Yeh i recon, i am not a big fan of WoW, not a basher of the game , or any game anyways as i love gaming and do it for the sole purpose of having fun and meeting new people, but still the amount of effort people put into raids and "gear", a game is more than gear and raiding, this game had everything to be successfull, not just the gear, would be much more fun imo to loot the gear from foes or fallen allies, or even make custom made stuff. The whole ideia of waging war in a jungle or accross a desert of some god forsaken planet, imagine the first game of Hitman and that whole jungle set but much wider ( and without the loadings lol ) add the freedom you had in TR to explore, custom guns, you could even have had a mission planner for setting up missions to the bases that were occupied by the Bane or , heck there was a world of stuff to do in that game. It really is a bit sadening that most players resume stuff to raiding , instancing or epic gear, it kinda takes the fun out of a game. Yeh i know i'm one of those lame oldschool players that still preaches doing it for the fun but give me starcraft or duke nukem anytime and i'll have months of fun just directing space marines or using the old DNCornholio and kicking the arse of the alien hogs. Cheers to all the people that still play for the fun.
Play for the fun? Who says raiding, gear and instances that are worth repeating, can't be fun? The thing about having those elements in a game is that You Dont have to do them if you dont want to. This is what some of us tried to tell the naysayers over and over again. DOnt like it? Dont do it. Apparently that wasnt enough for them. They had to make sure that it was NEVER implemented in the game so that the people that did want these aspects had no choice but to leave. And we did. The result was the games failure.
And what exactly was this "World of stuff to do" in Tabula Rasa? I think your alone or in a minority of this opinion, or else the game wouldn't be closing down.
You don't seem to have explored the game then, just finding the LOGUS was nice enough of a change and game the oportunity to explore the game and there were some places with instances to make, the game wasn't focused on raiding but then again i partly agree that you have a bit of a point and a couple of raiding instances could be made extensive enough for the people that just like to do them.
But then again people always argue they want something different and yet here we are the game didn't focused on the million same things the other games have and it failed, or maybe it is the same old problem , the one with people never being satisfied with what they have.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Originally posted by Broomy If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
That is exactly the problem. It took so much to make thanks to our dear friend Richard, which in the end most likely lead to the game being shut down. If it didn't cost so much, they wouldn't have had to recoup that much.
This site is filled to the brim with frustrated players. In fact, many of them are annoyed at companies simply because they tend to copy WoW (after having looked at the sales and subsciption figures and wanting to have a slice of the pie). Tabula Rasa was never intended to be a "WoW killer," and as a result had the freedom to take a different stance on MMO gaming - which it did. However, despite many of the MMO community getting annoyed with "WoW clones," when a game comes along that is truly different (such as Tabula Rasa), people complain that it lacks the features they're so used to. That completely defies the point.
Originally posted by Broomy If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
That is exactly the problem. It took so much to make thanks to our dear friend Richard, which in the end most likely lead to the game being shut down. If it didn't cost so much, they wouldn't have had to recoup that much.
This site is filled to the brim with frustrated players. In fact, many of them are annoyed at companies simply because they tend to copy WoW (after having looked at the sales and subsciption figures and wanting to have a slice of the pie). Tabula Rasa was never intended to be a "WoW killer," and as a result had the freedom to take a different stance on MMO gaming - which it did. However, despite many of the MMO community getting annoyed with "WoW clones," when a game comes along that is truly different (such as Tabula Rasa), people complain that it lacks the features they're so used to. That completely defies the point.
TR was different but it failed to deliver. It lacked the features people are used to and that is ok, if you come up with new things to fill those holes. TR failed to do that as well.
Originally posted by Broomy Play for the fun? Who says raiding, gear and instances that are worth repeating, can't be fun? The thing about having those elements in a game is that You Dont have to do them if you dont want to. This is what some of us tried to tell the naysayers over and over again. DOnt like it? Dont do it. Apparently that wasnt enough for them. They had to make sure that it was NEVER implemented in the game so that the people that did want these aspects had no choice but to leave. And we did. The result was the games failure. And what exactly was this "World of stuff to do" in Tabula Rasa? I think your alone or in a minority of this opinion, or else the game wouldn't be closing down.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Actually failure to me is to rerun the same instances over and over.
