Project Lore

I am not sure how many of you may have heard of this game, but earlier this week it was announced that Tabula Rasa, a MMORPG set in an original science fiction universe, will be closing early next year. The closure of another AAA MMORPG title is never good for the market, as it scares potential publishers and other investors away from the sector. This is no exception due to the fact that the man behind the title is considered the father of modern MMORPGs, Richard Garriott.

Garriott, creator of Ultima Online, had high hopes for his latest title, which was developed by Destination Games, a company he co-founded with his brother Robert and Starr Long. After negotiating a deal with the big name in Korean MMOGs, NCSoft, to become NCSoft Austin, the company announced its first original project, Tabula Rasa. Tabula Rasa was launched in late October to slightly positive reviews, highlighting its differentiating features such as combat that involved targeting, cloning of characters, and putting players in the middle of a war.

Yet, Garriott's title failed for a myriad of reasons, although I place the blame on its initial lack of end game content upon release. Upon discovering this, players including myself left en masse upon completion of the trial. This was something that alpha/beta testers had been warning the company about.

The fact of the matter is, many MMOs are shoved out the door before they can reach that final level of polish. In my mind, World of Warcraft's initial success was due to the incredibly polished opening levels, as seen in territories like Westfall. Granted, WoW's endgame was incredibly difficult at release, but Blizzard's title had it. Age of Conan's launched product was a buggy mess, while the latest big name MMO, Warhammer Online, has receives hotfixes every few days to address remaining bugs. This is something its subscribers appreciate.

Had AoC and Tabula Rasa been given another six months of development, perhaps they would have held onto their playerbase. I know Tabula Rasa surely would have held onto me. Since launch the developers behind TR have addressed many of the main complaints, adding endgame, more PvP options and a much needed auction house. Sadly, few players ever take a second look at an MMO they left because “it sucked.”

The death of Tabula Rasa in late February will lend more credence to the genre being a very risky market,  causing fewer new products, and fewer companies trying to be innovative. Competition is a good thing, and we now have one less title that was trying to be something besides a WoW-clone.

Along with the announcement, NCSoft has laid off an unnumbered amount of workers, retaining the core development team to run the game till end of life. I will be revisiting Tabula Rasa once the free play starts on January 10^th. Hopefully the closing events are worth revisiting something that could have been awesome.

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