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Posted: Nov 22 2008 01:21 pm

This century, NCsoft is 0-for-2 with sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing games. (Unless you count City of Heroes/Villains.) More than a year after Auto Assault headed for the scrap yard, the Korean publisher announced its latest foray into the future, Tabula Rasa, is also being decommissioned. In a post on the game's official Web site, the developers behind the project today announced its imminent end.

"Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO," the post read. "In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for."

As of January 10, 2009, Tabula Rasa will be free to play to its remaining subscriber base, much like the soon-to-be-shuttered Hellgate: London. However, as of February 28, the game's servers will be switched off forever. "We can assure you that through the next couple of months we'll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while," the post concluded.

Though saddening to its subscribers, Tabula Rasa's demise wasn't completely unexpected. After going online last October one day before Hellgate's Halloween launch, the game struggled with a variety of technical issues and lukewarm reviews. Despite over six years in development--and several delays--the game never caught fire in the World of Warcraft-dominated MMORPG market, selling just over 61,000 copies in the US. In its most recent earnings report, NCsoft said the game--which cost a hefty sum to developer--accounted for just 2 percent, or $1.3 million, of its overall annual revenue.

Tabula Rasa's chief designer, Richard Garriott, went so far as to promote the game during his recent $30 million jaunt to the International Space Station. However, the writing appeared to be on the wall when Garriott abruptly resigned last week to pursue "new interests." In his departure message, the Ultima creator conceded the MMORPG's sailing had not always been smooth, saying, "I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch."

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6201550.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1

Like seriously, WTF. I loved this game, and I think it should stay. It might have not been better in sales and met the expectations, but this game is so much better than WoW.

Posted: Nov 22 2008 01:34 pm

God damn, Richard Garriot is so ballin...I forgot about his space station stint

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

My brother works at Ncsoft and he says Garriot is a fucking nutbar

Posted: Nov 22 2008 08:37 pm

Honestly, this is unsurprisingly. There is only room for maybe 1-6 truly successful MMORPGs to exist due to the paradigm they're based around. An MMORPG is basically a second life. By its vary nature, it excludes casual gamers because a satisfying experience can only be attained by continually investing massive amounts of time into the game. The time investment demanded by an MMORPG also means that any given person can only successfully play one MMORPG. And since World of Warcraft is already popular, people inclined to try an MMORPG generally flock to that. It will be hard, if not impossible, for any other MMORPG to ever reach anywhere close to the success of WoW. The success of any given MMORPG is based on its server population, and no new MMORPG can ever hope to match the server population of WoW. Thus, all other MMORPGs are doomed to slowly die.

This is the standard life cycle of a standard MMORPG:

Month 1: The game debuts to decent buzz. A bunch of people join. Many of these people are WoWers who see this as an opportunity to become bigshots within the game, something they were never able to achieve in WoW because they joined too late, thus giving them massive bragging rights if the game catches on.
Month 2: The game experiences sizeable population growth.
Month 3: The game experiences even better population growth.
Month 4: Population growth slows.
Month 5: Population growth slows.
Month 6: Population growth slows.
Month 7: Population growth stops.
Month 8: Population declines.
Month 9: Population declines.
Month 10: Population declines.
Month 11: Population declines.
Month 12: The publisher announces the game is being shut down.

Posted: Nov 23 2008 01:57 pm

M3GA MAN wrote:

"Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO," the post read. "In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal."

Never even heard of this game before now, so I disagree

Posted: Nov 24 2008 09:28 am

I played Tabula before it was released in open beta and I was very unimpressed by it. I can see why it's being shut down so soon after it's launch and why people aren't interested in it.

From what I remember (I only played it for a couple days before losing interest), it was a standard sci-fi 3rd person shooter that happened to be online. It was also very difficult to control and had a steep learning curve in that respect.