Tabula Rasa Going Out With A Bang

Mytob notes that sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa is set to close down tomorrow, and the development team has something special planned for the game's final hours. The decision to close the game was made in November, and it went free-to-play a month later, while the developers continued to roll out the new content they had planned. Now, after a round of patches and server merges, the beleaguered MMO has reached its shutdown date. The game's primary enemies, the Bane, are launching an all-out offensive on Allied forces, which will culminate in a battle beginning at 8PM on Saturday and lasting until midnight. All players are being called in as reinforcements in this apocalyptic fight, though the final announcement says, "Penumbra has been informed of the situation and is standing by on the use of their last resort weapon. We can not afford to be complacent or uncertain, but if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed, we are taking them all with us."

Comments

Has an MMO ever had an ending before?

[dreemernj]

As in a proper, scripted end to the entire world?

Re:Has an MMO ever had an ending before?

[murdocj]

Sure, they have backstory, but as far as the in-game story goes, it may as well just be a news report of what's going on while you're grinding

The quests in WotLK get you up close and personal with Arthas. My priest is level 80 and I'm doing the Ice Crown quests, not to grind or get experience or loot, but because I've GOT to know the rest of the story.

You pay for the game, you pay for the expansions, and you pay for every month you sink into the damned game.

Well, let's see... should Blizzard give the game away for free? Should they be running servers for 12 million people for free? And as for expansions, Blizzard has release a ton of content w/o charging. Just off the top of my head both Black Temple and Sunwell were released well after BC came out, no extra charge, and they've already indicated that WotLK will include several more expansions, no extra charge.

You're in no way involved in any moving plot, and you're in no way involved in anything epic that's truly yours.

It's hard to imagine how you could be more involved with the story. Look at the Wrathgate and tell me you don't make permanent changes to the world. Yes, other players can have that same experience. What computer game have you played where each individual player gets a completely unique, custom tailored experience? For $15/mo should Blizzard have a couple of GMs follow you around and create events for you?

There is zero gameplay, and there is zero point to the game, especially since the game "doesn't really start" until you reach level 60 and start going on raids that thousands of people have already done before you. There's no glory, no nothing.

Sounds like you played hard and then got burnt out. Well yeah, you don't play for glory, you play for fun. No one is going to think you are uberz just because you are 60, or 70, or 80, or have the bear mount, or whatever. You play ALL computer games for fun, not glory. If you want glory and adventure, go climb a mountain. Go trek into uncharted wilderness. Computer games are spare time relaxation. What's wrong isn't the game, it's your expectations of what the game will provide you.

Re:Nuke it from orbit...

[amaupin]

Wow. Your Slashdot membership is hereby revoked.

You must have been the only one

[Moraelin]

I guess it just shows how subjective tastes are. I also tried it when it was first released, like many other people did -- you know, because it's Lord British and all -- and my conclusion was the exact opposite: there was not much to like about it. In fact, I hated every single design decision about it, except for "let's make it SF." Even as the "let's make a bastard child of MMO and FPS" went, it had been done much better before: e.g., Planetside.

In fact, you're the first person I even hear about which considered it a great game. I know several gamers IRL, and lemme tell you their tastes are spread all over the spectrum. There are a couple which prefer EQ2 over WoW, there's one guy who's actually become a big WAR fan, the mandatory couple of WoW addicts too, etc, among other distinctions. So, you know, at least about them you can't say that they didn't even try TR because of WoW, because more than half don't even like WoW. And invariably the talk went something along the lines of:

Mr X: "So, what have you been up to lately?"
Me: "Ah, I got Tabula Rasa last week."
Mr X: "And, how do you like it so far?"
Me: "To be honest, I'm don't like it that much."
Mr X: "Heh. Why don't you ever ask first? I could have told you it sucked."

Mind you, I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong in a matter of subjective tastes. Just that you were obviously a too small minority to keep the game running.

Re:Why stop there?

[PFI_Optix]

I think the community needs to be saying a HUGE thanks to these guys for showing the industry how to bow out gracefully and give closure to customers. Too often they simply abandon communities to wither and die; it's wonderful to see a company recognize when a game can't support itself in the long term and give the users a positive experience as they end it.