Oh how I wish Tabula Rasa would see the light of day again...
Everytime I quit a current MMO, I always go looking through all my old games, and i always find the TR case.
I flip through the big ass manual for it, and look at the game discs and pack it away again.
Its the only game I can honestly say I would still jump in and play for a month here or there if I could. TR wasnt the best game ever, in fact it had a shit load of problems. But It was one of the best gaming experiances I ever had.
RIP TR and SWG.
Agree. I really couldn't understand why TR was cancelled. It seemed populated, had no trouble finding parties for whatever. I am usually skeptical of such things but here i fully believe the drama and conspiracies.
Yeah Tabula Rasa was quite a bit of fun, at least in the eyes of a power gamer...wish they were able to at least track packets on it, in hopes for a player revival of it
Tried around 4 times to get into Eve after E&B died. I just can't "not" play a game for six months before it's actually fun. I'm sure the zero-sec is sweet and the gigantic fleet battles are epic, but I never got to see any of that. I was flying around in my retriever trying tossing cans of minerals and hopping on my hauler to bring it back to the station. I accomplished more while offline than I did while online.
My word and world holds ground and is real Your word is like floods of poisoned water A language spoken with spit from different tongues More of my unwanted opinions
well, theme was Games Fit For Resurrection, so if i had to pick 1 game, i would not have to think twice - it would be Mythica. i believe, that besides the strong IP (tho the norse mythology could be pretty appealing in some countries, especially here in europe (and especially in scandinavia, ofc )) it would have pretty much every pro wow had, plus many interesting ideas plus really great community. cancelation of mythica is by far my nr.1 regret in case of mmorpgs
Dark & Light would be my choice with a new dev team and no illegal court cases it would make a fantastic mmorpg. It still has features that are still not seen in any mmorpg today.
Earth and Beyond was a decent game, and I was a bit surprised by its demise, but at the same time I kind of understood why it happened. There was really no end game going on. Once you hit a certain stage of the game, there was really nothing to do at all. I kept hoping they would realize this, but instead they just pulled the plug.
Ultima Online doesn't really belong on this list because the sequels were never made to be resurrected in the first place. The first game is still going strong, or at least limping along.
Now, Tabula Rasa was an example of a game that had so much potential going for it, but it, too, had no end game available to it. This caused a lot of senior players to just keep dropping out, and that meant that as you got higher and higher in the game, you were surrounded by fewer and fewer other players. I was not surprised to see it killed off, even though I have to admit that it is probably the most fun I've had in a MMORPG to date. From the opening movie to the actual playing in that universe, it was a lot of fun. I kept imagining how it was going to be when we finally took back Earth, thinking that had to be the eventual direction of the game.
But it died too soon. I don't think I've ever been in a game where you had to do that much destruction to take back a post that had been taken over by the enemy. That was so much fun. Or the times where I'd hide out in a tower and be a sniper, taking down their numbers one by one until outside forces could assault the front gate and then I could help them by sniping the defenses while they took back the town. THAT was so much freaking fun. No online game I've played has ever done that as well as that game did. And I don't think we'll ever see that again.
What really killed Tabula Rasa is the same thing that got it made: Richard Garriott. His ego. As much as I like the guy as a designer, every time he commented about the game, I kept wishing he'd just shut up. When he tried to turn his "space flight" into a part of the game (as free advertisement), I felt embarrassed to be playing the game during that time. It felt so cheezy. I won't begin to indicate that I know the business decisions that went into the demise of the game, but it's too bad it happened. It's one of the few innovative ones out there that feels like it was killed by its own company's inability to advertise properly, because there was a game there worth playing. There was just no one left playing.
Trials of Ascension, an amazing MMO Concept in which you have Perma death. Wide open worlds to explore, ACTUAL DIFFERENT RACES instead of reskinned humans including playable Dragons. Gryphons, and Pixies.
Language barriers/Gods to worship/heirarchy of religious factions/player buildable colonies/Real time combat
No "balance" of things. all skill based and it was contemplated that you only get 100 lives, each time you died your soul weakened until it ceased to exist.
Changing weather that actually effected gameplay/worship of gods that bestow powers when loyal and punish followers who stray from the path. Heirophants of gods which represent each god. Gods of battle/nature/healing/death. As the Heirophant you would have the capability to mold your god's intent slightly in any way you wanted. and would become very powerful in your choice of god's specialities.
