Posts Tagged ‘tabula rasa’

Know Thy Blogger: iTZKooPA’s MMOG Timeline

14 June 2011 | 15 Comments » | iTZKooPA

Halo MMO - It would have been on the list had it ever come out.

Ladies and germs, you’ve likely been following the writers of LoreHound.com for quite some time (If not, welcome aboard!).  We’ve introduced ourselves, talked about our time in World of Warcraft, discussed our past and even revealed the origins behind our now-familiar names.  But what we haven’t done is reveal how we got here.

How is it that we went from players to bloggers?  Was World of Warcraft our first drug, or just the latest taste?  Exactly how long have we been in the MMOG scene?  Are we newcomers with a penchant for deep discussion, or are we long-standing players well-versed in the genre?  Perhaps we’re casual sight seers, whetting our palate with a smorgasbord of flavors and diverse textures.  You’ll gain insight and answers from my personal timeline (dates are when I played). Continue Reading

Rejected MMOs I want back – Part II

19 September 2010 | No Comments » | Ronix

We continue looking at games that, for one reason or another, were canned at various stages of development. Whether you actively played and enjoyed them or couldn’t care less about their collapse, every failed title meant fewer opportunities and choice for players, as well as a loss to the gaming industry in general. Refer to Part I, if you haven’t already done so, and follow along for more entries.

Tabula Rasa


Another Richard Garriot game, albeit canned by a different publisher. Tabula Rasa took what was at the time a fresh concept of mixing elements of a third-person shooter with traditional MMORPG gameplay. Coupled with a comprehensive Sci-Fi setting and a flexible career system, it is easy to see why gamers talk about the loss of the title to this day.

Despite having all those exciting features, the game was just not polished enough at release. According to the developers and the fanbase, if Tabula Rasa was given enough time to shape up and roll out a few expansions, it could realize more of it’s potential and subscriber numbers would rapidly increase. This, however, was not enough for the publisher NCSoft, which claimed that the game was not profitable and worth keeping from a business point of view. Tabula Rasa was estimated to cost $106 million but only made just over $5 million and clearly, the executives were not pleased. On 28 February of 2009, the game got the axe after customers enjoyed some time with it free of charge.

Middle Earth Online Continue Reading

Richard Garriott Wins Lawsuit Against NCsoft

30 July 2010 | No Comments » | iTZKooPA

In SPAAACE!...you get fired!

Just a day after professing my love for Tabula Rasa, the title returns to the forefront of MMOG news, courtesy of a lawsuit filed by its creator, Richard Garriott.  Lord British, as he is known by some, sued NCsoft after his departure from the company in late 2008.  After much litigation, a federal court has awarded him a victory, to the tune of $28 million.

“I am extremely pleased with the jury’s decision,” Garriott said in a statement. “The facts were clear that my departure from NCsoft was not voluntary. I am very pleased with the final award.”

Hopefully enough to buy the intellectual property rights?…

The basis of the case was the scenario in which he “left” the company.  Originally portrayed as a resignation, Garriott admitted months later that he was fired.  Fired while he was on his space flight to the International Space Station, a publicity stunt to further promote Tabula Rasa. Furthermore, the resignation letter was allegedly written by the publisher, not Garriott.  Garriott chose to sue his former company after he was forced into selling his stock options in 90 days, rather than the 10 years his contract allowed.  The deceptive short sale cost him millions of dollars.

Everybody loves an underdog story.  But seriously Richard, get those servers back online (and add some endgame).

Click here to slog through all the lawyer mumbo jumbo.

No AoC for You!

28 May 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

After hearing how everyone has been loving AoC, reading some reviews and receiving my latest issue of PCGamer with AoC slapped on the cover I decided I had waited long enough. I got into my car and decided to head to the nearest Gamestop, which didn’t have it. No biggie, there’s another one close by. Again they were sold out. I then tried Bestbuy who I thought would definitely have it, I mean there huge, but alas they did not, also sold out. At this point I decided to call it a day and headed home defeated.

Today however I feel like giving it another shot. So I am currently on my way to another Bestbuy which is about 40 mins away, but the travel time is a small price to pay for MMO gaming goodness. I checked online and it says they have some in-stock, but with those online checkers you never know. I already picked up a 3 month game card when I was out yesterday, so I just need the game and I’ll be ready to go. Seriously you’d think this was a Mario or Halo game I was trying to get. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: I just got back and am happy to say I finally found a store that had some in-stock and all it took was  2 days, 3 Gamespots, 2 Bestbuys and 1 EBGames to finally get a copy.  I actually got lucky cause the EBGames that had it literally just got a shipment, the games weren’t even on the shelves yet but in the delivery box.

Anyway, I’m installing the game right now then I’ll probably have to download some massive update, so only a few more hrs.

Why Champions Online?

26 February 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

I ask this question because it seems like nobody else in the industry is going to ask it. Why is Cryptic Studios making Champions Online? It baffles me that they would even think about persuing another game in this direction. Don’t get me wrong, I liked City of Heroes and all that, and I fully believe in Cryptic’s ability to make awesome MMORPGs based on superheroes, but it just seems so odd. Allow me to start from the beginning.

A few months ago, Cryptic and NCSoft agreed on a deal to transfer ownership of City of Heroes/Villains over to NCSoft. Before this, the game was published by NCSoft, and was owned by Cryptic. Cryptic then announced that they had been working on a new MMORPG, one that was not yet announced. Of course, everybody, at that time, knew that Cryptic had entered into a deal with Marvel and Microsoft to create a new super heroes MMO based off the Marvel comics entitled: Marvel Universe. It was naturally assumed that this was the “unnamed” project that Cryptic would be working on (MMOCrunch.com was no different). As it turns out, however, Marvel Universe got the axe by Microsoft and the title slipped into oblivion. Of course a few days after we all heard about the Marvel Universe news, we also heard about Champions Online.

