Saturday, December 13, 2008

Tabula Rasa - Playable Until *Feb 28, 2009*

That's right.
Seems my account was reactivated after canceling, and has become full play.
It has been rumored that anyone that had a "paid" account in the past has already been given the free time early.
Someone noted this in game the other day, so I decided to check it out this morning, and sure enough...I can play until the end of days ("I'll be back" /end Schwarzenegger references....).

As to my game time, after my complete and utter fail at several missions due to spawn rates, I still thought to myself that I could possibly do instances or kill mobs to level to hopefully become more powerful and try again with the failures. I figured I had (originally) until the 26th of this month still.
Persevering, I ended up having to cross the great Divide to reach my one goal (this is what the zone is named after...a HUGE valley that rips through the landscape that has proven to be difficult due to spawn issues)..and saw the one Boss I kept dying on.
Packing in my armor recharge and setting my heals to a quick button, I decided to charge in again.
Using EMP I drained his armor. As soon as this was eliminated, I used my LOGOs lightning skill, and a Sonic shotgun to keep him off his toes. I switched to Chaingun to rail some major damage.
I kept on top of this, while healing, and had him in a spot that I was semi hidden from the wandering Bane.

Down he went...

A big ole smile hit my face and I even yelped out loud (luckily my son was in GoW2 killing some nasties...hehe).
That was exicitng.

And then I realized what my goal was.

I was totally enjoying the game, and I was going to find a way to keep going even though players are limited for groups.

This makes me think of how many games like this that were failures at first, that people just got so upset at, and decided to never give it another chance?
It is ok if the game was not to their liking, but I am having a war of issues on one forum regarding the AoC hate.
The constant bickering between the fans and the haters roars on.
What's amusing is each time the hater always states an issue they hated, that does not exist anymore.
From ganking due to no consequences (even though they could have played PvE instead of whining, and now the Consequence system is in) to no content (when multiple new dungeons and quests and even one new zone has been added) to performance (major strides have been made to eliminate all crashes and performance in FPS has jumped tremendously).
All problems that are not a problem now.
There is no doubt that the change in gameplay after the 1-20 hike is jarring. Yet, this gameplay is the EXACT same gameplay in any other MMO, which again becomes amusing. Then to top it off, the game does offer some unique mechanics with the combat system for melee, and the questing does stray a bit, especially in certain zones.

Same with Tabula Rasa. I think if people would have just let go their hate (just like the SOE hate...that still is mind boggling over the NGE), they may have found that a lot of their issues have been resolved in TR.
Again, if you did not like the game overall, there is no hope.
But, like myself, if the main issues you had with a game has not been fixed in all the time it has been out (LOTRO still to this day has not fixed some major complaints that were discussed all the way back in Closed Beta), then you have every right to rail on it...especially if you kept giving them chances.
But, to not go back due to a bad launch, and think that the same issues exist after six months or even a year, is ridiculous.

I will mourn TR.
But, for now, I get full play time, and I will make every minute count toward my goal of maxing out!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Bringing up NGE?
Do you realize that hell hath no furry like an SWG player who experienced NGE?

Danshir said...

Good post edge. This type of experience your having for Tabula Rasa really happens to a lot more MMORPGs then people realize.

A lot of the complaints I hear about EverQuest 1 are utterly gone from the game.

Really sad when an MMORPG listens to the complaints, fixes them, but people refuse to give it another shot when they still play the game that refuses to fix anything.

Lars said...

The problem is leveling-based MMORPGs are the most fun when they are released because that's when the most players are available at your level range. Its no fun joining an aged MMORPG because once you are behind on the leveling curve and are isolated from the general population, MMORPGs play like craptastic single player RPGs.

I can see a game like Eve Online growing over time, because its not an obstacle to join late, since you can rather quickly become skilled enough to contribute, although you'll have to specialize and won't have as many options as the veterans. But leveling games -- no point in going back.

Releasing updates on a new platform (like AOC will be doing with the Xbox 360) or a new region (like POTBS is doing now that they are releasing to Russia) will bring spikes in the playerbase. But other than that, there's really nothing game developers can do to draw people back.

Leveling-based MMORPGs get one and only one chance to grab an audience: when they launch.

Red Headed Tim said...

The unfortunate thing about SWG haters is that the game isn't that bad if you come in new. Granted, the sandbox sounds awesome (I never played) but it's a playable game with constant updates. Granted there is "discussion" about what is getting updated but there are plenty of instances you can group raid, there is the space side which is unlike anything outside of EVE, there is the free TCG, they finally added Hoth, and oh yeah....IT'S STARWARS. You can look above Mos Eisley and see a star destroyer in the sky. You can find droids roaming the cities. You can do crafting that is more detailed than many mmo's offer (although I like the sound of TR's approach too).

Basically, I agree w/ the "get over it" sentiment. Way too many people in this genre have an ability to hold on to hate that is just not healthy.

Elementalistly said...

@Lars
MMORPGs are the most fun when they are released

Yet, they all are 100% buggy when they release.

And to top it off, everyone and their brothers, sisters and little puppies use the adage "All MMO's need 6 months before they are ready" due to issues with bugs.
How does any MMO compensate for that?

Even the most stable of MMO's on release (LOTRO, DAoC, CoH) had issues of exploits, crashes, etc.

So, how does an MMO get away from such a stigma.

Based on your belief, every MMO being released will never have a chance.

And maybe this is how the future of MMO's will swing.

Maybe it is about time someone released an MMO that is not the buggy messes we have received.

Then I will understand the "launch or death" reasoning...