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Richard Garriott On Tabula Rasa

Posted by simoniker on from the amo-amas-aminibus dept.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a RPGDot interview with Richard Garriott on his forthcoming MMO title Tabula Rasa. You may know Garriott from his creation of the Ultima series, but he's now hooked up with Korean MMO behemoth NCSoft, and the interview discusses how Tabula Rasa may differ from expectations: "Tabula Rasa is not a 'virtual world' like Ultima Online or Everquest. TR is a compact social hub of activity but game play focuses on instantiated adventures for a party of players. In those instances, scripted quests a la solo-player Ultimas will be the norm."

1 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. pso by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This format sounds really similar to how Phantasy Star Online works. You start off in a "hub", which is just some small spaceport or something. (there are actually lots of hubs on a given server, and you can switch between). While you're there, you can chat and everything, but you can't do anything related to the actual game. Like you can't equip weapons, or buy supplies, or even trade with other players.

    To get to the real game, you join a team of up to 4 players. You aren't forced to play the same area as your teammaters, but since there are only 4 of you, everyone is pretty much expected to stick together. This kind of limits your opportunities to run off and explore something, which I think is a major highlight of MMORPGs.

    Also, anyone who's played EQ (or similar) will know the sense of awe you get when you see some high-level do something really powerful and sweet. Like, if you're running from some beast, and the high-level kills it with one blow, and you think to yourself, "I'm gonna be as kickass as him someday!". With this kind of game, this kind of scenario doesn't really occur.

    And there's something to be said for being able to log-in and to be in the game world right away. It's not so fun when you have to wait until you find a good group before you can play.

    The point I'm trying to make, is that this game format isn't horrible, but you're going to lose a lot of the qualities that make MMORPGs so alluring.