General Discussion

MMORPG.com Writer Carolyn Koh is attending this year's, modified, E3. Yesterday, Carolyn attended a session with NCsoft that saw her make her way through all of the games that they were displaying. In this article, Carolyn reports on the state of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, the upcoming Sci-Fi MMO from the creator of Ultima.

I followed a slender gray clad figure with a black beret down the hallway of the hotel. Spurs on his fancy stitched black cowboy boots jingled with each step. "Had to be" I thought. "Who else could this be but our charming, gregarious Mr. Garriott?" I called out. He turned. Indeed, it was.

Tabula Rasa is Latin for "blank slate", and hearkening back to the origins of the game, he asked if any of us were familiar with the game or had seen it previously. I was the only one that had seen it in its pink unicorn incarnation before the slate was wiped clean again for this futuristic shooter build.

Read the whole preview here.

Tell us stuff we dont know.

Tabula Rasa shines in PvE but nothing about PvP except the arena thing.

I hope this one lives up to all I hope it will be..

I have faith in Lord British, if anyone is to make a successful, "new and different' MMO, it's him.

I am conflicted when it comes to this one. I'd like to trust Garriott, who in my opinion is the true father of the MMORPG, but I am also dismayed at all the limitations the original Ultima Online thankfully lacked. But I'll give Garriott the benefit of the doubt, and I do enjoy the idea of a worthy non-medieval MMORPG.

I cant wait till this game comes out.  I have been put off by MMO's for a while since playing WOW where the people are rude and alot of first MMO timers.    Also i like the fact that you can hide and shoot in real time. Thats awsome.   I been looking for a game like this for yearrrrrrssss.  BRING IT ON!

 Im curious to see how interactive the enemies in TB are. I see that they attack the human bases in a manner which is reactive to human activity. That in and of itself makes people care whats going on. Having a mechanic in place doesn't mean there is a score being kept.

How hards to hard? If the enemies can take back the land they've lost will people grow weary of clean sweep missions to access areas? Will people actually enjoy it perhaps? All in all the game could offer some very interesting opportunities to test out some better pve mechanics.

Nice to be getting a little more information from this game now that we're just a few months from release though the article really doesn't say all that much.  But the impression from it seems to be that the game could be worth checking out.  

But the first part of the article makes is sound more like Garriot is trying to be a writer with all that focus on story, history and even a new language just for this setting.   It's like he wants to be a sci-fi Tolkein or something.   This is a game.  Gameplay should be first and foremost in EVERYTHING.   The idea of providing players with conflicting information and being deliberatley confusing just to keep with the 'story' sounds idiotic.   The story should NEVER take precedence over gameplay.   We'll just have to see how it's applied in the game.

There could be some worthwhile ideas in this game though, the whole cloning feature sounds particularly attractive.

And is it just me or does it look like they're using City of Heroes art for the  interiors? :) 

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Originally posted by Alienovrlord
Nice to be getting a little more information from this game now that we're just a few months from release though the article really doesn't say all that much. But the impression from it seems to be that the game could be worth checking out.
But the first part of the article makes is sound more like Garriot is trying to be a writer with all that focus on story, history and even a new language just for this setting. It's like he wants to be a sci-fi Tolkein or something. This is a game. Gameplay should be first and foremost in EVERYTHING. The idea of providing players with conflicting information and being deliberatley confusing just to keep with the 'story' sounds idiotic. The story should NEVER take precedence over gameplay. We'll just have to see how it's applied in the game.
There could be some worthwhile ideas in this game though, the whole cloning feature sounds particularly attractive.
And is it just me or does it look like they're using City of Heroes art for the interiors? :)

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Some people care about using their brains. A pretty polished product is not always paramount. Some people want depth of plot too. He can have both, and just because there is a good story doesn't mean that the gameplay is not first on the list. You assume that the one precludes the other. That doesn't need to be the case. But different gamers want different things.