More Players, More Problems: MMORPG Curse Spreads To Tabula Rasa
Can the ex-Ultima designer avoid textbook pitfall?
It almost doesn’t need to be said, but Tabula Rasa: as an aspirational and ambitious MMORPG, seems to be suffering from delays and has been pushed back indefinitely into next year or beyond. The developer, Destination Games, was founded by Richard Garriot, who had previously been responsible for the Ultima games. But even with this track record a successful finished product is not a given. Even the hugely resourceful EA had to can its own take on the Ultima Online MMORPG earlier in the year.
Despite the fact that a handful of designers, producers and artists had walked away from the project earlier in the summer, no problems were ever identified at that point. Indeed, Garriot is still insistent that there are no major problems and that “[NCSoft] continues to be committed to launching Tabula Rasa only when it is ready" although its potential date of arrival is completely unknown, “The game won’t be out this winter and likely won’t be ready for some months beyond that…” reads the official statement on the game’s official website.
Whilst the biggest MMORPGs are looking quite healthy, with World Of Warcraft nearing completion and FFXI Online and Everquest 2 both backed up with established reputations, the stragglers have been falling left, right and centre. Many industry watchers have pointed out that without the blessing of a major franchise or without certain concessions to the expanding Asian market, MMORPGs will always have difficulty in attracting sufficiently massive numbers of players: so many are practically and financially unviable. That would certainly help explain why Sega has opted to push Shenmue Online into China and use the Matrix license for its western targeted MMORPG.
In this instance, the indefinite delay is extremely ominous. As Sega discovered with Warhammer Online (now cancelled) and the enormously wealthy Microsoft found out with True Fantasy Live Online (also cancelled), MMORPGs need to have a definitive time-frame, else development costs will spiral out of control. To quote Microsoft’s official explanation for the death of True Fantasy, “Many online games suffer long delays in order to work out all problems of developing such a game. With that said, we became very concerned at just how long it would take to finally wrap up development. Things became very indefinite and worrying and we thought of delaying the game yet again, but we took the difficult step in ending development of the game.”
We wouldn’t want to cast a shadow of doubt over Garriot and NCSoft’s optimism; but realistically, Tabula Rasa’s future is distinctly uncertain. Let’s hope it can avoid the unfortunate fate of so many similar titles.
Despite the fact that a handful of designers, producers and artists had walked away from the project earlier in the summer, no problems were ever identified at that point. Indeed, Garriot is still insistent that there are no major problems and that “[NCSoft] continues to be committed to launching Tabula Rasa only when it is ready" although its potential date of arrival is completely unknown, “The game won’t be out this winter and likely won’t be ready for some months beyond that…” reads the official statement on the game’s official website.
Whilst the biggest MMORPGs are looking quite healthy, with World Of Warcraft nearing completion and FFXI Online and Everquest 2 both backed up with established reputations, the stragglers have been falling left, right and centre. Many industry watchers have pointed out that without the blessing of a major franchise or without certain concessions to the expanding Asian market, MMORPGs will always have difficulty in attracting sufficiently massive numbers of players: so many are practically and financially unviable. That would certainly help explain why Sega has opted to push Shenmue Online into China and use the Matrix license for its western targeted MMORPG.
In this instance, the indefinite delay is extremely ominous. As Sega discovered with Warhammer Online (now cancelled) and the enormously wealthy Microsoft found out with True Fantasy Live Online (also cancelled), MMORPGs need to have a definitive time-frame, else development costs will spiral out of control. To quote Microsoft’s official explanation for the death of True Fantasy, “Many online games suffer long delays in order to work out all problems of developing such a game. With that said, we became very concerned at just how long it would take to finally wrap up development. Things became very indefinite and worrying and we thought of delaying the game yet again, but we took the difficult step in ending development of the game.”
We wouldn’t want to cast a shadow of doubt over Garriot and NCSoft’s optimism; but realistically, Tabula Rasa’s future is distinctly uncertain. Let’s hope it can avoid the unfortunate fate of so many similar titles.
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