Good article bro...I paid for TR and enjoyed it immensly as a a casual gamer. The only thing I felt that let it down was the lack of players. There was room for expansion and improvement as there is in all games but NC did a good job at providing the base for a solid game... Maybe not so savvy on the marketing side, i dont know. Be sad to see it go
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Actually failure to me is to rerun the same instances over and over.
It is only failure if running the same ones over and over is required and they suck. If they are well made and you actually want to rerun them then you have a winner. But when you have no reason to rerun them then you have failure. Instances take quite a bit of dev time and making them poorly so no one wants to rerun them is a waste.
Good article bro...I paid for TR and enjoyed it immensly as a a casual gamer. The only thing I felt that let it down was the lack of players. There was room for expansion and improvement as there is in all games but NC did a good job at providing the base for a solid game... Maybe not so savvy on the marketing side, i dont know. Be sad to see it go
Why was there a lack of players? Because almost everyone who bought TR decided it was not worth staying with.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
Actually, just copying WoW will most likely NOT result in high sales. Because why should I put up with a half finished game (and let's be honest here, no MMO is finished at release) when I can have the same in finished, polished and double expanded fashion? Even WoW would fail against itself if the WoW we had at release was pitted against the WoW we have today. If you cannot offer me anything new that isn't WoW, care to tell why I should play your game at all and not turn to WoW if I enjoy this kind of game?
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
Yet an early release made this game a total waste of time and money. Well done. I hope the moron responsible for this won't find a job in the industry. Or anywhere. If anything, I would love to offer him a strong rope and a well anchored hook, just to make sure this is the last game he butchered.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
With all due respect, please put the pipe down. 11 Million people play WOW because thats what they want to do and its a game that they want to play. Hate to break it to ya, but it is. The MMO market has far more choices today than it did 10 years ago, if people didnt want WOW they wouldnt play it. But why are we talking about WOW? I can see its obviously a game you dont like. Lets stick to the topic at hand....
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
I played TR from Beta to a few months after release up to level 48 on one character. Yes the game had issues, but quite frankly the gameplay and bugs were by far alot less than most other games at release. TR Failed because it lacked highend content. People leveled, leveled their cones, then leveled another clone, got bored and left. So please, lets keep it real. The Devs at TR were counting on people leveling alts indefinitely and lacked total imagination when it came to endgame play. Now if your saying it was released too soon before they could add any endgame then I could agree, however putting in a meaningful endgame didnt seem to be the focus of the Devs. There was also very little evidence that they planned to implement it as well.
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
"Management" spent uptine millions on this game and wanted to see some results. Can you blame them? Why ask them to throw good money after bad? In the end of the day its about profit and recouping losses. Apparently there was no more faith that RG or the TR dev team could turn this around and the game has been shut down.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
Actually, just copying WoW will most likely NOT result in high sales. Because why should I put up with a half finished game (and let's be honest here, no MMO is finished at release) when I can have the same in finished, polished and double expanded fashion? Even WoW would fail against itself if the WoW we had at release was pitted against the WoW we have today. If you cannot offer me anything new that isn't WoW, care to tell why I should play your game at all and not turn to WoW if I enjoy this kind of game?
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
Yet an early release made this game a total waste of time and money. Well done. I hope the moron responsible for this won't find a job in the industry. Or anywhere. If anything, I would love to offer him a strong rope and a well anchored hook, just to make sure this is the last game he butchered.
You do realize TR was about 100 million dollars in the hole right? Easily recovered its costs? I think not. It had low retention because high end content did not exist, it had low retention because many players got bored in the high 30s and early 40s.
Could've fooled me, honestly. Without the explanation, I'd have guessed I'm looking at an Aeon trailer. Maybe they salvaged what was there from pre-revamp TR to make Aeon out of it, I dunno.
When you redo your game, basically from scratch, then a lot of your money goes down the loo. MMOs are expensive and risky businesses. But 100m is something you can recover. Not easily, mind you, but you can. Of course, you'll need more than 50k subscribers to reach that goal.
