-in with a space flight. This wasn't enough to keep the game afloat, as Garriott himself left the flock and the game's closure was announced 10 days later. This article at TTH gives a brief timeline for the features and highlights of the game from early beta to now. It's worth a read if you're curious about the game's life, or want to simply look back fondly at its progression.
Opinions flare from ex-NCsoft employees about TR's closing
As Tabula Rasa approaches its end days, the anger, sadness and I-told-you-so sentiments are rising up more than ever. This week marks an interesting occasion where two former NCsoft employees each wrote detailed stories on their own perspectives regarding the sci-fi MMO's downward spiral.First we have this post by Adam Martin, former CTO of NCsoft Europe, where he explains his views on why the game failed. Granted, he admits he wasn't actually on the TR team, but he was privy to the internal mailing lists and information about the game from Alpha to launch. As a response, we have a post from Scott Jennings, who sums it all up fairly well with this statement: "The biggest failing, though, was that it was in development about twice as long and spent twice as much as it had any right to. And that's what promotes it, in this snarky outside blogger's view, from understandable failure to extinction-level company-slaying train wreck."Update: Although Adam Martin's post states that he was the European CTO at the time, we get word from NCsoft that he was never the CTO for NCsoft Europe. He was the Lead Programmer.
Richard Garriott live on stage, one night only!
As a game developer, there's no denying that Richard Garriott is a legend. I think by now most people reading this realize his importance in creating Ultima Online, and his "come-back" attempt with Tabula Rasa. Since then, Garriott has expressed a desire to leave gaming to pursue his rediscovered love for space travel, and then gaming again, and now space travel again.If you find yourself compelled with the space flight of Richard Garriott, and you feel like paying $65 a ticket for the opportunity, he'll be telling his story live on the ZACH Theatre's Whisenhunt stage in Austin, TX for one night only. On Saturday, January 24th, at both 2:30pm and 8pm, you can listen to Richard Garriott talk about his experiences in space and his future plans with the space program. There will even be a Q&A session afterwards. I can think of a few questions I'd like to ask him. How about you?
Tabula Rasa Night of Champions event
In this week's Weekend Wrapup for Tabula Rasa, we get word of the most recent Friday Night Fights results, but we also get a bit of an announcement for a new finale event regarding the long-running in-game boxing tournament.FNF: Night of Champions will be a special event that will play host to the largest gathering of former FNF champions ever in one spot. The only problem is locating all of these former champions for the event! You can check out the current list of champions over at the PlanetTR forums, and keep an eye out for more info on what may be the largest Friday Night Fights ever.
Why you should be playing Tabula Rasa: It's free!
If you're still postponing the dive into NCsoft's Tabula Rasa, because of that whole shut-down thing, I wanted to just let you know that you may be missing out on a historical opportunity here. How often is it that you get to play a game through its last remaining weeks, and actually witness the end first-hand? Right now the game itself is even free to download. I'll explain more on this later, but if you're feeling extra generous, or you're big into souvenirs from dead MMOs, you can pick it up on Amazon or most brick-and-mortar shops for $5 US. If you want to spend the extra cash for a Collector's Edition, to get some dogtags, an AFS Challenge coin, a "Making of Tabula Rasa" DVD and more, you can do that for $15-$30 usually. Or perhaps, you'll be lucky enough to find a dumpster full of boxes behind an EB Games somewhere.
Tabula Rasa burial ground, behind EB Games
Despite the title of this Kotaku post, I still refuse to call Tabula Rasa a bad game. Sure it's certainly not an encouraging sign to see dozens of sealed TR boxes filling a dumpster behind an EB Games in Canada, but I am not going to jump on that wagon.In this Kotaku post, we see two reader-submitted photos of said dumpster, and it really makes me sad to think about where those games could have gone instead. I wonder if they first tried to give them away for free, or perhaps the EB Games upper management told them that it's not even worth the shelf space, considering their PC shelf space is shrinking every day anyway. Would you have taken a free copy of Tabula Rasa, just to play it out completely free these last six weeks? Am I being a complete fanboy? Yes, but I know I've never had a stronger compulsion to dumpster dive in my life.
Tabula Rasa goes free-to-play one month early
The news coming out of the Tabula Rasa camp this evening just keeps getting better! First we hear about the new content being released with Deployment 15, then the upcoming PAU and Mech units being released in Deployment 16, and now we get word that the game will be going free-to-play a full month earlier than originally planned.As of right now, Tabula Rasa is completely free to current players, former players and brand new players. Head on over to the PlayNC store to create or reactivate an account and enjoy the final months of the game at no cost. Check out the official announcement for more details on creating or reactivating an account, and check out the game before it's too late!