To make Dragons a challenge to play they had Dragons have a life cycle. A hatchling dragon could only catch rabbits to sustain itself. very weak and easy to slay. adolescent dragons were more powerful but still very vulnerable just learning to fly. Adult dragons could pick a breath type as there would be multiple to choose from, dark energy/electricity/fire/frost/acid/others. To prevent clans from taking a dragon player and nurturing him throughout his life all dragons have a very large area of effect curse. Ancient Dragons are the pinnacle of power. But it would take many months if not years to achieve
Master Wizards would be as powerful as Ancient Dragons, but their lives are equally as dangerous as magic isn't something to be trifled with by the inexperienced and could easily backfire and kill it's caster.
But if you became a master cook in your lifetime or a master thief or master mage or master swordsman or ANYTHING you would have the chance to drop an artifact that represents whatever path you chose to dedicate your life in. That artifact would represent your whole character and it would make your in game accomplishments immortal. The artifact would be very useful to whoever wishes to follow in the footsteps of your path. Of course the catch is you had to perma die for it to be created.
If any game deserved to be on this list it is THIS GAME!
www.shadowpool.com PLEASE IF THERE ARE ANY RICH OLD GUYS LOOKING TO GET RID OF THEIR MONEY BEFORE UNGREATFUL GRANDCHILDREN GET SOME GIVE IT TO THIS
Looking towards the timing of the development of these games and which could have been abandoned because WOW made them unprofitable ventures? The game managers do look at the market and compare so who lost hope to even enter? As much as I like sandbox game play, it has become obvious that was a turning point in MMO development.
i definetly see a trend. its NCsoft. they trash potential good games in favor of turn a quick profit fail ones. They should all kill themselves for ruining the mmo genre.
I would have to add Motor City Online to this list. It was really a great game and brought a whole new fold of people into the MMO world.
+4Billion
MC Online was what finally got me away from over 3years of UO. Loved it, I would buy and pay monthly for it right now if it came back. After it died I couldn't bring myself back to playing UO and have jumped from MMO to MMO ever since.
Here's one that didn't make the list: Classic WoW.
I realize WoW is still in operation (orly?) today. But I'm talking about the game before it began its long path of being stripped of everything that truly made it great, and gave it its identity.
I'm curious as to why SW didn't get recounted?
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc. We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be. So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away. - MMO_Doubter
As has been mentioned before, Auto Assault, Tabula Rosa, and Dungeon Runners are the three games that NCsoft has axed over the last few years. All of them western games. Given past history, one suspects that the NCsoft suits don't have a clue at what works(and what doesn't) in the western markets. Aions current retention numbers are also right in line with that.
A game that should have been on this list is Mythica. It looked like a blast, and from what I understand it was doing well internally. Then Mickysoft pulled the plug. MS has an even worse track record with MMO's than even NCsoft has managed.
Been playing the stress test but I can't bring myself to cap knowing that my toons will be reset 2-3 more times before it goes live.
My word and world holds ground and is real Your word is like floods of poisoned water A language spoken with spit from different tongues More of my unwanted opinions
Of that list I only played Tabula rasa and I think if there ever was a game which shouldn't have been canned it's that one . To think they also diverted all their resources to the "lemon" that is Aion makes it even worse.Right at the time when TR was closed down players were discovering it or coming back and the developers were updating the content on a weekly basis ( so much so we got an entire "earth map " right before the final day it was live ) and were very responsive to the suggestions being made by the player-community . After that debacle and the massive dissapointment Aion was I think TR was pretty much the final game I will ever play which is being published by NCsoft ( including GW 2 , I just don't trust NCsoft anymore ) .And there was a time I was an avid fan of that company and played every title produced or published by them . They destroyed any chance of ever becoming a big player in western hemisphere when they lost both the Garriott brothers and Strain/Reid - in the process also canning loads of folks all across USA and Europe .Even SOE knows that policy doesn't work ......
The only thing "wrong" with Tabula Rasa was that it was lacking content in certain areas... and NCSoft.
