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A Game Designer's Eulogy for Tabula Rasa
MikeDarga
Member Posts: 3
Hi everybody,
Now that all the doom and gloom is over, I'm writing up some posts that focus on the successes of TR - the things that game designers should consider adopting into other games in the future.
I didn't play the game until the past few months, so I'm sure all of you would have plenty to add to this list that I haven't thought of.
Please drop by and add yours to the list:
http://mikedarga.blogspot.com/2009/03/eulogy-for-tabula-rasa-part-1.html
http://mikedarga.blogspot.com/2009/03/eulogy-for-tabula-rasa-part-2.html
There's still one more installment yet to come. There've been some great comments already but I look forward to seeing yours.
Thanks,
Mike
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Mike Darga
20 Behaviors of Great Game Designers
Comments
It is a shame that TR was taken down. Anyways I wish they would of re worked the game maybe reduce the REALMS or for that matter yes even some of the STAFF to give it a chance. After all I dont think for the time it was UP it did not allow for ones who may of taken a LATE like to it.
Yeah, it really seemed like they didn't even try to keep this game running. It had a lot of great qualities, and if they had given it a little bit more of a chance to develop a player base it could have actually turned out to be pretty great.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
I did like the game.
Although being a big RPG player I felt the the class build options were kind of lame.
And I was playing solo most of the team, there wasn't much of a need to group.
But I did notice all the points made in this blog, and they were nice additions.
Another thing that may have hurt the game was that the first area looked kind of blah. But later areas one you leveled up a bit look really good.
Many people in beta even commented on this, they should make the first area look great.
Wow, thanks for all the great comments and all the people who subscribed! I just started out a few months ago with the blogging, but you won't be disappointed. I've got big plans.
@GreenChaos: Yeah, maybe some of the planets were a little too earth-like, but then again a totally random world, like Xen, might have been a bit off-putting too.
Ok, gotta get the last part finished before I pass out for the night...
Mike
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Mike Darga
20 Behaviors of Great Game Designers
I absolutely LOVED the first few areas , i really hope the next mmo they make takes the things they did right and advertises better ...
There's a lot of stuff in TR that should be made standard in every mmo; the realistic spawning, the targets of opportunity quests, cutscenes getting you into the instances, base assaults ^^, CLONES, chosing the skills you want (ala guild wars, eve et al) the quest tracking, the list goes on and on, it's just such a shame that the mmo i liked most of all is one of the very few that got shut down...
reading your blog at the moment, truly insightful information, so many common sense things that we poor designers just gloss over... if everyone would read and take in what you are saying the industry wouldn't be cutting so many corners...
<Welcome to my world>
Very kind words! Thank you Venomzer0.
I've decided that instead of complaining about the industry and bad design all the time, I need to get in a position where I can teach people and help improve things. That's the reason I decided to move my game design journal from a [unicorn-covered-locked-with-a-tiny-key-hidden-under-my-mattress] notebook onto the internet.
I've got about 50 posts under my belt, and now I'm just trying to get the word out, so definitely stick around or pass me along if you like what you read.
Here's the 3rd and final part of the series on Tabula Rasa's silver lining:
http://mikedarga.blogspot.com/2009/03/eulogy-for-tabula-rasa-part-3.html
This one is all about how TR was great at giving players lots of information and letting them devise a plan. Your comment about the cutscenes is included there as well.
Thanks for the comments!
Mike
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Mike Darga
20 Behaviors of Great Game Designers
What is the chances that TR making a return??? BETTER then it was BEFORE?
I was in the beta test for Tabula Rasa since early summer before it was released, and was a big fan. There was a lot to like about TR, but there were some issues that really were the death of the game. The fact that 95% of the game was soloable was one big thing. The ease and speed of leveling was another big downside. Lastly, a total lack of endgame conent until toward the very end of TR's life. The problem with those things became that the game became boring and repetitive quickly. The vast majority of the beta testers agreed that these things were going to be big issues upon release and would contribute to it's downfall. I think one major problem was the length the game spent in development. The other was the Korean and Western teams not agreeing on basics. They needed to recognize right off the bat that there is a huge difference between the gaming sensibilities of Western MMOG players and Asian MMOG players. They didn't, and I feel as though that created friction and poor design choices for a Western MMOG. Some other smaller issues were the terrible Crafting system that was there early on in the game, a lack of some basic features early on like Auction Houses and in-game mail, which were added in some form right as the game was launching or shortly after.
As I said, there was a ton to like about Tabula Rasa though. If they could have balanced it a bit better, and added a crapload more content, especially at the end game, and stuck to the group/guild content mold I think the game would have lasted a lot longer. Probably many years in fact. It was super fun to play, and was something that you could log into for 30 minutes or 30 hours and accomplish things and have a good time. I will surely miss it, and I sincerely hope that we can see more great sci-fi based MMOGs like this in the future... as long as someone can manage to do it right.
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
I played the game near the end and found it was incredibly boring. It's really hard to explain but I just didn't care what happened next. Instances were the most interesting part of it. It run fine, was stable enough, decent graphics, OK quests I guess... but free game or not - I still wouldn't play it. I just didn't feel it.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I had a similar feeling except in the open beta. Everything "seemed" OK, but nothing was good enough to get me to buy it. The biggest problem was how the combat system didn't really work. It looked like an action shooter but then I'm running behind rocks, watching lazers go through the rocks and hitting me. I know over time apparently they solved the issue, but I wasn't waiting around for them to fix something thats vital to the flow of battle. The art design also didn't do anything for me. It was just plain generic sci-fi. Nothing cool looking at all. The lore had its moments but the looks were too bland.
The only major feature that stuck out was the clone system. Excellent idea and works quite well for a sci-fi theme.
I hope some company picks it up, this game had potential.
PBBG List.
Thanks for the nice read and agree on everything you said, but like to add can't recall it was mentioned but forgive me if it was, that I really loved how spawns of creature's worked aswell. Not like with most MMO's they suddenly spawn and this could be right in your face, instead they tried to put realism into it as Spider crawled out of the ground and lots of other spawns I felt was really innovative towards this genre.
Overall it felt more like a sort of next gen multiplayer game then it felt MMORPG atleast to me personaly, but had a great time never the less even if it only was in beta and the first 3 months since release, after that like I said it felt like to much multiplayer and not so much MMORPG and I needed/wanted a MMORPG experiance and not a multiplayer experianc.
In the end I really hope that a developer or even NCSoft see what was indeed very good and hopefully place that "good" into a more true MMORPG setting.
I think its just because NCSoft was running it. If it was another game company they would have kept it going until there were only 200 people left. NCSoft doesn't dable in games with less then 200k users.
um I don't know if I was told crap but, I heard the game is now free I may give it a shot.
Anyone know if it is free or not?
There is no more game. It is gone.
Read the thread before you post next time.