Tabula Rasa's PAUs and Mechs coming in next patch
Just when we thought the Tabula Rasa news couldn't get any better with today's Deployment 15 reaching the live servers, we now get word that the highly-anticipated Personal Armor Units that we've been hearing about for a year now are finally coming in Deployment 16.These PAUs and Mechs will be two separate unit types, obtainable through either a control point mech pad or in the case of the PAU, as a "mount" of sorts. PAUs will only be available to the highest level of Logos Receptives and require a certain skill requirement for usage. Right now, we have word of the Angel PAU for Specialists, the Vulcan PAU for Soldiers, the standard AFS Mech which players are already aware of, the Orson Mech which acts much like a Sapper and finally the Grendel Mech which is described as having the ability to bring down the mightiest of base defenses (it's the big guy in the screenshot above). Check out the complete announcement and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Tabula Rasa celebrates the holidays with FPS view
It's here! FPS view, along with several other exciting features, have now been implemented on Tabula Rasa's live servers with the latest patch: Deployment 15.7.In addition, we have a new instance map entitled The Empire Sector, which is available to level 50 players who must also meet a certain Logos requirement. The CELLAR arena's location has also been expanded with a new entrance to the Edmund Range wargame map and the Epic Caves of Donn instance is also live with this patch. If that's just not enough, the holiday seasonal decorations are now in game for Tabula Rasa's second winter holiday event. Check out the complete patch notes for more information as to what's new on the live servers today.
Honoring Tabula Rasa through screenshots
Over the next 2 months, we here at Massively plan to honor Tabula Rasa through a series of articles. The news of the game's closing affects all MMO gamers, even if they never actually played Tabula Rasa itself. So in this first one, we're taking a look at the community's best screenshots in an abbreviated gallery of event pics, rare captures and just a bit to help us look back once it's all gone.These 45 screenshots were all created by the community at the PlanetTR forums, with a few thrown in by myself. They show everything from the early days of Beta to the high-level instances. I wanted to thank everyone at PTR who submitted literally hundreds of screenshots to me to make this possible. Follow the link below for the complete gallery.%Gallery-39348%
Tabula Rasa's PlanetTR forums to change format
With the news of Tabula Rasa's closing, one might wonder what will become of the game's largest and most popular unofficial forums. As was announced this past weekend, the PlanetTR forums will be changing formats after TR closes down in February. This will all be accomplished through a series of in-game and on-forum roleplaying events, introducing the world to a rogue band of AFS named The Agenda.You can read a complete backstory on the creation of The Agenda, as well as an in-character thread from the story's Captain Durall for more information. The main in-game event will happen in January, and it promises to be an extensive war, much like their previous Server vs. Server wars, but larger. From there, in March, the forums will change format to appeal to a broader audience and be renamed to The Planet, although the domain name will remain planettr.com. It hasn't been decided exactly what direction the site will take, but you can make your voice heard in this thread, and of course we will be sure to keep players informed with any news.
Tabula Rasa crafting: What didn't work then, and what works now
Several times I've wanted to just sit myself down and write an in-depth article explaining the original crafting system in Tabula Rasa (before it was announced to close), but it's just one of those things where the explanation would not make much sense unless you've frustrated yourself with it firsthand. It was complicated, time consuming and you would only need to kill 3 or 4 more Bane to get a better item anyway. Yet in Deployment 13, the crafting system was completely overhauled, simplified, and caused players to actually craft again. But was it just too late?Over at Van Hemlock's blog, he takes a practical look at the past and present of TR crafting, explaining what we once dealt with versus the new and improved system. For anyone who has simply ignored the crafting in TR based on previous bad experiences, this post if worth a read.
Tabula Rasa introduces Epic instances
As announced in today's Feedback Friday, the Tabula Rasa team has been working on a way to present low-level instances in what could be considered a "hard mode" of sorts. The first of these is the Caves of Donn instance which now has an Epic version, accessible through the CELLAR Arena.This Epic Caves of Donn instance has Epic versions of the Caretakers, Technicians, Soldiers and the brand new Ravagers and Seekers created for the Back-to-Earth campaign. This instance is repeatable, allowing players to eventually gain all rewards in addition to the XP, Prestige and Mimeomech. Admittedly, the developers report that the instance doesn't have as much polish as they'd like, but considering the circumstances, we understand.
