It appears that Google Lively isn’t the only Virtual World coming to a close in the near future. Feburary 28th will see the close of the Sci-Fi MMO, Tabula Rasa, according to NCSoft . This news is coming after the recent announcement that Richard Garriott, who headed the project, would be leaving the company.
Given the overall performance of the game, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. I was given a few chances to check out Tabula Rasa, both at E3 2006 and during the beta for the game, and I was never impressed. It always felt like it should have been a shooter, but aim, movement, and even cover seemed to offer no difference at all during gameplay. It took a lot of what seemed unique about it out. In the end, the gameplay seemed very similar to the NGE for SWG.
So, while I might not be affected or surprised that the game performed poorly over all, I do feel a bit bad for those that played and enjoyed the game. For that crowd, NCSoft appears to be offering up some free time for their other games, which might be nice at the very least.
Well, at the very least, I still have my Tabula Rasa shirt that I nabbed at E3. Hey, I might not have liked the game, but they did do a nice shirt design!
