Tag Archive

Armmogeddon: The Patent Of Doom

Written by Alec Meer on January 6, 2009.

Here’s a story that hit during our week off - it’s one you probably already know about, but as it’s potentially something that’s very bad news for PC gaming, it’s only fair and right to give you fine folks a convenient place to discuss it. Massively (thanks, Larington) has one of the better summations and explorations of what’s going, as they seem to have clever people with some grasp of law on their staff. RPS, by contrast, has a philosopher, a youth worker, a biologist and a literature graduate. We’re no good at this stuff.

The crux of the story, though, concerns patents 6,219,045 and 7,181,690. In (something like) English, those refer to “scalable virtual world client-server chat system” and “system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space”. There’s space for a lot of give and take in those descriptions, but you get the point - two fundaments of pretty much every MMO past, present, and probably future.
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Going Blank Again: Tabula Rasa For Free

Written by Kieron Gillen on December 23, 2008.

At Christmas, we should spare a thought for those who are more unfortunate than ourselves. Like John. And the live team on Tabula Rasa whose work is winding down as the game for its final closure on February 28th. But until then, the game’s actually totally free to play for everyone. Instructions are on the site proper, allowing you to either play from an old account or start a whole new one. Below the cut you’ll find the most recently posted uservideo on gametrailers, which appears to be a repost of a post-release instance. It’s cute enough but the sad thing is realzob’s usertext on the video: “Tabula Rasa must survive”. Poor old Realzob.
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And It’s Goodbye From Tabula Rasa…

Written by Jim Rossignol on November 22, 2008.

Richard Garriott’s last great effort to make the MMO of our dreams is to shut down in February 2009. It’s always particularly sad when an MMO meets its end - they don’t get to be saved from the bargain bin like other games. They’re just gone. Sniff.

The official message is here:

So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009. Before we end the service, we’ll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009.

Free stuff! Hurray! I mean: Yes, what a shame.

Blade & Soul: Not Mount & Blade

Written by Alec Meer on September 25, 2008.

It’s not always entirely clear what ncSoft’s Eastern arm is up to, but they’ve at least a couple of promising MMOs in the pipeline. There’s the Cryengine-powered Aion, which we’ll hopefully have more about in the not too distant, and there’s also Project [M] - which was revealed back in August to be Blade & Soul. It’s Korean, it’s Eastern-themed high-fantasy, and it’s headed up by one of the main Lineage dudes. But wait! Clearly, that sounds like a triple-whammy of ohgodsoullessgrinding, but there are signs this might be something a whole lot more interesting than simply Lineage with prettier pretties.
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NCsoft Confirm Job Losses In UK

Written by John Walker on September 11, 2008.

The rumours have been floating for a couple of days, but it’s now confirmed that NCsoft Europe will axe 58 jobs from its Brighton office. According to reports by GamesIndustry.biz, the first round of sackings took place yesterday, with jobs going from a variety of departments.

This follows from yesterday’s announcement that NCsoft would be consolidating a number of its component parts into the new NC West (although this name might change). This move brings together NC Interactive, NC Europe, NC Austin, and ArenaNet, putting its headquarters in Seattle, WA by the end of the year.

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NCSoft Austin In Trouble?

Written by Jim Rossignol on August 13, 2008.

Edit: Denied by NCSoft, but then they would say that.

The rumour-mill over at Joystiq is grinding up some vital seeds of information from the Texas MMO scene. It looks like NCSoft’s main North America office might be in trouble, which means that Dungeon Runners and Tabula Rasa are on dangerous ground.

Future development of Tabula Rasa will reportedly be handed over to Seattle-based Guild Wars creator Arena.net, with Massively reporting that the title may meet a similar fate as Dungeon Runners if it “fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations.” It has also learned that any future collaboration between NCsoft and Tabula Rasa principals Richard and Robert Garriot will be “limited in scope,” due to a souring of relations with the Korean management team over their title’s lackluster performance.

It sure is a shame TR wasn’t much fun. Dungeon Runners is a laff though, and free.

Operation Immortality - DNA In Spaaaaaace

Written by John Walker on July 30, 2008.

Need your DNA in space? Yeah, we thought so. Thankfully Richard Garriott is here to help. Well, if you’re in the US anyway. (Apparently EU law prevents it taking place - any lawyers out there know why?) “What,” you ask incredulously, “are you on about?”

Well, it seems that in a deeply peculiar promotion for the middling NCSoft MMO, Tabula Rasa, players are being offered the chance to have their DNA sequenced, digitised, and fired off into space as part of the “Immortality Drive”, to accompany Lord “Richard Garriott” British’s expedition to the International Space Station in October 2008. You know, in case the human race gets wiped out and we needs spares.

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Midnight Strikes: City of Heroes Issue 12

Written by Kieron Gillen on May 21, 2008.

I’ve been meaning to post that the twelfth expansion (”Issue”) for City of Heroes was about to go live for a while now. In fact, so long, that it has gone live, and anyone can actually play it. It’s called Midnight Hour and introduces a new organisation (”The Midnight Squad - aka The Midnighters, which the Authority may want a word about, so we’ll move swiftly on before someone gets their brains punched right out). To celebrate, beneath the cut we have its promo videos, our first impressions from our City-of-heroes insider and a completely gratuitous Wilson Pickett song.
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Compo: Lineage II Super-Lavish Edition

Written by Alec Meer on April 18, 2008.

It’s been a bit competition frenzy on RPS of late, but hell, you like free stuff, right?

This time, we’ve got a copy of the collector’s edition of Lineage II to give away, courtesy of MMO kingpins NCsoft. It’s worth £55, and it’s stuffed with tchotkes. There’s a soundtrack CD in there, a lavish artbook, a big old map, a couple of posters and a statuette of a hot elf-angel-lady-thing. Most importantly, it includes an exclusive in-game item. I quote NCsoft verbatim here: “the Pig Lollipop, which allows players to transform themselves into a pig.” Yes. The Pig Lollipop!

Entry details beneath the cut.
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Korean Times claims Tabula Rasa Blanks Out

Written by Kieron Gillen on February 19, 2008.

Cho Jin-seo of the Korean Times has started internet grumblings with his latest piece where he reports that Tabula Rasa, “has proven to be a financial disaster”. With information taken from an investor conference call, he claims that it’s only seen 5 million in revenue when TR was believed to cost 100 billion. It also claims that Garriott started the project more than twice, the studio is now to be downsized, while the project leaders, “will keep their position”. However Robert Garriott has been replaced by Chris Chung from his position as head of the organisation and the-not-ex-Lord-British Garriott is, “free from day-to-day operations”. More here.

The article’s already been strongly argued as misleading from NCsoft Sources, noting the reporter in question had previously written reports from conferences he never even attended.
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