Tabula Rasa not in the dumps after all?

by Eli Shayotovich Feb 18th 2008 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Legal

Earlier this morning we posted an article from The Korea Times that -- on the surface -- seemed to herald very bad times for NCsoft and Tabula Rasa. After talking with our contacts at NCsoft, things may not be nearly as dire as the writer of that article made it seem. The cliche "take things with a grain of salt" was coined for a reason, and as you'll see... this appears to be one of them.

According to what we were able to uncover this very same Korea Times staff writer has earned a reputation for writing sensationalized articles about NCsoft. In the last year he apparently has "reported" particulars from conferences that he never actually attended.

Here are a few nuggets of knowledge that Cho Jin-seo "forgot" to mention:

NCsoft CFO Lee Jae-ho did state that some downsizing in Austin is inevitable. But he also indicated in the conference call that he has hope that TR will improve its revenue stream over time.

NCsoft has committed to putting several million dollars more into further developing TR.

TR is launching in Japan later this year. Considering that Richard Garriott's games have done well in Japan, this will only help to bolster the game's population.

There will be some reduction at the Austin Studio, but only on the TR team. This isn't shocking by the way. MMOs normally ramp up their staff during development and leading up to launch, then reduce it after. Fact is, some of the TR team has already transitioned over to other internal dev teams.

It sure doesn't sound like they're shutting down the servers any time soon. With all this additional information, Jin-seo's "report" now sounds a lot like the selective reporting we've come to expect from tabloid journalists here in the States. To further solidify that this Korea Times "report" is in fact erroneous, Amy "Critters" Crider (TR's Community Coordinator), posted about it on the PlanetTR forums.

Here's another cliche to chew on: "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... it must be a duck." Sure, you might think this is just NCsoft PR spin. And in this day and age of jaded, conspiracy theorists who walk around with a glass that's half empty (instead of half full) wanting immediate gratification... that's to be expected. But remember: every cliche started from truth. And truth might be the very thing lacking in this report from The Korea Times.

Tags: 2007-fiscal-report, Amy-Crider, breaking, breaking-news, Critters, ncsoft, PlanetTR, richard-garriott, tabula-rasa

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

derella said on 6:25PM 2-18-2008

The Japanese seem to love the Ultima series -- the console versions were all bestsellers at the time, and approximately half of UO's subscribers are Japanese.

But will that mean they buy a game that is nothing like Ultima, and at least partially in a genre that has never been overly popular there(FPS)?

Ghen said on 7:24PM 2-18-2008

Can't wait for it to go free-to-try myself =)

Gylfi said on 8:38PM 2-18-2008

How the hell can they say that "tabula rasa in Japan WILL bolster the game's population" ? I don't get it.

Gylfi said on 8:48PM 2-18-2008

Also, Nobody goes far with "hopes".
Furthermore, Japanese love the ultima series? Well Im sure i failed to see cute japanese schoolgirls dressed as Iolo and Shamino in the so-called cosplay.

Tabula Rasa is a mmo with a total want of content, either They completely revolutionize the concept of the dynamic battlefields or it's bound to fail, no matter how many patches and fixes come out. The old wow system of picking quests, farm a bunch of critters to collect their glands, place a bunch of detonating charges and then proceed to the new map is AGED and too few like it anymore. Some may say it's the way the genre works, but if that's so, the genre is destined to disappear.

MassivelyFTW said on 1:41PM 2-19-2008

TR needs an end game injection, it's sad to see that great games like Lord of The Rings Online and Tabula Rasa shying away from introducing an end game. Is having a bad end game better than having none at all?

sean said on 12:37PM 2-19-2008

Who cares what happens to the developing team to a dying game?

Tabula rasa was released buggy and lacking any reason to get to the level cap. 4 months on and its still damn buggy and no reason to level to cap. The gameplay is the most fun of any mmo for solo, but gives you far too many reasons to quit and play something that encourages player competition, teamwork and most of all, an end game that will keep players in game playing towards and enjoying.

johnnyprozac said on 12:57AM 2-20-2008

THe Korea Times is famous in Korea for its complete and continuous lack of journalistic credibility. There is no fact checking nor is there really any editing either.

Korean Herald isn't much better either...its like the Fox News of newspapers here in Korea ...which leaves many expats, english speakers and others here not really reading either newspaper unless forced to.

I am not surprised by how skewed the article is.

NCSOft is huge news here in Korea as is Webzen...etc. Wheras Webzen is actually in trouble...with hostile takeover attempts, declining Mu revenue, and etc.. NCSoft isn't.

Hell...if they were in trouble..exactly why would they be ramping up the NCSoft Europe office?

specialjohn said on 3:01AM 2-20-2008

Really nice to see this view on this discussion

It's great to see NCSoft moving into Japan and also that NCSoft are still ploughing millions into TR Developmetn. I am happy to watch a game develop, EQ2 constantly receives changes and balance tweaks and content advancement, infact that game is totally different now to when it was launched.

Woop said on 7:06AM 2-20-2008

You would imagine if they are investing more money in it then they don't perceive it to be a complete write off at this stage.

There's no denying TR has a troubled history, and ultimately it comes across in the final product. I know I left very shortly after reaching the top tier. That's only level 30, but it just didn't feel like there was a compelling reason to keep playing.

Strangely I'm now playing LOTR online. Yes it is a WoW clone (albeit a good looking and well polished one) and I agree with previous comments that the genre does need to freshen up and break out of this design. But if you do so, you can't forget to make the thing fun and compelling from start to finish, and continue to offer a wide variety of options. TR just doesn't do that.

AKM said on 6:55PM 2-21-2008

"Furthermore, Japanese love the ultima series? Well Im sure i failed to see cute japanese schoolgirls dressed as Iolo and Shamino in the so-called cosplay."
Have you ever been on a Japanese shard? Obviously, all you know about Japan seems to be stuff that gets shown off as "odd" and "strange" on western tv. Why am I not surprised.

At least TR doesn't have bloody elves, dwarves and swords. Now that's boring after the 100th repetition (and no, WoW didn't invent that genre). I take TR over WoW any time, simply because WoW bores the hell out of me.