And for that, you have to keep people interested. I'm not really convinced that there was no plan for endgame, I just think that the devs were tied down fixing the killer bugs and redoing the game well into the second half of 2008 (hell, whole skills were replaced until well after July if I remember correctly). Just now, when the game finally reached some sort of stability, they can (and do) actually bring along content for level 50s. How are you supposed to create new content when the old one is falling apart?
My opinion is still it was released too early. Yes, management certainly got cold feet when they saw the cost side of the balance drop down past the 100m threshold, and they wanted to see this game make money. No doubt about that. I'm still convinced, though, this game had the potential to attract a sizable amount of players. It would never have been a WoW killer, but recovering from this 100m hole would have been possible. Not easy, but possible. I could see this game had the potential to reach the 1m sub mark, if it had proper management, sensible development and was completed before release (with "completed" meaning the completeness an MMO should reach before release, no MMO is "complete" at release).
It failed at many levels. Most of all, the game's focus was placed wrongly. Hindsight is always easy and it's easy now to point at the mistakes made. Well, if someone learns from them, it will at least serve as a lesson how to NOT turn a great idea (and I'm still convinced, the idea and the gameplay of TR is great and can attract many users) into a game.
I started playing when It went free and it hasn't really felt like i was playing a mmo game. Instead it feels more like a sci-fi diablo 2.
The moral quest affecting NPC interaction, lack of lvl grinding, well thoughtout story line would have made an awsome single player game.
I wouldn't mind the ending being you kicking the bane off of earth and now standing in front of a gate with an army behind you ready to take the fight to the bane instead.
I started playing when It went free and it hasn't really felt like i was playing a mmo game. Instead it feels more like a sci-fi diablo 2. The moral quest affecting NPC interaction, lack of lvl grinding, well thoughtout story line would have made an awsome single player game. I wouldn't mind the ending being you kicking the bane off of earth and now standing in front of a gate with an army behind you ready to take the fight to the bane instead.
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
I started playing when It went free and it hasn't really felt like i was playing a mmo game. Instead it feels more like a sci-fi diablo 2. The moral quest affecting NPC interaction, lack of lvl grinding, well thoughtout story line would have made an awsome single player game. I wouldn't mind the ending being you kicking the bane off of earth and now standing in front of a gate with an army behind you ready to take the fight to the bane instead.
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
Sadly true. While I did occasionally see a difference in some quests further down the road (like, when you give the Bane the antidote in the first map, somewhere around the last map you get the Bane blood sample for "free" instead of having to kill the Bane scientist for it, with him implying that they are able and sometimes willing to cooperate with you if you show them you're not hellbent on exterminating them), the impact of your decisions is minimal at best.
It could have been expanded into a full blown betrayal quest line which would have resulted in actually meaningful PvP... ah hell, I can dream, can't I?
sorry to bother this topic, but I'm currently really confused... My english is bad, but as far as I read, Tabula Rasa should be free on today... I looked in the shop and you really can't purchase it, but neither there is no free activation codes nor any banners that say it's really F2P. Have I just misunderstood something?
I started playing when It went free and it hasn't really felt like i was playing a mmo game. Instead it feels more like a sci-fi diablo 2. The moral quest affecting NPC interaction, lack of lvl grinding, well thoughtout story line would have made an awsome single player game. I wouldn't mind the ending being you kicking the bane off of earth and now standing in front of a gate with an army behind you ready to take the fight to the bane instead.
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
Sadly true. While I did occasionally see a difference in some quests further down the road (like, when you give the Bane the antidote in the first map, somewhere around the last map you get the Bane blood sample for "free" instead of having to kill the Bane scientist for it, with him implying that they are able and sometimes willing to cooperate with you if you show them you're not hellbent on exterminating them), the impact of your decisions is minimal at best.
It could have been expanded into a full blown betrayal quest line which would have resulted in actually meaningful PvP... ah hell, I can dream, can't I?
sorry to bother this topic, but I'm currently really confused... My english is bad, but as far as I read, Tabula Rasa should be free on today... I looked in the shop and you really can't purchase it, but neither there is no free activation codes nor any banners that say it's really F2P. Have I just misunderstood something?
