Tabula Rasa instances all about making YOU feel good, not just for drops.

Guardian Unlimited solicited Richard Garriott‘s criticisms of MMORPGs, and while the Tabula Rasa creator did say he’s a big fan of MMOs, he also felt they were lacking something. By the very design of the gameplay, MMOs didn’t give what contemporary single-player games give: that unabashed self-serving gratuitous heroic save-the-world feeling.

After all, there can be only one Kim Possible.

… you no longer feel like the hero; your life has become, frankly, pretty average. Half the people playing are at a higher level than you, and half at a lower level than you. Every time you log on after a new feature has been added overnight, half the people will have seen it before you. Basically, you never win; you never get to be the hero.

Yeah, well MMOs are all about the social interaction, (minor bleep), but that lack of self-gratification can be lonely sometimes. And the Tabula Rasa team aims to correct that. Its instances are unlike those in, say, World of Warcraft, where the instances simply allow everyone (or every guild) access to high-level drops from rare monsters.

Each TR instance aims to make “you feel individually rewarded, and get to engage in interesting story spaces.” Richard confirms that even your personal actions in your own instance will affect events (or at least gameplay) in the larger game world. And in that larger game world, NPC characters and the Bane have their own objectives, their own battles to fight.

So how does it feel to be to save the world again? And again? And again?

Guardian Unlimited solicited Richard Garriott‘s criticisms of MMORPGs, and while the Tabula Rasa creator did say he’s a big fan of MMOs, he also felt they were lacking something. By the very design of the gameplay, MMOs didn’t give what contemporary single-player games give: that unabashed self-serving gratuitous heroic save-the-world feeling.

After all, there can be only one Kim Possible.

… you no longer feel like the hero; your life has become, frankly, pretty average. Half the people playing are at a higher level than you, and half at a lower level than you. Every time you log on after a new feature has been added overnight, half the people will have seen it before you. Basically, you never win; you never get to be the hero.

Yeah, well MMOs are all about the social interaction, (minor bleep), but that lack of self-gratification can be lonely sometimes. And the Tabula Rasa team aims to correct that. Its instances are unlike those in, say, World of Warcraft, where the instances simply allow everyone (or every guild) access to high-level drops from rare monsters.

Each TR instance aims to make “you feel individually rewarded, and get to engage in interesting story spaces.” Richard confirms that even your personal actions in your own instance will affect events (or at least gameplay) in the larger game world. And in that larger game world, NPC characters and the Bane have their own objectives, their own battles to fight.

So how does it feel to be to save the world again? And again? And again?