As I said in the news thread about sci-fi MMOGs recently, I would start paying for Earth & Beyond again today if it came back and started up right where it left off, with no changes... as long as EA wasn't involved. I played from phase 4 beta until sunset, AnDRAMAda server, oorah Merchant Marines! 8)
------------------------- "Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
My word and world holds ground and is real Your word is like floods of poisoned water A language spoken with spit from different tongues More of my unwanted opinions
The only game I agree with on that list is Shadowbane. If it could be remade minus the exploits and bugs it would be my first choice to play mainly because some of my best times in an mmo were in that game. I realize it would never be more than a pvp niche game but the player base it attracted was a blast to interact with and even more fun to crush under my dwarven prelate boots. Another game I would love to play an updated version of is AC. It was my first mmo love and I have yet to play a game which combined a massive world with a skill based system since. If you add to that the early days when it had constant world events going on with truly interesting updates I would happily play my life away. It did need more content for the size of the world but overall a new version with some tweaks would in my opinion be the best mmo of all time. Basically take what AC2 should have been and make that.
Played Earth and Beyond from launch until the day the pulled the plug on the servers(Sunset). Had some good times and bad times as with any MMO. The best thing about that game was the community. People would go out of their way just to help somebody else. I miss my 150 Jenquai Defender and destroying the tengu in the fishbowl, and who could forget the commercials in-station.... BIG! STRONG! WOW!... TADA-O!....tada-o *kids giggle*
Pretty much Ditto across the board. I am afraid that i refused to give EA any more money after the announcement and do regret not being there for the parties at sunset and i miss this game a lot.
Tried to get in to EvE as an alternative (as a lot of people did) and although it is a great game in it's own right, it just didn't push the same buttons at all. As you said, the community was everything and there was never a problem finding a group and people would go out of their way to jump you around, a great blend of pretty well balanced classes and great community that i have been hard pressed to find since (
Followed the same path as you. Played EnB from start to finish and then ended up in EVE, for 5 years, afterward. I would love to see Earth & Beyond resurrected and upgraded.
Well, EnB have been resurrected by a group of diehard fans. Their server 'sunrise' are open for stress test 4.
I am surprised how well they have reverse engineered their server so far.
It hurts you didn't list PlanetSide it's still to this day the only real mmofps and back in the day one of the best no grind questing magic elf crap games to ever live.
Comments
I was in the beta for Wish and I loved the game. I was shocked when such a cool game was gone before it even made it out of the gates.
Everytime I quit a current MMO, I always go looking through all my old games, and i always find the TR case.
I flip through the big ass manual for it, and look at the game discs and pack it away again.
Its the only game I can honestly say I would still jump in and play for a month here or there if I could. TR wasnt the best game ever, in fact it had a shit load of problems. But It was one of the best gaming experiances I ever had.
RIP TR and SWG.
Agree. I really couldn't understand why TR was cancelled. It seemed populated, had no trouble finding parties for whatever. I am usually skeptical of such things but here i fully believe the drama and conspiracies.
Yeah Tabula Rasa was quite a bit of fun, at least in the eyes of a power gamer...wish they were able to at least track packets on it, in hopes for a player revival of it
Neocron is still up and running.
None of the games listed in the article are up and running, or never made it to release.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
Tried around 4 times to get into Eve after E&B died. I just can't "not" play a game for six months before it's actually fun. I'm sure the zero-sec is sweet and the gigantic fleet battles are epic, but I never got to see any of that. I was flying around in my retriever trying tossing cans of minerals and hopping on my hauler to bring it back to the station. I accomplished more while offline than I did while online.
My word and world holds ground and is real
Your word is like floods of poisoned water
A language spoken with spit from different tongues
More of my unwanted opinions
well, theme was Games Fit For Resurrection, so if i had to pick 1 game, i would not have to think twice - it would be Mythica. i believe, that besides the strong IP (tho the norse mythology could be pretty appealing in some countries, especially here in europe (and especially in scandinavia, ofc
)) it would have pretty much every pro wow had, plus many interesting ideas plus really great community. cancelation of mythica is by far my nr.1 regret in case of mmorpgs 
I miss Tabula Rasa so much... I wished a company could take it and finish it like it would have been supose to be... Damn I miss that game..
About TR, I always laugh when I go to my Future Shop and they still sell the box 9.99$... hahaha!
<a href="http://www.enjin.com/"; alt="swtor guild hosting"><img src="http://sigs.enjin.com/sig-swtor/23d3ae4fb19b441f.png"></a>;
Dark & Light would be my choice with a new dev team and no illegal court cases it would make a fantastic mmorpg. It still has features that are still not seen in any mmorpg today.
www.darkandlight.com/en/
Furious Fighters
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/13trindx.htm
Earth and Beyond was a decent game, and I was a bit surprised by its demise, but at the same time I kind of understood why it happened. There was really no end game going on. Once you hit a certain stage of the game, there was really nothing to do at all. I kept hoping they would realize this, but instead they just pulled the plug.
