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Tabula Rasa changed its name
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J-Nius
Member UncommonPosts: 29
in Tabula Rasa
Recently, today, I've been thinking that Richard Garriott was to much seen when I hear comments or interviews about the game. It feels like he's the only one working on the game. I understand that he is a great man for the role-playing game scene, even if I didn't know him before "Tabula Rasa", but he is only one, single, man. Where are the other people? Never heard of them.
And now, things are getting "worse". I don't know if I've been passing over this after all the time I spent getting information about the game, but it is not called simply Tabula Rasa anymore. It is called Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. See for yourself on the official site.
I am not saying that the name change is not good. In fact, considering everything I've written, they needed to do this to better commercialize the game. They have a great figure in their team who is building a deep story and should "exploit" this to their great advantage. But, again, he is not alone. Where is the team? This name change will only make the other developpers more invisible than they currently are right now...
J-Nius
And now, things are getting "worse". I don't know if I've been passing over this after all the time I spent getting information about the game, but it is not called simply Tabula Rasa anymore. It is called Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. See for yourself on the official site.
I am not saying that the name change is not good. In fact, considering everything I've written, they needed to do this to better commercialize the game. They have a great figure in their team who is building a deep story and should "exploit" this to their great advantage. But, again, he is not alone. Where is the team? This name change will only make the other developpers more invisible than they currently are right now...
J-Nius
Comments
He's living off of his Ultima fame.... and many younger players have no clue who he is so it isn't much of an endorsement....
Should have gotten Fall Out Boy or Paris Hilton to do it
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Garriott's my sovereign lord i'm his loyal yeoman. He can do whatever He wants I'll follow him to the deepest room of hells
I play Ultimas since I was like 10.
Knowing that the game is Garriott's TR adds to game goodness..
the best blog of the net
Who?
They should have named it "Lord Garriot's Tabula Rasa", I only became intrested in Tabula Rasa because he is heading the team with his long time freind and partner Lord Starr, otherwise I proberbly wouldn't give Tabula rasa a second glance. Few names in the game business strike any since of loyalty in me, but Garriot and Starr are two which I will always admire.
Playing:I can't say
Waiting:Tabula Rasa
Played:M59,UO,EQ,AO,SWG,L2,CoX
SB,EQ2,WoW,VG:SoH,GW,AC,AC2,
DAoC,DDO,DR,EVE,FFXI,PSO,RO,
RFO,RoE,MxO,H:EoI,N2,Imagine
Fable 2 for instance:
"Fable™ 2 is the sequel to the enchanting, engrossing and award winning action role playing game Fable™ developed by
Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios."
Spore:
"From the mind of Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, comes SPORE™, an epic journey that takes you from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and eventually all the way into the deepest reaches of outer space."
They're both in the Academy of Interactives Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, and so is Richard Garriott. Sid Meier was one of the first, and certainly he attached his name to quite a few products.
As popular as World of Warcraft is, I can't name a single person on it's development staff. I know Rob Pardo was lead designer, and that's about it. In contrast, I know much more about say, Brad McQuaid and can name a half a dozen people in Sigil and tell stories about them. Point being, it doesn't much effect how well your game is received if the individual developers aren't widely revealed with their community. I actually think it's kind of detrimental.
So, if Richard Garriott is to serve figurehead and CuppaJo do her part as Community Manager...that's enough. I don't mind if the other developers are overshadowed.
That said, most of the people with Destination Games have only worked on Ultima Online or its canceled sequels. Even Starr Long who's probably most deserving of second-most deserving of notoriety only has Ultima Online under his belt. not that Mr. Lord British has any other claims to fame, but at least he's considered something deific amongst us geeks and has been recognized by the industry as such.
I think it's a good idea to attach his name to it somewhat. it establishes that Tabula Rasa is his brainchild, a tradeoff worth other involved minds being slighted some. I'm sure they don't mind.
Brad McQuaid is from Everquest 1 and is heralded as its father.
Richard Garriott is from Ultima Online and considered it's father.
Brad McQuaid left an evil corporation and started his own company.
Richard Garriott left an evil corporation and started his own company.
Similarities end there...
Brad McQuaid took a 30 million dollar budget, and decided to create the "second most expensive MMO" ever without a single revenue stream. They spent a bulk of the money buying the rights to the game away from Microsoft, and entered a co-publishing agreement with SOE rather than outright allowing themselves to be acquired then, which would've been better then since it's happening anyway.
Richard Garriott conceptualized Tabula Rasa, and even began working on it, but he also made Destination Games synonymous with NCSoft in North America. Garriott effectively created a premise where he could nearly scrap the entire first iteration of the game and do it over; something Sigil needed to do themselves but couldn't, and eventually ended up releasing early due to lack of cash.
I guess in short, one was quite foolish and one behaved as you'd expect from a responsible figurehead. Garriott hasn't done anything yet comparable to McQuaid's mistakes.
Chris Taylor did the same thing for Supreme Commander.. and Chris Roberts was doing it before all of them!
I wouldn't be worried at all -- in the words of the great Yogurt, it's moichandising. Doesn't mean the game will be a drop different, I suspect. I say let the man get a little bookshelf (game shelf?) respect, even if it's limited to gamers! Rock on.
-- xpaladin
[MMOz]
AC1/2, AO, DAoC, EQ1/2, SoR, SWG, UO, WAR, WoW
It's too late at this point, but they should have changed the name entirely. I suspect adding Garriott's name is an attempt to add some brand recognition to this horribly misnamed game.
