I quit WoW once I had seen all the sights I wanted to see and I knew that the rest wasn't worth the effort. I quit Lord of the Rings Online when I realized that the gameplay just didn't do it for me anymore. So why am I deciding that now is the time to quit Tabula Rasa? I've been totally digging this MMO. It's managed to turn traditionally slow MMORPG gameplay into something much more exciting. So if the game plays great, then what's the freaking problem?
As time passed playing Tabula Rasa, I began to realize that it was a really lonely game. I grouped up whenever there was an opportunity, and that was always fun, but over time it happened less and less. I started making it more of a priority, but the vast majority of my time was still spent solo. I think there are a couple factors at work here. One obvious problem is that the game hasn't been a smash success, and the population is on the decline. Spread the few players over segregated servers and level ranges and the result is that there are few people that you can actually play with. This is made worse by the fact that the traditional instanced group activities have zero replay incentive - loot is completely exchangeable in Tabula Rasa, so the only reason to run an instance is for the quest, and once you've done the quest there's no reason to return. So your only potential partners are people that are in your level range and haven't run the quest yet, and there just aren't enough of them. The fact that Tabula Rasa is lenient about group composition and travel is great, but it can't make up for a lack of players. It makes me feel guilty, because I know that me leaving doesn't make it any easier for the people I'm leaving behind, but the whole thing was starting to feel like a diluted single player game.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem whatsoever with a single player game in a large persistent world. That's how I find myself playing most MMOs. But if you're going to survive completely on that, you need something driving you forward that's as powerful as a traditional singleplayer epic. Tabula Rasa is overall weak on story and environment (although it does has its moments). Towards the high 30s I ran into a long stream of lackluster content that just killed my mojo. If there was some social gameplay to distract me I'd probably keep on truckin', but without that there just wasn't enough to pull me through.
I can blame that weak content for my waning interest, but there's also a bit of a flaw in the character development track. Through the lower levels you are very involved in shaping your character to your play style, with your final class decision happening at level 30. That's a great moment, and after that you've got quite a few levels to break in your awesome new abilities. But after you've pumped some points into them and found your balance you realize that there's nothing more coming. You'll get more points to allocate, making your abilities slightly more powerful, but there's nothing significant that will change all the way from 30 to the level cap at 50. By the late 30s I felt like I'd already mastered my arsenal and had nothing to focus on next.
So it was that I found myself with no one to play with, no interesting story to pursue, increasingly repetitive environments, and no long-term developments to look forward to. Basically, the long-term appeal was gone.
So I've put my Tabula Rasa account into hibernation. I could go back and start with another class, and that does intrigue me. In fact, even after everything I've said above, just thinking about the game makes me want to play it some more. But I think I'd rather put this one on the backburner and see if the development team can flesh more things out in the following months. I hope they do, because the moment to moment action of this game is still my favorite for any MMO.
Showing posts with label tabularasa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tabularasa. Show all posts
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
More Tabula Rasa
You can currently get Tabula Rasa dirt cheap on Amazon. If you were on the fence but didn’t want to plop down the money for the initial purchase it should be a no brainer now.
I'm definitely still enjoying it. I'm currently at level 35, which means I've made my final class selection (Grenadier) and have had a few levels to play around with it. I don't have a flamethrower, but I do have a cryogenic disperser (or as I call it, "The Popsicle Maker"), which is equally awesome. That combined with rockets, chainguns, and some area of effect based Logos abilities makes me obscenely good at taking down large squads of enemies. I'm currently working on tracking down the Logos to unlock my class' signature Concussion Wave ability.
The development team is doing a great job of regularly making improvements to the game. The latest update made holding a crazy combo even more compelling and added some great rewards for attacking/defending control points. I hope they're able to keep up this agile development pace, because they have some really cool ideas in the pipeline. Tabula Rasa has a lot to teach the MMO genre at large, so I thought I'd compile a list of its strengths and weaknesses.
