Tabula Rasa Bites the Dust (finally)

Was it something I said?

Ranked (a generous) sixth in my 10 Worst MMOs, I think someone at NCSoft must have heard the news, because the Tabula Rasa developers are pulling the plug on the blighted game on 28th February 2009.

That seems exceptionally generous for the crappy sci-fi yawnathon that should never have seen the light of day.

It died because it was rubbish. And I want to take a few moments to talk about why. People will no longer tolerate a substandard MMO. If you have combat at the heart of your game (as it usually is) then you'd better make the combat as appealing, engaging, and fun as you possibly can. Otherwise, your game is destined to fail.

Oh and the only obvious bugs in your game should be the icky ones with compound eyes and claws. Any other sort should be left for the anal gamers to find and exploit (remember kids, exploit early and often to get the most out of your bugs before the developers roll back the game) within the first few days of beta.

Tabula Rasa (the only interesting thing about the game) means "blank slate" in latin. I think a blank slate pretty much summarises the list of good ideas the game had at release.

The writing was on the wall long before the game's troubled release. Chief Developer, Richard 'General British' Garriott had more than enough experience in releasing overly unfinished and hopelessly ambitious games. Anyone remember the almost unplayable Ultima IX? And of course, his first proper foray into the MMO with the swiftly cancelled Ultima Worlds (Ultima Online 2). Note that I'm ignoring Ultima Online for which he had little, if any actual involvement (probably why it's still going today - bitchy, but oh so true!).

So, there you go. Another MMO bites the dust, joining the ranks of so many others (Hellgate London being the last big game to be sent to the recycle bin), and so long as developers keep churning out unfinished dross, it definitely won't be the last.