When RGTR.Com first announced that Tabula Rasa was getting the axe [more info], I had just done a zapper strip and didn't want to immediately do another. Then I got so many emails and PMs telling me to zap the game, I got belligerent and decided I didn't want to. Now, I'm just kind of tired of getting emails about it. So, I'm zapping them to get people off my back. Guess I'm still pretty belligerent. **whistles**

Taks and I saw Tabula Rasa at E3. We liked the direction the game was going. Then, before the game really got any gamer notice (gaming news sites don't count), it was announced that the game was changing direction. That's never a good sign. I didn't intentionally avoid the game because of this. It just never worked it's way onto my to-do list.

And as for the snide comment about the number of people playing the game, more than 2 people were playing; reports guestimate it was closer to 88 thousand. Nothing personal there Garriott.

Tabula Rasa - (Latin). A clean slate; a blank or erased tablet.

Makes wish for the old days when Richard Garriott owned Origin and they produced some amazing games.

On a side note, I think I was one of the few people who really enjoyed Ultima IX, even though it was produced under the EA umbrella.

Meh.....I digress.

I lot of people in my City of Heroes circle got into beta, many were excited about it. Then they actually played beta and were very unimpressed. I don't know of one who actually subbed up when it went live.

I was a subscriber until they announced the impending shutdown, then I cancelled my sub. The game is actually exceptionally fun, and it's quite a shame that it's being shut down.

TR was a lot of fun to play, and certainly had a lot of potential, but after 6 months of broken promises and increasingly poor gameplay changes(Linker nerf was so lame) I stopped subscribing. I don't think much changed in the months between then and now, though I do know some few small steps were made to introducing some of the promised content, but none of it ever fully materialized.

Still it's a shame to see the game die. Its unique control scheme (for an MMO) and fast paced gameplay were a breath of fresh air for the community, and the level of involvement with the Dev team in the community was amazing.


RIP TR

On a side note, if they hadn't changed direction it would have just been another fantasy MMO. I can't see it doing anything but flopping even harder than it's sci-fi iteration in it's prior form...

I'll let your readers decide. Compare:
Original
Extra tasty crispy recipe

Makes me wonder if any SOE devs managed to squirrel their way onto the dev team, they are legendary about craptastic changes (SWG anyone?)

This comic quickly skyrocketed to one of my favorite zapper comics. Soooo funny.

I was in beta and was thoroughly bored. In those early days, certain mobs took forever to kill and if you didn't have enough people (or good enough gear, I suppose) mobs could actually regenerate faster than you could kill them. It was terrible. I once took about 6 minutes to kill one guy alone, my damage output being only slightly better than his regeneration.. and this was during the tutorial.

I tried the free trial some time later, to play with a friend who had gotten it as a gift earlier this year.. that aspect of gameplay had improved, at least, and logos was terribly easier to obtain and use. Still, it just wasn't fun, and that's really what matters.

For the record, I hate WoW and think it's done more bad for the MMO genre than good, so I'm sad when an MMO who tries to do anything different gets shut down.. then again, it's probably the fact it isn't raking in WoW-loads of cash that make (publishers?) want to pull the plug. I was pretty upset when Auto Assault got the axe, too.

If I'm able, I'll probably play it when it's free to play, before the shutdown.

EA syndrome. If it isn't making piles of money, cancel it even though it's making some kind of money. Earth and Beyond was a good example. Many people enjoyed the game including me but they gave it the ax. I enjoyed TR. The combat was a lot of fun. Sad.

Of note, those reports that indicate around 88k, are sales, not subs.

That's even worse Darkov.

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Ival, you'll note that my writeup didn't say Taks and I saw the original version of the game at E3. We actually saw an intermediary version of it after it went Sci-Fi. At the time, even though I liked the direction, I thought "Imperator is going to crush this game". Then Mythic got their hands on Warhammer and scrapped Imerator all together. **sighs**