One reason many people havnt heard of R.Garriot is because when EA bought origin (R. Garriots old company) They actually paid him off to NOT make any games for a certain number of years , that should tell you volumes about his ability if a company was willing to pay not to work.
As far as the name change I think its a VERY GOOD sign. If Richard garriot wants to put his name on the title he must really be happy with how the game is coming along and have alot of confidence in it. Think about it, if the game was looking like it even had a chance to bomb he would want to keep his name on as low profile as possable to protect his reputation.
Actually he wasnt - Richard Garriott has a string of successful RPG's under his belt going back 20 years or more.
And as for Brad - Everquest had he done anything prior to that?
Well, it does have a rather lengthy tradition in the movie world as well.
Recently George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, for example.
They can call it Teletubbies Online as long as it delivers on the promised gameplay.
JFYI Richard Garriott (Better known as "Lord Brittish") is the creator of Ultima I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and Ultima Online
And a few other games as well
He's a legend in the RPG industry as well as the MMORPG industry.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Back on the replies, I know that many games were created by known persons and that they use their names to present their games. But in this case, the name of the person is in the name of the game. I also know that it is common for many games to call themselves with the name of the known person in it. It is just that this is the first time it happens for a MMO, am I wrong?
I think they did it as a publicity thing to boost the games profile in general gamer awareness.
At the end of the day its his company (Destination games) so yes its his game. and becuase R.G is so well known - people will expect a lot more form the game.
I'm looking forward to it - love the Sci-Fi theme- and think they did a fine job selecting this new path for development.
The reasons are obvious - there's a slew of other games out there for this one to get lost in the shuffle, Garriott is a gaming legend (Autoduel and Ultima are my favorite games of all time), using a name in the title is like a stamp of approval and generally seen as a good thing ("John Romero's Diakatana" notwithstanding), and the association of his name with the game can only help distinguish the game from the rest of the pack.
F'ing interesting, man.
Lets see :-
J-Nius's Tabula Rasa ... "No means nothing not relevant"
Gary Gygaxs' Tabula Rasa ... " Not logical but grabs my attention"
Brad McQuaids' Tabula Rasa ... " How the great have fallen but still attention grabbing
Tiger Woods's Tabula Rasa ... " Very illogical wrong genre but attention grabbing maybe a golf grenade side game"
Richard Garriotts' Tabula Rasa ... "Legend Legend Legend Interest immediate a god"
or maybe we should have an Oatabix moment
Joe,Johns,Bill,Bens,Fred,Jean,Gill & Daves Tabula Rasa ... " No potential here doesn't make a lot of sense
Now I enjoyed responding to the totally pointless post, If anyone can come up with a ny better prefixes to Tabula Rasa it amy be fun.
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
^^ LMAO!
George W. Bush´s Tabula Rasa - sounds like a Game sponsored by Daddy, with permission to betray people arround the gameworld and choosing fear instead of popularity to rule the countryserver......sounds like a goldselling Blizzard Executive compeling little Bloodelfes to buy Gold or be banned.
Garriot is still Lord British to me
.
I really hope TR isnt a bomb shell though. I already had one of my dev heroes put out a flop this year...
Agreed. It seems like an attempt to make the game stand out from other MMOs like movies do to establish a sense of prestige. I guess that means that older RPGers will see the box on the shelves and immediately think, "Oh hey, I remember playing the awesome games this guy made way back then so I'll buy this one too!"
I'm kind of dissappointed that RG would have OK'd his name being plastered all over the game's title to be honest. Don't get me wrong, he's a great visionary in the role-playing genre, but so was Brad before he dished out Vanguard and made sure that everyone and their mom knew that he was responsible for it's creation, and ultimate failure.
I want to play a game because the concept seems cool and the fan base seems to enjoy it, not because some guy that gave me a memorable experience YEARS ago pops up and let's me know that his game is going to be the shizzle because he needs to use his name and past successes to fuel it's publicity.
It seems like a jynx if anything to me. I sincerely hope that it isn't for Tabula Rasa's sake.
It just saddens me that Richard would want to be the main showcase for the game, and not the game itself.
Pretty sure you wont meet RG in game.
And how can you compare Richard (whos in the hall of fame) with Brad whos one claim to fame is Everquest?
And its marketing - pure and simple.
I have never played any of his previous games - although I have been playing CPRG's for 20 years - way back to Bards Tale on the C64.
Too many games - too little time.
It wasn't "Brad McQuaid's Vanguard", but then again...from the accounts we've gotten, Brad KNEW what the quality of his
product on release was going to be. Who would want to put their name on a game they felt was lacking quite a few features,
had sys specs that would cause problems for a large portion of the playerbase, and was being released way too early?
"Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa"...okay, Richard has enough pride in this product that he's slapping his name on the box.
That means, if it's a huge failure, it won't be "Vanguard" or "Tabula Rasa"...it'll be "Richard Garriott" that failed. If it's a huge
groundbreaking success, it won't be "that huge new game Tabula Rasa", it'll be..."Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa".
I got to interview Richard Garriott at E3 in 2004; trust me, if his name's on the box, it's because he believes he's achieved what
he was trying to achieve, NOT as a "glory grab".
Painters don't sign their best works because they want glory; they sign them as a way of saying "I am VERY proud of this!"
That's the type of person he seemed to be to me that day. So, to be honest, I welcome this...it's NOTHING but a good sign.
nuff said