Tabula Rasa

With TR I was hoping for THE Sci-Fi game to come out, but TR just blew. Richard Garriot just doesn't have it anymore.

Originally posted by Superman0X

Originally posted by Raltar

I conisdered actually going to give it a try when it becomes free just for the heck of it. But I don't really want to reinstall the game just to play what I already know isn't worth the effort. We now know it will never develop into the game it needed to become, so why wate the time?

The thing about making it free to play permanently is that there really isn't such a thing as a free game. Every game out there makes money somehow. If not by subscription fees, then by sales of the software or in-game ads or though (god forbid) a cash shop. TR was designed to make money from subscription fees. Trying to translate it now into something else would just muck it up even more and since NCsoft obvioualy isn't planning on putting any more effort into development, the game will clearly never get any better than it is now, so who would continue to play anyway?

 

I am familiar with how F2P works (it is a business model, not a charity). I do think that if NCSoft were to allow this title to pass to another publisher, so that it could get a fresh start (NCSoft has already given up on the game) it would do well.

Re-Designing a game for F2P isnt as hard as you may think, especially for those companies that have actual experience with how these games work.

I agree with you.  Look at Archlord and RF Online, both were pay games made into F2P games.  Thats what I meant in my post anyway, not for NCsoft to make it free, but for them to sell the game.  Plus if they sold the game it would make up for some of the cost they put into it already.

 * Aion beta access (coming soon)
* Aion pre-order access (available in 2009)
* 1 free month of Aion including digital client (available in 2009)

Dear NCsoft. I HATE YOU SO MUCH! *didn't have an active account*

I played this game in beta and knew it wasn't going to do well.  The biggest gripe I had was the combat system.  Quasi FPS combat does not work in an MMO, you just have to look at swg to see how well that went.  If you want a more action type combat system, a better option would be one like Mass Effect or, better yet, Fallout 3.  Its too bad TR didn't do well because I really want to play a GOOD sci fi MMO.  I'm getting tired of elves, dwarfs and wizards and all the rest of the stuff associated with fantasy games.

I will say, NCSoft is offering a nice deal to TR players with the free playtime for COH, L2 and Aion.  They should stop collecting sub fees before Jan though.

Originally posted by Ginaz

I played this game in beta and knew it wasn't going to do well.  The biggest gripe I had was the combat system.  Quasi FPS combat does not work in an MMO, you just have to look at swg to see how well that went.  If you want a more action type combat system, a better option would be one like Mass Effect or, better yet, Fallout 3.  Its too bad TR didn't do well because I really want to play a GOOD sci fi MMO.  I'm getting tired of elves, dwarfs and wizards and all the rest of the stuff associated with fantasy games.

I will say, NCSoft is offering a nice deal to TR players with the free playtime for COH, L2 and Aion.  They should stop collecting sub fees before Jan though.

They should be offering a lot of free time. For some people they spent $50 or more for the game and $180 in subscription fees for a game that is not cancelled. That is a lot of money to invest in a game that is not going to continue. It is one thing to invest that ina  game and have it go years like UO, but for one year it becomes wasted money.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Originally posted by Ginaz

I played this game in beta and knew it wasn't going to do well.  The biggest gripe I had was the combat system.  Quasi FPS combat does not work in an MMO, you just have to look at swg to see how well that went.  If you want a more action type combat system, a better option would be one like Mass Effect or, better yet, Fallout 3.  Its too bad TR didn't do well because I really want to play a GOOD sci fi MMO.  I'm getting tired of elves, dwarfs and wizards and all the rest of the stuff associated with fantasy games.

I will say, NCSoft is offering a nice deal to TR players with the free playtime for COH, L2 and Aion.  They should stop collecting sub fees before Jan though.

 

They should be offering a lot of free time. For some people they spent $50 or more for the game and $180 in subscription fees for a game that is not cancelled. That is a lot of money to invest in a game that is not going to continue. It is one thing to invest that ina  game and have it go years like UO, but for one year it becomes wasted money.

When most games get canceled, the players don't get anything.  Name me another mmo that was canceled that gave its players as much?

Originally posted by Kordesh

 I kinda thought this might be coming when the stores started to pull it from the shelves, but as much as I felt TR was a big load of wasted potential, I didn't really want to see it die /=

This is exactly how I felt as well.  TR wasn't a bad game, really... for what it offered.  It's just that it didn't offer much of anything besides blowing the same mobs away over and over again.  If people could see how shallow TR was in content, and then realise that WoW is not much different... then I think the MMO market would be in a lot better shape - but this isn't about WoW, so nevermind that...

At any rate, I think the real reason behind shutting it down is because of the state of the world economy as a whole.  NCSoft has two or three new, really big titles coming out in the next year, and they can't afford to allow games that are hemoraging subscriptions to stay active any longer.

It's a good idea to shut this game down really, especially since their two biggest titles (Guildwars 2 and Champions Online) will probably be better games in the first place.  But I sort of wish they would have looked into another alternative.  Again, TR was not much of a game, but it was okay for what it offered, and it's not like there is much else of a selection as far as Sci-Fi goes right now.  Then again... as soon as Stargate Worlds goes live, TR would have been down for the count anyhow.

Originally posted by Raltar

I would be interested to know what these "projects" that he is "moving on to" are. Now that he has wrecked a major MMO and traveled into outer space on a russian tin can with rocket boosters, what can he possibly do to top all of that?

Release a virus into the worlds water supply and hold us all ransom for the cure perhaps?

Maybe he does something worse, like start working for Microsoft?

Anyways, too bad. The genre do have too many fantasy games and needs new fresh stuff, but TR just wasn't good enough.

Originally posted by WRyan

It's a good idea to shut this game down really, especially since their two biggest titles (Guildwars 2 and Champions Online) will probably be better games in the first place.  But I sort of wish they would have looked into another alternative.  Again, TR was not much of a game, but it was okay for what it offered, and it's not like there is much else of a selection as far as Sci-Fi goes right now.  Then again... as soon as Stargate Worlds goes live, TR would have been down for the count anyhow.

Don't forget about Aion, they do have a lot upcomming and I guess they need the resources for the upcomming games.