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Opinions flair from ex-NCsoft employees about TR's closing
Massively —
... Martin, former CTO of NCsoft Europe, where he explains his views on why the game failed. Granted, he admits he wasn't actually on the TR team, but he was privy to the internal mailing lists and information about the game from Alpha to launch. As a response, we have a post from... Opinions flair from ex-NCsoft employees about TR's closing originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Read | Permalink | Email this | ...
Cautionary Tales
Mobhunter.com —
... Scott Jennings made an excellent post in response to a former NCsoft executive’s examination of ...
Perspectives on the Demise of Tabula Rasa
Stropp's World —
... Scott Jennings over at Broken Toys has posted a write-up of his experiences at NCSoft relating to his work on the un-named game that his team was working on and the goings-on with Tabula Rasa. Scott’s post is in response to another ...
Lum describes the Tabula Rasa effect on NCsoft Austin
NecroRogIcon —
... Lum the Mad has been brave enough to post his inside (or down the hall) take on Tabula Rasa's development and the overall dark cloud that settled on NCsoft Austin. It's worth a read if you're interested in the game industry in any way. ...
Hope Is Not a Strategy
Elder Game —
Courtesy of Lum comes Adam Martin’s frank discussion about Tabula Rasa. Worth a read.
I agree with Lum’s conclusion that Tabula Rasa failed because it took too long, spent too much money, and became incapable of meeting its own expectations. But let’s not beat that dead horse — I’d rather beat the dead horse that Adam brings up:
Re-reading this as I go, I remember there was another big excuse that I never gave credence to: “I’ll bury my head in real work and make *my* parts as good as I possibly can, and hope if ...
Niche
Zen of Design —
... The two most interesting posts on the subject should be required reading: Scott’s view from another project in the same building, and ...
On AAA Fantasy MMOs as ‘Solved Problems’
MMOG Nation —
A while back Steve Danuser put up a post weighing in on the fate of Tabula Rasa . His was but one of many, with Scott , Damion , Eric , and Adam all putting in their two cents as well. I can’t hope to add anything to this discussion that hasn’t already been mulled by these guys, but I do want to clarify something that Steve links into. He says, “So if these guys are so smart, and if making a AAA epic fantasy MMO is a solved problem, then why did so many games have a rough year in 2008?” “Making a AAA fantasy game is a solved problem” is ...
Tabula Rasa R.I.P.
Pumping Irony —
... elements and gameplay were half-assed, probably because, despite all of Garriott’s protestations about how DikuMMOs were broken and doing it wrong, Tabula Rasa was using those same “broken” and “wrong” mechanics itself. This left a feeling of engaging in very generic “Rock ‘em, Sock ‘em Robots” melee combat disguised as ranged shooter combat. The final, and worst, problem with the game is largely due to a culmination of all those other smaller issues: apathy. Scott Jennings wrote an insightful article as an NCsoft insider’s view on Tabula Rasa back in January, and towards the ...
Cryptic Marcom Malreported, Verify Ungood, Rectify Candygive
Broken Toys —
... an employee of NCsoft, and although I didn’t work directly with the NCNC/City of Heroes team we often sent each other mash notes. No, really, it was kind of pathetic. “I love your website! I read it every day!” “I love City of Villains! I have a little Kim Jong Il mastermind!” So, I’m not entirely unbiased (which you should always assume of me) (and, really, which you should always assume of everyone) in this matter. (Although I’m pretty sure I’m not high on NCsoft’s Christmas card list any more, either.) ...
Outsized Personalities
Broken Toys —
... Then there was Imperator. Imperator was very much Mark’s project – he came up with the backstory, was deeply involved with the design, and was far more hands on in its production than I had seen him in years. Unfortunately, it didn’t work (something I later came to be very sympathetic with) and as the company smoothly shifted gears from Imperator to Warhammer, he took great pride in how almost everyone was able to keep their jobs in the process. Mythic was still his family, even if it was too large for him to actually know them all any more. ...
