tabula-rasa posts

Last month, players of NCsoft's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa got the bad news that the game was shutting down operations after Feb. 28, 2009. The shut down announcement also revealed that the game would become free for anyone to play after January 10. Well, it looks like those plans have now changed.

According to the game's official web site, Tabula Rasa is now completely free to play for anyone for now until the official shutdown date. Players will be able to check out some new content as well which includes a new first person viewpoint. An upcoming patch will also add the game's version of playable mechs.All in all it's a lot of new content for a free game..while it lasts that is.

[Via Massively]

It's been rumored to happen for many months now and today the official Tabula Rasa web site made it official. NCsoft's sci-fi MMO, launched just over a year ago, will shut down for good after Feb. 28, 2009. The game's creative team was led by Richard Garriott, the legendary creator of the Ultima PC RPG game series which cultimated in the first successful MMO Ultima Online.

However, despite years in development, Tabula Rasa did not achieve the subscription numbers that were first predicted. Garriott himself just left NCsoft a few days ago following his much hyped trip to the International Space Station. Current subscribers to the game before today's announcement will receive some compensation including three free months of access to two other NCsoft games, City of Heroes and Lineage II. They will also get beta access to NCsoft's next MMO Aion and one free month of access to the game after its official launch. In addition, Tabula Rasa will be free to play for anyone after Jan. 10 until its shutdown.

This is the second Western made MMO that NCsoft has published that has since shut down. It's car combat MMO AutoAssault, developed by Netdevil, was shut down in August 2007 after less than 18 months of officially launching.

Hot on the heels of the news that game design legend Richard Garriott is leaving the company, MMO publisher NCsoft revealed its latest financial results for the fiscal quarter that ended Sept. 30. According to MCV, profits were just $3.7 million for the Korean-based publisher in the quarter, compared to $7.4 million in profits from the same period a year ago.

NCsoft is hoping that upcoming games like Aion, Guild Wars 2 and more will help their revenues. In September the company announced a reorganization of their US and European offices which includes changing the company's Western headquarters to Seattle and layoffs of 12 of their employees in Austin, Texas.

With his long planned trip to outer space now completed, game design pioneer Richard "Lord British" Garriott is apparently moving onto new things. Today the official web site for his last title, the 2007 released MMO Tabula Rasa, had an announcement by Garriott announcing he was leaving the employment of the game's publisher NCsoft.

In his farewell message, Garriott stated that his recent trip to the International Space Station, "...has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to." He gave no indication on what these new interests might be. Before joining NCsoft in 2001 to develop Tabula Rasa, Garriott was one of the first major PC game developers, creating the Ultima series of RPG titles for his company Origin (later bought by Electronic Arts) which culminated in the first successful PC MMO title Ultima Online.

[Via Massively]

After 10 days being in Earth orbit, game designer Richard Garriott has finally returned to Earth. The creator of the Ultima and Ultima Online franchise (and more recently Tabula Rasa for NCsoft). Garriott paid $30 million to a company called Space Adventures for the trip up to the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Garriott came back to Earth via a Soyuz capsule which landed in the Kazakhstan steppes earlier today. During his 10 day flight Garriott performed a number of experiments aboard the ISS for both NASA and the European Space Agency and left a hard drive filled with digital DNA codes from a number of people in the hope they would be preserved forever.

He's doing what few men and women have done; the creator of the Ultima game series is now in orbit around the Earth. Richard "Lord British" Garriott was in a Soyuz rocket that launched from the Baikonur space center in Russia early this morning to be come the latest "space tourist". Garriott paid $30 million to the Space Adventures group for the journey.

Garriott's father, Owen Garriott, was a former NASA astronaut and he saw his son lift off into space today. It's the first time in history that a son has followed his father into space. Garriott is now headed for the International Space Station and will dock with the station on Tuesday where he will perfore several experiments. He will also leave behind a hard drive with lots of digital DNA patterns from people as part of Operation Immortality, which has been promoted by his current employer NCsoft. He is scheduled to spend a total of 10 days in orbit.

You may know that Richard "Lord British" Garriott has left his day-to-day game design duties at NCsoft to go train for a flight to the International Space Station in October. You may also know that he plans to take a hard drive filled with digitized DNA patterns of real people with him. However, later tonight you will be able to see him talk about this plan to a nationwide audience on the latest episode of Comedy Central's talk show The Colbert Report.

Yep, Steven Colbert, friend of the nation and enemy of bears, will be talking directly to the man who will take Colbert's own digital DNA into space at 11:30 ET tonight. This isn't the first time Colbert has had a famous game designer. Over a year ago he had Will Wright on his show talking about Spore.

Last month the Austin, Texas offices of NCsoft announced plans to lay off 21 of its team members that were working on the Dungeon Runners title and unannounced future game projects. Now Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that the MMO developer/publisher may be getting ready for more layoffs, this time in its UK offices.

The story, which cites unnamed sources, claims that the UK office could be trimmed by as many as 50 people thanks to the cancellation of an unannounced game that was being developed there. The story once again brings back rumors that their 2007 launch of their sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa could be shut down in months if a number of new subcribers are not found for the game. More information on this latest turn of events are expected to be revealed tomorrow.

The greatest political pundit of all time, Stephen Colbert, may hate bears but he loves himself. So much so, in fact, that Colbert has decided to have his digital DNA placed in the "Immortality Drive" that game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott will take into space later this fall.

The host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report will join a number of other people to have their DNA digitzed and placed in a special drive that Garriott will take to the International Space Station as part of his mission that he paid $30 million to take. Operation Immortality is also a way to promote Garriott's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa from publisher NCsoft. Now if we can only get a bear's DNA to be added to the drive . . . .

As you may know, Ultima creator Richard "Lord British" Garriott left day-to-day game design chores (after completing the sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa in 2007 for NCsoft) to start training to go on a mission to the International Space Station. Wired's web site has now reprinted a recent print magazine article about Garriott's training for the mission that's scheduled to take place this fall.

Garriott paid $30 million for the chance to head into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket via private firm Space Adventures but he still has to spend months of training at Russia's cosmonaut facility Star City. The article goes into detail about what Garriott had to go through to head into space but Garriott claims he's ready to go again, even if the price for space has now gone up to $45 million. Garriott claims, "I'm already strategizing how I can earn the required funds."