Things Tabula Rasa could teach other MMOs:
- Quick Travel: Less time wasted due to instant and free travel between waypoints. Better connectivity due to multiple waypoints per zone
- Play-Style Flexibility: Less rigid about grouping because instances scale to squad size
- Feels Heroic: Multiple enemies instead of single targets that take a long time to kill. You are stronger than most individual targets, so you feel like a bad ass.
- Risk: Incentive to play aggressively due to combo XP modifiers
- Dynamic Environments: Control points provide a constantly moving PVE target. A mix of allied and enemy NPCs dropping in randomly creates a real warzone feeling.
- Achievements: Per zone rewards for various accomplishments (Targets of Opportunity). Logos provide exploration oriented goals.
- Informed Decisions: The most important decision for your character (class) is made after you've already had time to play and figure out what you like and don't.
- Don't Make Me Start Over: Cloning lets you branch your character to try something different without having to start over from scratch
- Levels Are Less Important: Less rigidness in the level strata means you can take on enemies well above your level. There's still a point beyond which you're screwed, but it's not as tight of a level band as WoW or LotRO.
- Informal Cooperation: Kill credit is shared even if you're not in a squad, provoking more impromptu grouping
- Share: Built-in support for sharing resources between your characters
- Unlockables: The hybrid races are only available after completing quests, making them somewhat of a prestige item.
- Community: Regular and frank Feedback Fridays let you know what the development team is up to
- Development: Small updates with a short development cycle
Things Tabula Rasa could learn from other MMOs:
- Casual Play: Rest XP bonus rewards you for having self control
- Items Have Value: Interesting rewards for running instances (especially since instances are available for all play styles now). The lack of soulbound items in Tabula Rasa makes getting gear a little too easy (and thus less rewarding)
- Epic Boss Battles: Interesting scripted encounters that make you poo your pants
- Customization: Any shortcomings in WoW's user interface can be overcome with UI mods. Empowering the community to do work for you is a good thing.
- More Locales: There are currently two planets in Tabula Rasa, with each planet having multiple zones. Unfortunately this only really amounts to two different palettes. It's sad when a game with interstellar possibilities has less variety than Middle Earth.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Now Playing
It's time again to filled you in on what I've been playing.
Tabula Rasa (PC)
As was probably clear from my review, I've really been enjoying this MMO. The aesthetics, which I had criticized, got more interesting when I finally got off-planet. It's still nowhere near as consistently inspired as WoW, but it's a bit better. I'm very close to the next class split, which will mean that I can finally get my flamethrower. Believe me, I am stoked to flame some fools, but even if it's not as awesome as it is in my head I can always flip over to one of my clones and experiment with a different class branch. The game has gotten a little more grindy as I've approached level 30, but it still moves along way faster than any other MMO.
There was a bit of news a month ago that NCSoft would be making a console MMO. And I think that there's a good chance that could be a port of Tabula Rasa. I've never played an MMO so apt for console play; the interface would be a no brainer to map to a controller. It's true that there are other challenges in bringing an online persistent game to the consoles, but most people write off the possibility of a console MMO because of the interface, and Tabula Rasa wouldn't have that problem.
Lord of the Rings Online (PC)
Actually, I'm not playing LotRO. I officially canceled my subscription last week. LotRO was always a bit on the slow side, but after playing Tabula Rasa I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't even power through one more level to make a clean 40. So I decided to call it quits. I'm not sure if the recently announced expansion will be enough to lure me back. I totally want to explore Moria, but I don't know if that'll be enough. I've already written about what I think is wrong with the game, but don't be surprised if you see more posts as I examine it further, even if I'm no longer playing it.
Rock Band (Xbox360)
It's amazing that I haven't posted a review of Rock Band yet. But I usually only write about a game when I'm done with it… and I'm still playing a ton of Rock Band after all these months. The weekly DLC has definitely help keep it fresh. With so many tracks and so many ways to perform them, this game ain't going anywhere anytime soon. But yes, I will get off my duff and post a proper review.
Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
I played the crap out of Smash Bros Melee on the Gamecube, which firmly planted Brawl as one of my most anticipated Wii titles. It hasn't disappointed me yet. That's not to say that it's exceeded any expectations - it's met them precisely. Basically it's exactly like Melee except with a couple more small features. It's more of the same, so if you loved Melee you'll love Brawl.
DS
I haven't used my DS in months. When work was crazy I got into the habit of working on my laptop on the bus instead of playing. Unfortunately the habit stayed even after things calmed down. I'll probably have to pick up something like Phantom Hourglass to get my motivated again, because Portrait of Ruin wasn't cutting it.
Pile of Shame
Here are the games that somehow got pushed to the side and I haven't given the attention they deserve:
There was certainly a long period of there being no high quality Wii titles. But it seems that when they finally did come out I wasn't ready for them.
Review Backlog
Given the large list of AAA titles from last fall, I'm a little behind on my reviews. Here's the list of games that are pending a write-up:
Friday, February 8, 2008
Tabula Rasa (PC)
I've been struggling to figure out how I feel about the MMO genre. I love the epic worlds and character persistence, but I hate so many of the game mechanics that slow enjoyment to a crawl. I definitely have the capacity to enjoy these kinds of games, but the concentration of good stuff is extremely diluted. I feel like I'm in denial about a failing relationship because once in awhile we connect and I forget about all the arguing and apathy.
I've learned to trust Rock Paper Shotgun over the months. The blog is well written, unapologetically subjective, and written by people who get me as a gamer. So when they started talking about Tabula Rasa, a rare combination of MMORPG and FPS, they had my full attention. Richard Garriott may come off as a nut job, but he created one of my favorite games of all time. So I pushed aside my MMO fatigue and plopped down $40 for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.
And hot damn, this game is actually good.
Like most games, MMORPGs are basically about killing stuff. Surprisingly, killing stuff in Tabula Rasa is fun. Not fun in the typical MMO sense where after you kill lots of things you get a pat on the back and a minor statistical gain which appeals to your obsessive emotionally crippled self… which confuses it with fun. No, this game is fun for reals. In the same time it would take you to down some boar in another MMORPG you've rushed a squad of enemies, taken down their shield drone, shotgunned them onto their backs, and mercilessly clubbed them with the butt of your gun. Similar to how Puzzle Quest replaced the drab turn-based RPG mechanic with something more engaging, Tabula Rasa has replaced the drab real-time RPG mechanic with action packed goodness.
The whole game feels an MMO in fast forward. Many of the time consuming standards have been streamlined. Travel from zone to zone in Tabula Rasa is free and instantaneous. If you want to explore all eight of the game's classes you won't have to play the game eight times, thanks to the cloning system. And each run through is going to take less time, because twinking your alts (clones) is actually a supported process with shared storage between characters. Questing is streamlined, with mission goals clearly indicated on your map (sorry Raph, figuring out where you need to go is not the fun part). Hell, you don't even have to take the time to click to loot, as that looting is accomplished by merely walking near your defeated foe. Pretty much all that filler crap has been thrown out the window.
One of the largest wastes of time in MMOs is looking for a group of people to play with. Extreme level/gear banding splits up the population up so that not everyone can play together. To make things more difficult, you're going to need a specific number and specialization balance in your party in order to be successful. To find a viable group you have to wait around until the right people all magically materialize at the same time, which can take hours. Your only other option is to join a hardcore guild with a regular play schedule, which of course comes at the expense of your real social schedule flexibility. For a genre that's supposed to be about multiplayer gaming, it sure is frustrating matching up with other people.
