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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.
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's weekend activites still going strong
As a testament to the fact that Tabula Rasa players aren't throwing down their rifles and giving up that easily, the community events are carrying on stronger than ever. Thanks to fansites such as PlanetTR and Gangrel's Forums, this weekend is chocked full of contests and special events to keep away those end-of-the-game-in-two-months blues.First, there's the EU Centaurus AFS Boxing Tournament, which is basically the EU server's answer to Friday Night Fights. Speaking of which, this week's FNF will be held on the Orion server at 10pm EST. Finally, we have this month's installment of the Server vs. Server War on the PTS for all to enjoy. You can find out more information on this SvS War through our previous coverage or at PlanetTR's forums. Hope to see you there!
Tabula Rasa Community Olympics event
Let's face it, the PlanetTR community has remained an integral part of keeping Tabula Rasa what it is today. Sure, there's the gameplay improvements and all the recent work by the devs, but PlanetTR deserves some credit, too. A fine example of this is their new Tabula Rasa Olympics being held this Saturday, August 9th on the Public Test Server.There will be thirteen events held here in all, including King of the Hill, Gymnastics, Swimming, Fencing and more. Most of these events will employ the use of vendor grey items, and have specific rules regarding class, race and item usage. This, of course, is to even the playing field among characters. Be sure to check out the PlanetTR forums for complete details, rules and sign-up information.
Has the migration back to Tabula Rasa begun?
Recently, with some of the new features added to Tabula Rasa in Deployments 10 and 11, it seems older, original players who left the game in droves are now curiously scratching the door, asking to be let back in. Is this a sign of things to come, as a part of the usually inevitable return to an MMO that most early adopters face, or just a sign of player boredom as we all await the fall launch season?Either way, and for whatever reason, it does seem like more players are making the return to Tabula Rasa and finding that they enjoy the game again. Of particular interest is a recent forum post over at PlanetTR where the players compile a pleasant list of things they've enjoyed in the game that seem different than other MMOs they've tried. After all the negativity surrounding the game in previous months, it's nice to see that the game might enjoy a resurgence afterall. It's happened before with other games, so it's certainly a possibility with Tabula Rasa as well.
Healthy dose of Tabula Rasa community in this Weekend Wrapup
In this week's installment of Weekend Wrapup for Tabula Rasa, the hardcore community shines through yet again. First off, there's mention of the PlanetTR Tavern Roleplayers group who usually gets together to crash the tavern in Foreas Base, but this time they've moved on to the C.E.L.L.A.R. arena. Included in this community update are some screenshots of their good times. We also get word of the very latest episode of TabulaCast, where the hosts John and Matt discuss all the latest TR news on and off the Public Test Server. Their discussion continues as they report on their experiences with Project Immersion and read some listener email.Finally, there's the results of this weekend's Friday Night Fights, where the largest purse in TR history was awarded: One million credits! Congratulations goes out to Glass for winning it all!
Taking a deeper look at TR's fighting arena
A few weeks ago we reported on a fighting arena that is rumored to be releasing with Tabula Rasa's Patch 1.8. Since then, there has been some speculation about what this area will be used for. We already know it will not be strictly for the Friday Night Fights events, but we ask ourselves if it will be open to anyone at anytime.Over at Tabula Blogger, the question is presented once again after the more recent news of our six-month veteran rewards; namely the Knuckle Dusters. Will these be a part of this arena? We can only hope, but we think the bigger question is what type of impact will this area serve (in both PvE and PvP) for players who may be finding themselves bored with the game as it stands today?
Can you keep cool under Live Fire?
If you can then the Live Fire Sports League (LFS) is where you need to be! This Saturday the LFS is hosting a King of the Hill 6 versus 6 squad based elimination tournament in Tabula Rasa. Here are the mucho important details: Date: March 29, 2008 Time: 9:00pm Eastern, 8:00pm Central, 7:00pm Mountain, 6:00pm Pacific Server: Orion Map: Wilderness Zone (4) Assembly point: Twin PillarsThis is for characters up to level 10 and will be a fight for Memory Tree Hill. For all the details check out PlanetTR.com ASAP. Time's running out soldier!
PlanetTR has a crossword puzzle for you
Admit it, you're either a sudoku number cruncher or a cross wording puzzler. If not, why are these two brain busting games in every newspaper and news rack across the world. Why does every in-flight magazine have them filled in? Ya, that's what I thought. PlanetTR has created a contest that combines gathering information from inside Tabula Rasa with a crossword puzzle. Some of the in-game clues (which are scattered throughout the game world) require words spewed from NPCs, the name of an NPC, a logo, or counting the number of objects at a given spot. So it's like a scavenger hunt too! Everyone is eligible to play, and the event starts tonight (5 PM Pacific, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central, 8 PM Eastern)! Winners will receive a collectible Tabula Rasa Beanie, and the first place winner will earn themselves a "special" TR prize. Be sure to check out the full list of details, and... get your cross verbiage on!
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:
Forum fun: does Tabula Rasa's cloning system cure alt-itis?
Do you or somebody you love find yourself constantly rolling new characters? Are you infatuated with that new toon smell? Have you maxed out the number of characters in your stable on not just you main server, but on two or three other servers as well? You may just be suffering from a condition widely known as alt-itis. There's no known cure for alt-itis, but there are some experimental treatments being used in mainstream MMOs that you might be interested in hearing about.One of these, is Tabula Rasa's clone system. A discussion on the topic sprouted up on the Planet TR forums on the topic, with the OP going so far as to call the cloning system Tabula Rasa's "lady in a red dress." While I was not sufficiently persuaded that the thread wasn't just an excuse to make a Matrix reference, I think the larger discussion is a salient one. Does a cloning system like Tabula Rasa's really represent a cure for alt-itis? Some would argue that it's a boon for casual players who don't have time to level eight different characters independently to the end-game, but who want to see the content. Others would argue that Tabula Rasa's tiered system means that most cloning opportunities save you a negligible amount of playtime - after all, you only have two ways to go with a clone at level 30, you can't jump branches. It's an interesting discussion worth checking out (even if the topic has since wandered a bit).
