Tabula Rasa & Aion

[Gangrel]

Originally Posted by BahamutKaiser

WTF is wrong with them, if their collecting a subscription why can't they keep a damn server running? I would have expected GW to collapse first, but TR shutting down, how is that going to save them money?

****ing morons, they need to release the rights to the game and let players make their own servers.

In terms of the sub fee's still being collected, yes... but if money coming in is LESS than money going out then there will be issues in terms of how well it stacks up.

How many *truely* 100% free mmo's are there out there... i mean where the client/account is free, and there are NO item malls?

You cannot call Guild Wars *truely* free, because you have to pay for your account key, although saying that ArenaNet have doen a good job making the game use a minimal amount of bandwidth, so they *dont* need as much server space as other MMO's

And whilst i *wouldn't* call NCsoft morons... i would agree with the 2nd half of the last statement... i personally though would prefer them to just keep the game running with the dev team that was working on it (i was kinda spoiled with monthly updates you see(

[BahamutKaiser]

If they keep the actual upkeep cost appropriate for the subscription of each user, than supplying them with service is as simple as scaling to fit the actual population of the game, had they wasted money on hardware they don't need, they arn't going to recover it by not using it at all, and surplus support and bandwidth can be cut. The whole point of a subscription is to maintain costs, if they didn't figure out how to budget the game, yeah they are ****ing morons.

I already know TR went through alot of poor budget and development choices, they shared the fact that they redeveloped the game a few times to get where they were, and they botched the launch by releasing the game and before it was polished, and ended up redoing the game all over again. That's just poor direction and leadership by whoever called the shots, not having enough vision and forsight to plan out a good system before sinking all sorts of capital into it. This often comes from dumb developers who rely on trial and error to discover new gaming methods since they arn't qualified to be truely inventive, they just make the assumption that you cannot picture a game until it is tried, because they can't, and than they waste all sorts of money on it. That's why I always say that programmers shouldn't be in charge of design and development, their code monkeys and they should find truely artistic and creative minds to fill in the design genious.

If they had been smart with their development and resources, they wouldn't have to shut down the game. It would have been sad if they didn't have the support to be top quality, or have frequent updates, but if they were being responsible they wouldn't have to shut the project down.

The players wern't just paying a subscription, if they bought the game, they deserve to keep it, allow players to run the game on private servers and modify the game as they choose, I'm sure there is someone out there with the resources, and someone else out there with the insight to enhance the game, on their own time.

But we'll see, they say their just going to shut it down, but I have a feeling they could change their mind.

[Livvy]

Player-base is currently is sort of an "overdrive" in trying to find ways to save TR . The big problem is we don't know if NCsoft is willing or even able to sell the franchise to any 3rd party. There's utter silence from the company .

Of all the options we have examined only one is truly realistic and viable and that is if another publisher would decide to buy TR and keep it running or have a "rolling restart" . It seems only a skeleton crew of devlopers is left as well, the other people got fired . Deployment 15 - the one where we go back to earth- is still going to be released . But it appears that will be it for TR .


As for changing their mind : I think we would have heard something by now in that event . The fact they are dismantling its development team isn't indicating they might reconsider.


But I agree with Bahamutkaiser : it isn't just bad for TR , but for all NCsoft gamers when stuff like this happens . It shows you can't really rely on a continued service ( after all: TR shutdown is after only 1 year ) and for subscription based games that's not a good thing.

[Haubix]

Is there any possibility that they re-develop TR and release it in 1-2 years again under a new name?
Or they are indeed fed up with Richard Garriott and his creation and want to get rid of it as soon as possible?

[Mr Mage]

Originally Posted by Livvy

I agree with Bahamutkaiser : it isn't just bad for TR , but for all NCsoft gamers when stuff like this happens . It shows you can't really rely on a continued service ( after all: TR shutdown is after only 1 year ) and for subscription based games that's not a good thing.

I have seen people in game saying that they are not going to play another NCSoft game.

Originally Posted by Mr Mage

I have seen people in game saying that they are not going to play another NCSoft game.

I wouldn't blame them. Why would anyone want to play a game, putting faith in their efforts, only to have the game shut down? Not to mention the fact that NCSoft seems to like withholding information. This does not sit well with most people because it just makes them look shady. They're going to need to take a different road to regain the trust of the (potential) fanbase.

[Livvy]

Depressing to see noone playing any other game cares about this ( I posted on the WoW forums and get thrown all kind of negativity at me , same at guild wars forums ) or they seem to think this could never happen to their game . Let me enlighten those folks : it can happen to any game .Tabula Rasa fans were assured it would never ever be canceled just a short time ago and here we are ....