Ultima Online doesn't really belong on this list because the sequels were never made to be resurrected in the first place. The first game is still going strong, or at least limping along.
Now, Tabula Rasa was an example of a game that had so much potential going for it, but it, too, had no end game available to it. This caused a lot of senior players to just keep dropping out, and that meant that as you got higher and higher in the game, you were surrounded by fewer and fewer other players. I was not surprised to see it killed off, even though I have to admit that it is probably the most fun I've had in a MMORPG to date. From the opening movie to the actual playing in that universe, it was a lot of fun. I kept imagining how it was going to be when we finally took back Earth, thinking that had to be the eventual direction of the game.
But it died too soon. I don't think I've ever been in a game where you had to do that much destruction to take back a post that had been taken over by the enemy. That was so much fun. Or the times where I'd hide out in a tower and be a sniper, taking down their numbers one by one until outside forces could assault the front gate and then I could help them by sniping the defenses while they took back the town. THAT was so much freaking fun. No online game I've played has ever done that as well as that game did. And I don't think we'll ever see that again.
What really killed Tabula Rasa is the same thing that got it made: Richard Garriott. His ego. As much as I like the guy as a designer, every time he commented about the game, I kept wishing he'd just shut up. When he tried to turn his "space flight" into a part of the game (as free advertisement), I felt embarrassed to be playing the game during that time. It felt so cheezy. I won't begin to indicate that I know the business decisions that went into the demise of the game, but it's too bad it happened. It's one of the few innovative ones out there that feels like it was killed by its own company's inability to advertise properly, because there was a game there worth playing. There was just no one left playing.
My blog:
http://www.littlesarbonn.com
Awwww give me back Auto Assault....shallow but soo much fun
Trials of Ascension, an amazing MMO Concept in which you have Perma death. Wide open worlds to explore, ACTUAL DIFFERENT RACES instead of reskinned humans including playable Dragons. Gryphons, and Pixies.
Language barriers/Gods to worship/heirarchy of religious factions/player buildable colonies/Real time combat
No "balance" of things. all skill based and it was contemplated that you only get 100 lives, each time you died your soul weakened until it ceased to exist.
Changing weather that actually effected gameplay/worship of gods that bestow powers when loyal and punish followers who stray from the path. Heirophants of gods which represent each god. Gods of battle/nature/healing/death. As the Heirophant you would have the capability to mold your god's intent slightly in any way you wanted. and would become very powerful in your choice of god's specialities.
To make Dragons a challenge to play they had Dragons have a life cycle. A hatchling dragon could only catch rabbits to sustain itself. very weak and easy to slay. adolescent dragons were more powerful but still very vulnerable just learning to fly. Adult dragons could pick a breath type as there would be multiple to choose from, dark energy/electricity/fire/frost/acid/others. To prevent clans from taking a dragon player and nurturing him throughout his life all dragons have a very large area of effect curse. Ancient Dragons are the pinnacle of power. But it would take many months if not years to achieve
Master Wizards would be as powerful as Ancient Dragons, but their lives are equally as dangerous as magic isn't something to be trifled with by the inexperienced and could easily backfire and kill it's caster.
But if you became a master cook in your lifetime or a master thief or master mage or master swordsman or ANYTHING you would have the chance to drop an artifact that represents whatever path you chose to dedicate your life in. That artifact would represent your whole character and it would make your in game accomplishments immortal. The artifact would be very useful to whoever wishes to follow in the footsteps of your path. Of course the catch is you had to perma die for it to be created.
If any game deserved to be on this list it is THIS GAME!
www.shadowpool.com PLEASE IF THERE ARE ANY RICH OLD GUYS LOOKING TO GET RID OF THEIR MONEY BEFORE UNGREATFUL GRANDCHILDREN GET SOME GIVE IT TO THIS
COMPANY SO THAT THIS GAME WILL EXIST!
Looking towards the timing of the development of these games and which could have been abandoned because WOW made them unprofitable ventures? The game managers do look at the market and compare so who lost hope to even enter? As much as I like sandbox game play, it has become obvious that was a turning point in MMO development.
i definetly see a trend. its NCsoft. they trash potential good games in favor of turn a quick profit fail ones. They should all kill themselves for ruining the mmo genre.
The original SWG should be on that list.
As the current SWG is something totally different.
+4Billion
MC Online was what finally got me away from over 3years of UO. Loved it, I would buy and pay monthly for it right now if it came back. After it died I couldn't bring myself back to playing UO and have jumped from MMO to MMO ever since.
