Garriott: MMORPGs are stagnant and Tabula Rasa will change that

NCSoft‘s Richard Garriott spoke at the Develop Conference today and he pointed out that Tabula Rasa is going to be the first MMO video game to truly offer something different.

Garriott pointed out that other MMO titles in the market have implemented a number of features and gameplay elements that have become standard practice, and worse, sometimes these are done in a rather clumsy manner.

These gameplay elements, he said, include monsters re-spawning for the next player as if nothing had happened, level grinds, arbitrary and meaningless missions, poor A.I., and repetition.

Garriott then said that his game would be different with regards to how we perceive online games. He explained that “Tabula Rasa” means blank state, signifying that they are starting from scratch,

[For example] There’s this whole kind of ‘we don’t need A.I. because there are other players,’ and I think that really undersells the passion of an online game. [In Tabula Rasa] the game operates around the player and doesn’t just expect players to be the only one moving in that reality.

He added that it was just a working title in the beginning but stuck with the game anyway eventually.  Indeed, it seems that Garriott is changing MMORPGs as we know them today with Tabula Rasa. We just hope this move will be appreciated by the MMO fan base.

Via GameSpot UK

NCSoft‘s Richard Garriott spoke at the Develop Conference today and he pointed out that Tabula Rasa is going to be the first MMO video game to truly offer something different.

Garriott pointed out that other MMO titles in the market have implemented a number of features and gameplay elements that have become standard practice, and worse, sometimes these are done in a rather clumsy manner.

These gameplay elements, he said, include monsters re-spawning for the next player as if nothing had happened, level grinds, arbitrary and meaningless missions, poor A.I., and repetition.

Garriott then said that his game would be different with regards to how we perceive online games. He explained that “Tabula Rasa” means blank state, signifying that they are starting from scratch,

[For example] There’s this whole kind of ‘we don’t need A.I. because there are other players,’ and I think that really undersells the passion of an online game. [In Tabula Rasa] the game operates around the player and doesn’t just expect players to be the only one moving in that reality.

He added that it was just a working title in the beginning but stuck with the game anyway eventually.  Indeed, it seems that Garriott is changing MMORPGs as we know them today with Tabula Rasa. We just hope this move will be appreciated by the MMO fan base.

Via GameSpot UK