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The End of Tabula Rasa's World

In our hobby, few things are as tragic as the end of an MMORPG. There's just something that's more than a little depressing about wiping an entire in-game world from existence--and that's not even considering the years of work it took devoted developers to build said world. That being said, many MMOs in the past few years have tried to topple the Goliath known as World of Warcraft, but most suffered the particular fate that leaves me with a profound emptiness in my soul. The most recent casualty, Richard Garriott's (AKA Lord British)Tabula Rasa, had its final day just this past Saturday after a long and troubled history. Tabula Rasa might not have had the same reception as Garriott's previous hit, Ultima Online, but that doesn't mean the few remaining fans of the game didn't want to go out with a bang. And, thanks to the fine folks at the Escapist, we have access to video footage of what goes down just before an MMO world ends.

You may want to take notes in case this happens in real life. Video after the cut.

Posted Mar 03 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: mmorpg, richard garriott, tabula rasa, bob mackey, ultima

Square Enix Bans Nearly 1K Players from FFXI

When I first heard this news, I thought that this was a real jerk move by Square Enix. They did a poor job coding their game, then got mad at players when they stumbled upon the error and used it to their advantage. Rather than ganking whatever ill-gotten gains the crafty players obtained, they banned them. Some 500 players even got perma-banned. How could Square Enix do such a thing?

Posted Jan 23 2009, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, mmorpg, controversy, final fantasy xi

The Commodore 64 MMO that Never Was

GameSetWatch has posted an excerpt from a new book about the history of Lucasarts, the interactive entertainment branch of George Lucas's film production company, Lucasfilm. The excerpt details the story of Habitat, a massively-multiplayer virtual universe made up of 20,000 screens. Players could access this world through modems connected to their Commodore 64s, while paying an hourly fee. Pretty progressive for 1985. Developers had to deal with complex issues that seem commonplace in today's MMO space:

Posted Jan 22 2009, 04:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: commodore 64, lucasarts, cole stryker, mmorpg, retro games, habitat, lucasfilm

Trailer Review: Priston Tale II: The 2nd Enigma

Oh hey, check it out. Another MMORPG that I'll forget about overnight.

Posted Jan 15 2009, 05:30 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: trailer review, cole stryker, mmorpg, priston tale 2

Whatcha Playing: FusionFall

Yeah, uh, I'm only playing this for work-related purposes.

I...I...

I'm still cool.

Actually, FusionFall has received a lot of hype, and there's quite a bit of charm to it. Worried parents wonder if Cartoon Network's MMORPG is merely another name for Billy's Gateway World of Warcraft Addiction, but there are some interesting speed bumps that are in place to keep kids from descending down the vortex in its entirety. Levelling up occurs through the completion of missions, not hours of grinding, and your rewards actually lessen if you log several consecutive hours of gameplay.

These restrictions serve well as wake-ups for enraptured children who will hopefully realise that it's a good idea to go outside and play once the cow has been milked dry. It's probably not foolproof, though. Who wants to stop when they're with their friends, giving evil what for? It's still up to the parents to pull the game when their kids' eyes start turning into squares. Pity the poor hand-wringing adults: the thought of having to administer some means of discipline on their children will send many of them scrambling for their stationary so they can re-direct their energies into writing a blame piece for Scare Weekly.

It's too bad, because I believe FusionFall might serve well as an introduction to MMORPGs.

Posted Jan 14 2009, 11:53 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: whatcha playing, world of warcraft, mmorpg, nadia oxford, wow, cartoon network, fusionfall

Watching Age of Conan Die

Some guy is getting a lot of attention on Reddit for a fascinating writeup on the dramatic rise and fall of Age of Conan, a surprisingly successful MMORPG whose popularity has waned nearly as quickly as it exploded last spring.

He argues that the first twenty levels, which take place in the bustling city of Tortage, are fully-fleshed, bursting with fascinating NPC's, fun quests, and breathtaking visual design. But then:

From here on out, most of your questing will involve going to the proper Place of Great Respawn and grinding mobs like you were filling up a resume to take some Chinese gold farmer’s job. The dust and dirt must be really hard on the lungs, too, since the vast majority of quest givers are mute. Voice acting, it seems, was too much a courtesy for Funcom to extend after the trial period.

Ouch. I met a guy who worked for Funcom during Age of Conan's development period at a pub. We became friends. He complained a lot for a guy who (to me) had one of the coolest jobs in the world. He also drank a lot.

Apparently, he wasn't the only disgruntled employee:

Posted Dec 08 2008, 08:30 AM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: world of warcraft, cole stryker, age of conan, mmorpg, reddit

Drew Carey Ventures into Second Life

Libertarian-leaning news source reason.tv has a fascinating piece on free market economics in Second Life.

SL is based on a simple set of institutional arrangements that would make F.A. Hayek proud. In essence, the people who own the property in SL make the rules. The result is a spontaneously ordered world in which residents are free to fly, teleport, build, trade and interact with others without interference from the state.

Recently, Linden Lab—the SL equivalent of a state—has begun acting more and more like a real life government by restricting activities such as gambling. But open source competitors based on the SL platform are currently in development. So better virtual worlds offering even more freedom are just around the corner.

As virtual real estate gains value, it will be interesting to see how MMO hosts like Linden Labs handle personal property. They draw parallels between the folks who sought freedom in the New World centuries ago and those who seek liberty and fortune on these new virtual frontiers. Neat stuff.

For some reason (ha!), I can't get the video to embed here, so you'll just have to click on through to the other side.

Posted Sep 12 2008, 10:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments

Filed under: cole stryker, second life, mmorpg, free markets, reason.tv, libertarianism, linden labs

Sweaty, Oily Barbarian-Men Are Waiting For Your Purchase

Have you played World of Warcraft so ferociously that your hard drive is now naught but a glittering pile of toxic dust? Maybe you've been thinking about shifting gears a little by taking up the new Age of Conan MMORPG, Hyborian Adventures. Who'd want to strut around as a dinky elf when they could take up the sword of ancient barbarian heroes?

Don't bother, says Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is apparently the same sword-swinging song we've heard so many times before: big burly warriors controlled by puppetmasters like Marvin of the Gold Claws, a fat boy in a basement with Doritos stains all over his fingers.

I'm especially amused by Yahtzee's observation about the personalities of the players around him: everyone wants to "cut your tits off" or act like you're going to do the same to them. Sometimes I think MMORPG players were picked on a lot at school and are pretending to project their revenge into the past with their well-armed (both above and below the belt) avatar.

Or...maybe they're not pretending at all.

Posted Jul 24 2008, 04:40 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: review, yahtzee, zero punctuation, pvp, age of conan, mmorpg

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.