I think you still need to request an activation code from NCSoft.
Comments
Play for the fun? Who says raiding, gear and instances that are worth repeating, can't be fun? The thing about having those elements in a game is that You Dont have to do them if you dont want to. This is what some of us tried to tell the naysayers over and over again. DOnt like it? Dont do it. Apparently that wasnt enough for them. They had to make sure that it was NEVER implemented in the game so that the people that did want these aspects had no choice but to leave. And we did. The result was the games failure.
And what exactly was this "World of stuff to do" in Tabula Rasa? I think your alone or in a minority of this opinion, or else the game wouldn't be closing down.
You don't seem to have explored the game then, just finding the LOGUS was nice enough of a change and game the oportunity to explore the game and there were some places with instances to make, the game wasn't focused on raiding but then again i partly agree that you have a bit of a point and a couple of raiding instances could be made extensive enough for the people that just like to do them.
But then again people always argue they want something different and yet here we are the game didn't focused on the million same things the other games have and it failed, or maybe it is the same old problem , the one with people never being satisfied with what they have.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
That is exactly the problem. It took so much to make thanks to our dear friend Richard, which in the end most likely lead to the game being shut down. If it didn't cost so much, they wouldn't have had to recoup that much.
This site is filled to the brim with frustrated players. In fact, many of them are annoyed at companies simply because they tend to copy WoW (after having looked at the sales and subsciption figures and wanting to have a slice of the pie). Tabula Rasa was never intended to be a "WoW killer," and as a result had the freedom to take a different stance on MMO gaming - which it did. However, despite many of the MMO community getting annoyed with "WoW clones," when a game comes along that is truly different (such as Tabula Rasa), people complain that it lacks the features they're so used to. That completely defies the point.
That is exactly the problem. It took so much to make thanks to our dear friend Richard, which in the end most likely lead to the game being shut down. If it didn't cost so much, they wouldn't have had to recoup that much.
This site is filled to the brim with frustrated players. In fact, many of them are annoyed at companies simply because they tend to copy WoW (after having looked at the sales and subsciption figures and wanting to have a slice of the pie). Tabula Rasa was never intended to be a "WoW killer," and as a result had the freedom to take a different stance on MMO gaming - which it did. However, despite many of the MMO community getting annoyed with "WoW clones," when a game comes along that is truly different (such as Tabula Rasa), people complain that it lacks the features they're so used to. That completely defies the point.
TR was different but it failed to deliver. It lacked the features people are used to and that is ok, if you come up with new things to fill those holes. TR failed to do that as well.
You seem to be missing the point here. People, particularly on this website, cry about every game being the same these days and none of them trying to be different. Then, when a company does try to be different and doesn't focus on raids, gear and instances, it ends up failing like Tabula Rasa. In other words, the players say they want something different, but in practise most of them actually do not.
TR had a pretty big focus on instances.
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Actually failure to me is to rerun the same instances over and over.
Good article bro...I paid for TR and enjoyed it immensly as a a casual gamer. The only thing I felt that let it down was the lack of players. There was room for expansion and improvement as there is in all games but NC did a good job at providing the base for a solid game... Maybe not so savvy on the marketing side, i dont know. Be sad to see it go
Yes but we mean in the way of replayability. I beleive the critism some have over typical instancing is having to run them in order to get gear. This was not the case in TR, however, the TR instances had zero replayability once you did them and got your quests done. There was no reason to go back to them.
Having instances like TR with no replayability is pretty much failure to me.
Actually failure to me is to rerun the same instances over and over.
It is only failure if running the same ones over and over is required and they suck. If they are well made and you actually want to rerun them then you have a winner. But when you have no reason to rerun them then you have failure. Instances take quite a bit of dev time and making them poorly so no one wants to rerun them is a waste.
Why was there a lack of players? Because almost everyone who bought TR decided it was not worth staying with.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
Actually, just copying WoW will most likely NOT result in high sales. Because why should I put up with a half finished game (and let's be honest here, no MMO is finished at release) when I can have the same in finished, polished and double expanded fashion? Even WoW would fail against itself if the WoW we had at release was pitted against the WoW we have today. If you cannot offer me anything new that isn't WoW, care to tell why I should play your game at all and not turn to WoW if I enjoy this kind of game?