Now back to my original question. Why Champions Online? Why would Cryptic, who already had a good relationship running a successful MMORPG for NCSoft suddenly sell their old property to them to begin work on a new IP based roughly around the same idea? City of Heroes was a success, and still is (130,000 subs and counting). Perhaps it was because NCSoft refused to allow Cryptic to make a City of Heroes sequel. Let’s face it, most of the time, MMORPGs do not need/warrant a sequel. They usually aren’t profitable and players from the first game don’t want to lose everything they achieved to begin work on a new one for the sequel. So, is that it? Was Champions Online birthed simply because of NCSoft’s refusal to support a sequel? Perhaps Champions Online was actually City of Heroes 2, but upon rejection of the idea late last year by NCSoft they decided to continue to persue it under a different name. We’ll probably never really know. . .

Of course, a lot of my article here is speculations and conjecture. I don’t know why exactly we have what we have today. However, it still seems a bit odd to me that Cryptic would want to sell City of Heroes and then go out and start a new MMORPG that would put itself in direct competition with their old IP. Something must have happened that caused the split between the two. But if not my theory then what else could have happened?

Move Over Eve Online, Meet Infinity

17 January 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

I came across Infinity: The Quest for Earth a few months ago when they released a trailer of a spaceship flying seamlessly from one planet to another with no loading times. Let me say that again, from the surface of one planet into and across space, into the atmosphere of another planet and onto the surface with NO loading time. Today they released a new video of the games combat system. One of the main things I didn’t like about Eve Online and one of the reasons I couldn’t really get into it was because you don’t actually get to fly, it’s basically point, click, wait, even the combat. Infinity allows for real-time combat where you actually get to pilot your ship. How well you can maneuver will no longer be based on stat point, but instead on your skills. By my count that gives Infinity a huge advantage over Eve.

Aside from the real-time combat system and seamless flying, Infinity also promises to have an enormous galaxy to explore. Keyword is galaxy, you can land on a planet, fix your ship and get supplies, but you can’t walk around it. It’s basically like Eve where you’ll spend most of your time in your ship.

“Expect a galaxy with up to hundreds of billions of worlds. You will not be able to visit them all in your whole lifetime, even if you were to spend only one second per world”

Wow, that makes Eve look like my backyard. So how does one travel to all these billions of planets? There will be jumpgates throughout the game, however every ship can equip a hyper-propulsion system so you don’t need to travel all the way to a gate. But just because you have a jumpgame doesn’t mean you’ll get to where you going instantly.

“You can choose your destination on the galaxy map and jump there (providing you have the resources). Jumping will not be instantaneous. It will be very fast to jump to a local system, but jumping to the other side of the galaxy will take from minutes to hours (in real time). “

HOURS! I’m sure they’ll change there minds once gamers get a hold of the game and curse them out. Seriously, who’s going to sit there for hrs, just make the resource cost very very high, problem solved. The game promises to be very open ended, which means PvP. HORAY!

Infinity is still in very early development and is expected to take another two years before the game is finished. So far from what I’ve seen it looks like it might be worth the wait.

More Infinity Videos here

Incoming! MMORPGs of 2008

10 January 2008 | No Comments » | LHStaff

With a new year coming upon us we have the incredible opportunity to experience new MMORPGs. It was the same last year, as we were all antipating the releases of Tabula Rasa, Lord of the Rings Online, Vanguard Saga of Heroes, and Warhammer Online (still). This year we have a bunch more titles coming, and there is quite the selection. So, without further ado, I bring you the expected MMORPGs of 2008 listed with the most up-to-date release dates that I could find. Everything here is chronologically organized as best as possible. Enjoy:

Awesome right? Here we have our basic look at the MMORPGs that are roughly scheduled to be released this year. Obviously some of these dates are more concrete, like Pirates of the Burning Sea which is on schedule to meet it’s 1/22/08 date. Other’s like Warhammer Online have a possibility of being pushed back a few months, and even then some like Stargate Worlds will probably not get released this year at all. Just a hunch.

Also worth noting is that although there are a few triple-A titles, like Warhammer Online and Chronicles of Spellborn, this year also has it’s fair share of shovelware. Prepare to see more and more titles like Zu Online, and Wonderland Online hit the digital domain this year.

Every date, prediction, and event scheduled here at MMOCrunch is, as always, subject to change via the developers whimsies and timing ethics. Thanks for reading. :)

P.S. Also don’t forget to welcome Andrew, our newest Crunch writer here at, well, MMOCrunch. His first post can be found just below.

A MMOGamer without an MMO

22 December 2007 | No Comments » | LHStaff

Well its been a few months since I quit LOTRO and over a month since I stopped playing Tabula Rasa. I really don’t have any desire to start paying either again, but I’ve been thinking about reactivating my LOTRO subscription just to see what new things they’ve added since I left.  Age of Conan is coming out soon, but not soon enough and I haven’t been accepted to any of the betas I’ve signed up for. I was really hoping to get into either the Warhammer or Mythos betas, but I’ve received no reply from either.

Anyone playing a decent MMO that can hold me over until Age of Conan comes out? My LOTRO box is staring me in the face, I’m not sure if I can hold out.