Here's one that didn't make the list: Classic WoW.
I realize WoW is still in operation (orly?) today. But I'm talking about the game before it began its long path of being stripped of everything that truly made it great, and gave it its identity.
I'm curious as to why SW didn't get recounted?
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
As has been mentioned before, Auto Assault, Tabula Rosa, and Dungeon Runners are the three games that NCsoft has axed over the last few years. All of them western games. Given past history, one suspects that the NCsoft suits don't have a clue at what works(and what doesn't) in the western markets. Aions current retention numbers are also right in line with that.
A game that should have been on this list is Mythica. It looked like a blast, and from what I understand it was doing well internally. Then Mickysoft pulled the plug. MS has an even worse track record with MMO's than even NCsoft has managed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythica
Been playing the stress test but I can't bring myself to cap knowing that my toons will be reset 2-3 more times before it goes live.
My word and world holds ground and is real
Your word is like floods of poisoned water
A language spoken with spit from different tongues
More of my unwanted opinions
I agree and they even celebrate the original Game with an annual anniversary whilst playing the current game.
Unaware of the Jestor?
http://about.me/JestorRodo/
Friends enjoy his classic Vblog - https://www.facebook.com/GoodOldReliableNathan
Of that list I only played Tabula rasa and I think if there ever was a game which shouldn't have been canned it's that one . To think they also diverted all their resources to the "lemon" that is Aion makes it even worse.Right at the time when TR was closed down players were discovering it or coming back and the developers were updating the content on a weekly basis ( so much so we got an entire "earth map " right before the final day it was live ) and were very responsive to the suggestions being made by the player-community . After that debacle and the massive dissapointment Aion was I think TR was pretty much the final game I will ever play which is being published by NCsoft ( including GW 2 , I just don't trust NCsoft anymore ) .And there was a time I was an avid fan of that company and played every title produced or published by them . They destroyed any chance of ever becoming a big player in western hemisphere when they lost both the Garriott brothers and Strain/Reid - in the process also canning loads of folks all across USA and Europe .Even SOE knows that policy doesn't work ......
The only thing "wrong" with Tabula Rasa was that it was lacking content in certain areas... and NCSoft.
As I said in the news thread about sci-fi MMOGs recently, I would start paying for Earth & Beyond again today if it came back and started up right where it left off, with no changes... as long as EA wasn't involved. I played from phase 4 beta until sunset, AnDRAMAda server, oorah Merchant Marines! 8)
-------------------------
"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
Played on Drama as well. Borarus Dragons.
My word and world holds ground and is real
Your word is like floods of poisoned water
A language spoken with spit from different tongues
More of my unwanted opinions
I know Istaria still exists, but I really would like to see an MMORPG like the original concept of Horizons.That would be my favorite "resurrection".
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
The only game I agree with on that list is Shadowbane. If it could be remade minus the exploits and bugs it would be my first choice to play mainly because some of my best times in an mmo were in that game. I realize it would never be more than a pvp niche game but the player base it attracted was a blast to interact with and even more fun to crush under my dwarven prelate boots. Another game I would love to play an updated version of is AC. It was my first mmo love and I have yet to play a game which combined a massive world with a skill based system since. If you add to that the early days when it had constant world events going on with truly interesting updates I would happily play my life away. It did need more content for the size of the world but overall a new version with some tweaks would in my opinion be the best mmo of all time. Basically take what AC2 should have been and make that.
Just my 2 cents.
Stop whining and login so I can kill you!
Pretty much Ditto across the board. I am afraid that i refused to give EA any more money after the announcement and do regret not being there for the parties at sunset and i miss this game a lot.
Tried to get in to EvE as an alternative (as a lot of people did) and although it is a great game in it's own right, it just didn't push the same buttons at all. As you said, the community was everything and there was never a problem finding a group and people would go out of their way to jump you around, a great blend of pretty well balanced classes and great community that i have been hard pressed to find since
(
Followed the same path as you. Played EnB from start to finish and then ended up in EVE, for 5 years, afterward. I would love to see Earth & Beyond resurrected and upgraded.
Well, EnB have been resurrected by a group of diehard fans. Their server 'sunrise' are open for stress test 4.
I am surprised how well they have reverse engineered their server so far.
It hurts you didn't list PlanetSide it's still to this day the only real mmofps and back in the day one of the best no grind questing magic elf crap games to ever live.