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
Yet an early release made this game a total waste of time and money. Well done. I hope the moron responsible for this won't find a job in the industry. Or anywhere. If anything, I would love to offer him a strong rope and a well anchored hook, just to make sure this is the last game he butchered.
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
With all due respect, please put the pipe down. 11 Million people play WOW because thats what they want to do and its a game that they want to play. Hate to break it to ya, but it is. The MMO market has far more choices today than it did 10 years ago, if people didnt want WOW they wouldnt play it. But why are we talking about WOW? I can see its obviously a game you dont like. Lets stick to the topic at hand....
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
I played TR from Beta to a few months after release up to level 48 on one character. Yes the game had issues, but quite frankly the gameplay and bugs were by far alot less than most other games at release. TR Failed because it lacked highend content. People leveled, leveled their cones, then leveled another clone, got bored and left. So please, lets keep it real. The Devs at TR were counting on people leveling alts indefinitely and lacked total imagination when it came to endgame play. Now if your saying it was released too soon before they could add any endgame then I could agree, however putting in a meaningful endgame didnt seem to be the focus of the Devs. There was also very little evidence that they planned to implement it as well.
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
"Management" spent uptine millions on this game and wanted to see some results. Can you blame them? Why ask them to throw good money after bad? In the end of the day its about profit and recouping losses. Apparently there was no more faith that RG or the TR dev team could turn this around and the game has been shut down.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
If a game developer ever wants to know how most players REALLY feel about gameplay all they have to do is look at subs and sales. Most people on this site are not asking for the sandbox, what they want is the same elements but with different options. Very few can handle "different" and I have not seen a huge majority claim to want this. Players that do go on about wanting something TRULY different are in the minority and should stick to niche games like EVEOnline. There is no way a game like Tabula Rasa, that took multi-millions to make could successfully pull off being niche and expect to recoup the outlays that went into development.
Sorry, but this is not really exactly true. Looking at subs is telling you what people are willing to put up with, not what they want.
Take WoW. Yes, I give it yet another whirl. Do I like the boredom of leveling (and compared to TR leveling in WoW is mind-numbing boring)? No. Do I like the tedious running quests and fill your inventory with junk? Even less. But it's something I accept as the nuisance to play group oriented content later on.
WoW is for MMOs what McDonalds is for food chains. It's not really what you want, but it's what you and your friends can most likely agree on. One doesn't like Chinese, one won't pay for a decent meal, so let's go to some burger flipper. It's not what any of us really wants, but we can all accept that stuff as food.
Actually, just copying WoW will most likely NOT result in high sales. Because why should I put up with a half finished game (and let's be honest here, no MMO is finished at release) when I can have the same in finished, polished and double expanded fashion? Even WoW would fail against itself if the WoW we had at release was pitted against the WoW we have today. If you cannot offer me anything new that isn't WoW, care to tell why I should play your game at all and not turn to WoW if I enjoy this kind of game?
TR failed for the the one reason that almost all failed MMOs fail for: Too early release. Released today it could actually shine and be a very successful game. We're now (ironically now that it's closing) at the point where the game is so far "finished" that you can release it. Yes, endgame is still threadbare, but released now you have 2-3 months before the majority of players start to get there. Plenty of time to introduce a few high level areas. Of course, if your whole dev team is busy tying up loose ends and trying to keep the game halfway playable (as it was after release), there is no time at all to develop any content for players that reach the top and ask "and what now?".
What irks me to no end is that the blame is of course put on the developers who did an IMO amazing job and not on the fools that shoved it out the door too early. Management is what is to blame. If anyone should get fired (preferably from a cannon) it is the idiot that decided to release this game before it was done. You already sunk years and millions into developing, would another year have killed you? So you killed a game that could have easily recovered its cost.