[BahamutKaiser]

Well it wouldn't happen to WoW, and Anet could face legal reprocusions if they tried to shut down GuildWars, no matter how many disclaimers they hide in their wall of Terms of Use, they clearly market the free to play feature of GuildWars as a boon for the games value, they could be sued up and down for false advertising alone, let alone the cost players have spent purchasing and enhancing their game.

Anet knew what they were doing when they did GuildWars, they broke away from Blizzards Diablo team, and Diablo was aleady a successful Purchase and Play online RPG.

Anyone purchasing an NCSoft West game should be extremely cautious, I've already given up hope on Anet and GW2 because of their poor support, but NCSoft West is now dispensing major Fail with TR, and their lack of western development with Aion, if I knew that NCSoft Korea was governed by the same people who govern NCSoft West, I wouldn't even try Aion until after it made a hit success, which never happens with MMOs anymore.

[Livvy]

Anyone purchasing an NCSoft West game should be extremely cautious, I've already given up hope on Anet and GW2 because of their poor support, but NCSoft West is now dispensing major Fail with TR, and their lack of western development with Aion, if I knew that NCSoft Korea was governed by the same people who govern NCSoft West, I wouldn't even try Aion until after it made a hit success, which never happens with MMOs anymore.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Anet decides to get out of NCsoft completely .It would even be a wise decision, imo.

[BahamutKaiser]

Anet just merged with NCSoft in light of these complications, I don't think their intent was to seperate themselves, but with their behavior, their part of the blemish, not in danger of being blemished by NCSoft.

[Livvy]

Just received an emial from NCsoft- for those wondering how the freebies for TR-players work - saying the following :

Dear Tabula Rasa subscriber,



As a subscriber to Tabula Rasa and a valued NCsoft® customer, we wanted to let you know about the future of the Tabula Rasa service and how this will affect your game subscription. As you may know, on February 28, 2009, we will be permanently shutting down the Tabula Rasa servers. As a result, the game will become free to play for everyone from January 10, 2009.



Your Tabula Rasa game account was recently active. We greatly appreciate your loyalty and your dedication to Tabula Rasa, and we are saddened that the service is closing. While you will no longer be able to play Tabula Rasa after February 28, 2009, we would like to offer you free access to other NCsoft titles by way of compensation.

Then it outlines what this includes :

You can activate these codes at any time within 6 months from January 14, 2009. Please note, these serial codes can only be used on your account, and cannot be given out or applied to another PlayNC master account.



You will be receiving a City of Heroes® and Lineage® II Serial Code. Both of these serial codes will provide you with three free months of game play per game, giving you six months in total. You will be able to apply your serial codes to an existing City of Heroes or Lineage II game account, create a new game account, or upgrade a trial account and continue playing with your trial characters. You do not need a credit card to activate either serial code.



In addition, you will receive another email in 2009 with details on how to gain access to the following:



* Aion: The Tower of Eternity Exclusive Preview (available in 2009)

* Aion: The Tower of Eternity pre-order (available in 2009)

* One free month of Aion: The Tower of Eternity, including digital client (available in 2009)

I'm more sad then anything else though.If giving back these freebies would mean TR would keep on running I'd do that in a sec.

It's pretty arrogant to think all those TR-players will jump at the opportunity of playing another NCsoft game without having any guarantee that game won't get closed down also ( they'd probably offer freebies for Blade and Soul then ) .

Take note of the date in that email : January 14,2009

[Mr Mage]

You beet me to it Livvy. I was just about to post that.

[DemiGoth]

Originally Posted by Livvy

I'm more sad then anything else though.If giving back these freebies would mean TR would keep on running I'd do that in a sec.

It's pretty arrogant to think all those TR-players will jump at the opportunity of playing another NCsoft game without having any guarantee that game won't get closed down also ( they'd probably offer freebies for Blade and Soul then ) .

Take note of the date in that email : January 14,2009

I got the message as well today. For once I'm glad I tried a Sci-Fi game and bought the box 10 days before the official closure announce. But what I can't understand is that TR players (who will generally be Sci-Fi lovers instead of Fantasy) will get an offer which includes 3 fantasy games to compensate for the closure... This shows that NCsoft has no plans to release an other Sci-Fi game the coming year(s) for sure.

About that date of january 14, 2009, I have a theory... Roumers are around that the Lineage II servers Bartz and Devianne will be merged soon. Lineage has their server maintenances on tuesdays, and the 14th is a wednesday, so if the rumour is true, you can start on a newly merged server...

[omidus]

by any chance are you demigoth from hellscream in world of warcraft?

[Voids]

got a pretty weird mail 2day...

2day i recieved my monthly game newsletter from EB games. in the mail..
which included a list of games comming.. and on the list. it said that Denmark gets Aion this friday...
i checked the sheet so many times. and eventhough how often i look. it still says aion is comming. i even called em 2day 2 double check the info. and they said. "yes aion is comming this friday. would you like 2 order a copy?
wth?