Garriott Explains Tabula Rasa Changes (November 27, 2005)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
When we recently looked at the progress of Origin founder Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, the game seemed a bit different. The unicorns and fairies had been replaced by cyborgs and overcast skies. Quarto found an article that addressed the change. I'm not sure I follow their reasoning, but for better or worse, the style has changed significantly. They claim the underlying concepts remain the same, but it'd be interesting to hear from someone who had been eagerly anticipating this title from the beginning.
Originally announced some time ago, the game underwent a marked shift just before E3 2005. Richard explained how it began with a rather trivial observation: everyone on the development team exclusively played female characters.

Why was this? Well, they discovered that as the game’s extremely far-fetched high fantasy style evolved, it became harder for male gamers to connect with their male avatars. Thus began a period where they tried to put a little more grit into the game; a process that would eventually completely redefine its setting.

Despite the marked shift in style from fantastic high fantasy to gritty alien vs. human doomsday, the ideals that inspired Tabula Rasa largely remain unchanged.
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Original update published on November 27, 2005
 
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I don't find either style appealing, and even less so relatively to other choices on the MMO market. The earlier one looked prettier. The later shots seem rather muddy and generic now.
 
How can it be the same movie if they've changed my character from a convenience store clerk to a jittery eskimo firefighter?
 
The new look is awfully generic... but I think I'd rather play a game where you fight generic space bugs or whatever with generic guns than a game with that... what is that thing, anyway?

Doesn't matter in any case - somehow I don't think slapping Richard Garriott's name on the box is going to be enough to persuade everyone to cancel their WOW/UO/EQ/SWG/Whatever subscriptions and switch to this game.
 
I've been playing with it in my head, and the only thing I can think is that maybe it isn't meant for Americans -- maybe it's a game that's specifically to be sold to Lineage's Korean market.
 
...those feary-killing, pony-haiting, gun-loving marketers are at it again. I liked the one with the tank-topped flat belly elf girl... I don't mind the pony-hybrid butterfly thing on the right, but the well developped girl is essential.
 
Well, I think it has more potential than those silly faries.
 
Marc said:
...those feary-killing, pony-haiting, gun-loving marketers are at it again. I liked the one with the tank-topped flat belly elf girl... I don't mind the pony-hybrid butterfly thing on the right, but the well developped girl is essential.
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Fear not, I'm sure they can provide well-developed girls regardless of the setting.

...Unless of course, as the gritty alien vs. human doomsday setting evolves, it becomes too hard for female gamers to connect with their female avatars. Who knows - maybe ultimately the game will end up with a gritty high fantasy setting of pony-hybrid butterfly things vs. humans? :p
 
Quarto said:
[...] maybe ultimately the game will end up with a gritty high fantasy setting of pony-hybrid butterfly things vs. humans? :p
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That would make the game at least intriguing.
First I thought it would be just a world setting, one world "high fantasy", the other one a "dirty industrial sci-fi setting". But now the latest figures in the game are looking just ridiculous.

Richard Garriot what hast thou done!?

Edit: Ow, it seems that some "incorporated" object designs were taken from Halo, Unreal Tournament and Half Life²... All the evidence in one picture!
 
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UO2 (or... whatever they called it near the end - Origin Worlds Online: Multima, the Ultima Chronicle) had a similar problem with designers choosing their own cleverness above any sort of marketable setting for their game. Yes, Steampunk UO was a cool idea to think about... but no one actually wanted to pay $15 to play a game in such a setting.
 
I think Reid's comment is spot on. Both styles were executed in a completely "meh" way. I wouldn't be interested in either of them. For the time being, I'm staying in my beloved Azeroth.
 
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