Yet an early release made this game a total waste of time and money. Well done. I hope the moron responsible for this won't find a job in the industry. Or anywhere. If anything, I would love to offer him a strong rope and a well anchored hook, just to make sure this is the last game he butchered.
You do realize TR was about 100 million dollars in the hole right? Easily recovered its costs? I think not. It had low retention because high end content did not exist, it had low retention because many players got bored in the high 30s and early 40s.
Then one should wonder why. Why did people quit, and why was so much money being wasted?
Well, let's look at an early teaser. TR 2004 preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVkPNUyrW9A
Could've fooled me, honestly. Without the explanation, I'd have guessed I'm looking at an Aeon trailer. Maybe they salvaged what was there from pre-revamp TR to make Aeon out of it, I dunno.
When you redo your game, basically from scratch, then a lot of your money goes down the loo. MMOs are expensive and risky businesses. But 100m is something you can recover. Not easily, mind you, but you can. Of course, you'll need more than 50k subscribers to reach that goal.
And for that, you have to keep people interested. I'm not really convinced that there was no plan for endgame, I just think that the devs were tied down fixing the killer bugs and redoing the game well into the second half of 2008 (hell, whole skills were replaced until well after July if I remember correctly). Just now, when the game finally reached some sort of stability, they can (and do) actually bring along content for level 50s. How are you supposed to create new content when the old one is falling apart?
My opinion is still it was released too early. Yes, management certainly got cold feet when they saw the cost side of the balance drop down past the 100m threshold, and they wanted to see this game make money. No doubt about that. I'm still convinced, though, this game had the potential to attract a sizable amount of players. It would never have been a WoW killer, but recovering from this 100m hole would have been possible. Not easy, but possible. I could see this game had the potential to reach the 1m sub mark, if it had proper management, sensible development and was completed before release (with "completed" meaning the completeness an MMO should reach before release, no MMO is "complete" at release).
It failed at many levels. Most of all, the game's focus was placed wrongly. Hindsight is always easy and it's easy now to point at the mistakes made. Well, if someone learns from them, it will at least serve as a lesson how to NOT turn a great idea (and I'm still convinced, the idea and the gameplay of TR is great and can attract many users) into a game.
staff, tabula rasa that will end in February, or still some hope
I started playing when It went free and it hasn't really felt like i was playing a mmo game. Instead it feels more like a sci-fi diablo 2.
The moral quest affecting NPC interaction, lack of lvl grinding, well thoughtout story line would have made an awsome single player game.
I wouldn't mind the ending being you kicking the bane off of earth and now standing in front of a gate with an army behind you ready to take the fight to the bane instead.
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
Sadly true. While I did occasionally see a difference in some quests further down the road (like, when you give the Bane the antidote in the first map, somewhere around the last map you get the Bane blood sample for "free" instead of having to kill the Bane scientist for it, with him implying that they are able and sometimes willing to cooperate with you if you show them you're not hellbent on exterminating them), the impact of your decisions is minimal at best.
It could have been expanded into a full blown betrayal quest line which would have resulted in actually meaningful PvP... ah hell, I can dream, can't I?
sorry to bother this topic, but I'm currently really confused... My english is bad, but as far as I read, Tabula Rasa should be free on today... I looked in the shop and you really can't purchase it, but neither there is no free activation codes nor any banners that say it's really F2P. Have I just misunderstood something?
The shame is they did not take the moral quests further. They really have little to no effect on gameplay. They really could have been a huge part of the game, but like most things in TR they never went as far with them as they should have to make them great.
Sadly true. While I did occasionally see a difference in some quests further down the road (like, when you give the Bane the antidote in the first map, somewhere around the last map you get the Bane blood sample for "free" instead of having to kill the Bane scientist for it, with him implying that they are able and sometimes willing to cooperate with you if you show them you're not hellbent on exterminating them), the impact of your decisions is minimal at best.
It could have been expanded into a full blown betrayal quest line which would have resulted in actually meaningful PvP... ah hell, I can dream, can't I?
Yeah could have been nice.
I think you still need to request an activation code from NCSoft.
ah, thats it, I just don't get what a user ID is... it's not my name
They would pay me 15$ a month to play and i would'nt. Free, i dont care.