Tabula Rasa: putting RPG back in MMORPG
Now we know we’ve gotten excited about dynamic battlefields and a persistent world that keeps changing, even while players are offline, Richard Garriott continued to expound on the gameplay facets of Tabula Rasa and how it can be a fleeting experience from today’s ordinary MMORPGs in an interview with WarCry.
Although NCSoft‘s Tabula Rasa isn’t about grinding for hours on end to achieve a single reward, they do encourage taking out as many of the enemy you can. It’s not just for ensuring the success of the Allied Free Sentients in the war against the Bane, but Garriott believes it will also reveal more interesting aspects of gameplay.
He highlighted what seems to resemble a berserker fury bonus. Like Blood Rayne, a player can kill enemies in quick succession to receive a bonus to experience gain. In the case of Blood Rayne, it would grant the lithe half-vampire an increased damage mode.
The more enemies that a player kills in succession, the gain modifier continues to rise until it reaches a maximum peak. Grinders won’t have to spend hours on end just to level up, because if they make an effort to improve their means, they can easily satisfy the ends.
And what ends they would be. Depending on your weapon and damage type, a player can trigger unique “death sequences” that can randomly appear on an opponent on the verge of death. Garriott may have mentioned that each sequence adds interest to the entire backdrop while the battles rage on, but he hints that curious players should “think Mortal Kombat.”
And speaking of grinds, no player feel that they have to keep killing hordes of Bane troops to level. Unlike other MMORPGs, core players are not obliged to level first and quest second. In fact, because a war is raging on and the ASF could end up losing the fight due to player ignorance, the player must make sure that missions get accomplished, bases are protected, objectives get taken and the enemy taken out every step of the way.
Now that’s role-playing. A player can get to be a contributor that matters, not another nobody that scatters.
Via WarCry
Now we know we’ve gotten excited about dynamic battlefields and a persistent world that keeps changing, even while players are offline, Richard Garriott continued to expound on the gameplay facets of Tabula Rasa and how it can be a fleeting experience from today’s ordinary MMORPGs in an interview with WarCry.
Although NCSoft‘s Tabula Rasa isn’t about grinding for hours on end to achieve a single reward, they do encourage taking out as many of the enemy you can. It’s not just for ensuring the success of the Allied Free Sentients in the war against the Bane, but Garriott believes it will also reveal more interesting aspects of gameplay.
He highlighted what seems to resemble a berserker fury bonus. Like Blood Rayne, a player can kill enemies in quick succession to receive a bonus to experience gain. In the case of Blood Rayne, it would grant the lithe half-vampire an increased damage mode.
The more enemies that a player kills in succession, the gain modifier continues to rise until it reaches a maximum peak. Grinders won’t have to spend hours on end just to level up, because if they make an effort to improve their means, they can easily satisfy the ends.
And what ends they would be. Depending on your weapon and damage type, a player can trigger unique “death sequences” that can randomly appear on an opponent on the verge of death. Garriott may have mentioned that each sequence adds interest to the entire backdrop while the battles rage on, but he hints that curious players should “think Mortal Kombat.”
And speaking of grinds, no player feel that they have to keep killing hordes of Bane troops to level. Unlike other MMORPGs, core players are not obliged to level first and quest second. In fact, because a war is raging on and the ASF could end up losing the fight due to player ignorance, the player must make sure that missions get accomplished, bases are protected, objectives get taken and the enemy taken out every step of the way.
Now that’s role-playing. A player can get to be a contributor that matters, not another nobody that scatters.
Via WarCry
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