Tabula Rasa - Looking Back

[Myrthos]

RPS looks back at Tabula Rasa, the MMO Richard Garriott worked on before the MMO/MP/No-SP game he is working on now.

Tabula Rasa cost NCSoft a fortune, so sure were they that combination of a legendary developer and spaceguns in a World of Warcraft structure would be the MMO to end all MMOs. It didn’t exactly work out like that (and we’d see remarkably similar folly from them half a decade later, with WildStar). Which is a shame, as the fault was less with the game and more with impossible expectations – both from the people behind the game and from the millions of people they spent a couple of years convincing it would be the answer to their every prayer.

What a strange time 2006-2008 was. So many of us were so desperate for a World of Warcraft alternative, specifically because we spent our every waking hour for months playing World of Warcraft, loving it to bits, then burning out of it. How could any game using the same approximate structure somehow achieve that? We had all seen Oz behind his curtain by that point, and no self-proclaimed WoW-killer stood a chance.

More information.

 

[Drithius]

Had a good, somewhat original setting, but the gameplay was just so monotonous. Games w/ gunplay just need more features to keep players entertained as opposed to the more traditional/tired close-quarter (and more visceral) sword & sorcery combat. Hellgate:London suffered from this as well.

NCSoft pulled the plug quite unexpectedly on City of Heroes, so I won't cry any tears regardless.

 

[Carnifex]

Another one I remember people leaving Everquest for, then slowly I see them sneaking back into the game. Of course, one could say that about almost every online game that tried to be EQ, including Warcraft. I do miss City of Heroes, that one was actually fun for a bit.

 

[luj1]

Wish the article was longer. As noted, it was supposed to be Garriot’s glorious fucking comeback to the industry. Before Shroud of the Avatar. Before Underworld Ascendant. Which are both scams.

I'm glad I played Tabula Rasa. It taught me not to put my trust in devs-turned-space tourists.

 

[Saxon1974]

Wish the article was longer. As noted, it was supposed to be Garriot’s glorious fucking comeback to the industry. Then Shroud of the Avatar. Then Underworld Ascendant.

I'm actually grateful, Tabula Rasa is when I learned not to trust Garriot, the space tourist.

Yes he has really sullied his name to me. That being said every interview I have heard from him over the last 20 years he talks about online and social aspects being "where it's at". He says the only reason that stuff was not in the early Ultimas was lack of tech. Well lucky us! It's almost like he is clueless what people loved in the early Ultimas.

 

[luj1]

Indeed most if not all visionaries go batshit crazy at some point. They lose their mojo and forget what has made their games so good at first place.

 

[TheSHEEEP]

Oh boy... I played WildStar for a bit.
Must've been almost an hour. I don't think I ever removed an MMO from my disk that quickly

It just felt like pretty bad WoW reskin.

 

[TheMadGamer]

He says the only reason that stuff was not in the early Ultimas was lack of tech. Well lucky us!

I've read Richard saying that a few times myself. One of the many challenges entrepreneurs face is producing a product or service that other people want (as opposed to what the entrepreneur is interested in producing).

It's interesting that perhaps the low-power state of consumer hardware back in the 80s and 90s course-corrected Garriott into producing games other people wanted. Now, with consumer hardware far more powerful than it was decades ago, Garriott is producing games he'd rather produce to the detriment of his potential customers who actually want something different.

 

[Farflame]

Before Shroud of the Avatar. Before Underworld Ascendant. Which are both scams.

Why should be Underworld Ascendant scam? Because they talked with Garriott about some lore details? Its not developed by Garriott, thank god, and Otherside doesnt sell blood of anyone. They need their own blood to maintain work on the game while Garriott basically doesnt need anything because he does nothing. (nothing that could be qualified as work)

 

[rune_74]

Underworld Ascendant has nothing to do with RG.

 

[Zloth]

Jeez, I thought there would be another two pages to that article! Tabula Rasa went through a development hell so I figured they would look back at some of that.

 

[Myrthos]

Perhaps Alec Meer didn't look that long to turn it into more.

 

[pibbur who]

Never tried Tabula Rasa, or maybe I did for 30 minutes. Don't remember. But what I do remember is that shops, both retail and on line had the game for sale long after the servers were taken down.

pibbur

 

[joxer]

Indeed most if not all visionaries go batshit crazy at some point.

I can't agree. IMO they were never visionaries in the first place, but their name was used to represent a product unknown visionaries were actually responsible for.

Over time, these fakes always show their real face. Some of these charlatans last longer than others till unmasked though, an example is John Carmack.

 

[NewDArt]

joxer started out batshit crazy and became a visionary in his own mind early on

 

[joxer]

I don't have any kind of visions. For those I'd have to use heavy drugs. And I don't use heavy drugs as it's all chemicals. Didn't come from nature = not for me.
Means, I'm not a visionary.

Didn't just start batshit crazy, somehow always was and don't plan to change.

 

[pibbur who]

I can't agree. IMO they were never visionaries in the first place, but their name was used to represent a product unknown visionaries were actually responsible for.

Over time, these fakes always show their real face. Some of these charlatans last longer than others till unmasked though, an example is John Carmack.

I can't agree with that. I think mr Garriot was a visionary during his Ultima days. Not anymore. And I can't see how Carmack was a fake, he was very important for the development of 3D graphics in games.

Why can't a fake have been visonary some time back then?

pibbur who is not a visionary. And hopefully not a fake either.

 

[NewDArt]

Maybe if we stop obsessing over individuals and just accept that we all have the capacity to be visionary given the right circumstances, we don't have to bother with the label at all

 

[joxer]

I can't see how Carmack was a fake, he was very important for the development of 3D graphics in games.

No.
Just as the recent case with copypasting VR stuff from Bethesda to Facebook, he copypasted others' work.
An excerpt from wiki about certain code method (I've mentioned it recently in some post about phone/console inferiority):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root

The algorithm was originally attributed to John Carmack, but an investigation showed that the code had deeper roots in both the hardware and software side of computer graphics. Adjustments and alterations passed through both Silicon Graphics and 3dfx Interactive, with Gary Tarolli's implementation for the SGI Indigo as the earliest known use. It is not known how the constant was originally derived, though investigation has shed some light on possible methods.

Dunno who, how and why credited the code to him back then. But that man is a fraud. No wonder he got hired by Facebook in the end.

On the other hand, he cofounded id software with at least one game design visionary - Tom Hall. Now that guy admitted the game title just popped out in his head during a shower. Not quite what we imagine about visions, still a vision though. The game was

Spoiler

Anachronox.

Tom Hall left id software after disputes with, guess who. But because of that, the game in the spoiler tags was possible. Just as the first DX.

 

[pibbur who]

If you go a bit further down the article you quoted it says: "Initial speculation pointed to John Carmack as the probable author of the code, but he demurred and suggested it was written by Terje Mathisen, an accomplished assembly programmer who had previously helped id Software with Quake optimization"

Doesn't seem to me that he claimed ownerhip of the algorithm. Unless I completely misunderstand what "demur" means in this context.

Anyhow, I suppose I have too little detailed knowledge about this (less than you, it seems) to argue against you. So I concede. Doesn't mean that I necessarily agree, but I don't think I can continue the debate in a meaningful way. Sorry.

0.75-0 to the joxer?

pibbur sometimes knows what he's talking about.