Tabula Rasa somewhat addresses this problem by automatically scaling the difficulty of instances to party size. Even if you can only find one other person to play with, the two of you can happily duo the encounter and still have a good time. In fact, the entire game can be played solo. Grouping is fun, and increases your overall survivability, but it's not forced upon you. Which works well with my preferred play style, which is essentially "singleplayer with the option to become multiplayer at any time."
There's this concept in MMOs of "pulling," which is the act of choosing an opponent from a field of many to engage in single combat. It's a miniature puzzle to figure out how to attract the right combatants without adding others. You can pull aggressively, but given that the penalty (death) is high, your success is generally tied to your ability to balance risk. That's right, MMOs are essentially risk management simulators. Well, Tabula Rasa makes managing risk very difficult, because there generally aren't fields of baddies milling about. It's quite common for a drop ship to plop down enemy reinforcements in the middle of your carefully planned assault. Pretty soon you realize it's better to throw caution to the wind, spin up your chaingun, and have fun. Embrace unpredictability. The game actually rewards recklessness, giving you an experience bonus if you keep up a steady combo of kills.
As I read what I've written, this article could also easily be titled "Everything I hate about MMOs and why Tabula Rasa is different." It's because of this that I'm so forgiving of Tabula Rasa's flaws. It replaces the typical fantasy fare with a sci-fi setting, which is refreshing, but the details of this world are forgettable and generic. Everything from the character design to the architecture to the landscape you've seen done better elsewhere. And it doesn't do a good job of easing you into the world. There's a decent intro tutorial, but after that you have to figure out everything for yourself. In particular the crafting system is a completely mystery until you do some online research, and then you realize that it has potential but is severely crippled by insufficient UI. Outside of the core combat, a lot of things about Tabula Rasa are rough around the edges.
For me, two main things are critical for a game to be enjoyable: gameplay (basic mechanics and incentive) and setting (into which I'm lumping story, characters, and environment). Good games create a synergy between those, which is essentially the connection between intellect and emotion. Tabula Rasa is thoroughly mediocre when it comes to setting, which I suspect will limit its long-term appeal. But it totally reinvigorates the genre's archaic gameplay. Which is a very exciting thing, because gameplay, unlike setting, is transferable. If the MMO developers out there start taking notes from Tabula Rasa we'll have a much brighter online gaming future ahead of us.
I've learned to trust Rock Paper Shotgun over the months. The blog is well written, unapologetically subjective, and written by people who get me as a gamer. So when they started talking about Tabula Rasa, a rare combination of MMORPG and FPS, they had my full attention. Richard Garriott may come off as a nut job, but he created one of my favorite games of all time. So I pushed aside my MMO fatigue and plopped down $40 for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.
And hot damn, this game is actually good.
Like most games, MMORPGs are basically about killing stuff. Surprisingly, killing stuff in Tabula Rasa is fun. Not fun in the typical MMO sense where after you kill lots of things you get a pat on the back and a minor statistical gain which appeals to your obsessive emotionally crippled self… which confuses it with fun. No, this game is fun for reals. In the same time it would take you to down some boar in another MMORPG you've rushed a squad of enemies, taken down their shield drone, shotgunned them onto their backs, and mercilessly clubbed them with the butt of your gun. Similar to how Puzzle Quest replaced the drab turn-based RPG mechanic with something more engaging, Tabula Rasa has replaced the drab real-time RPG mechanic with action packed goodness.
The whole game feels an MMO in fast forward. Many of the time consuming standards have been streamlined. Travel from zone to zone in Tabula Rasa is free and instantaneous. If you want to explore all eight of the game's classes you won't have to play the game eight times, thanks to the cloning system. And each run through is going to take less time, because twinking your alts (clones) is actually a supported process with shared storage between characters. Questing is streamlined, with mission goals clearly indicated on your map (sorry Raph, figuring out where you need to go is not the fun part). Hell, you don't even have to take the time to click to loot, as that looting is accomplished by merely walking near your defeated foe. Pretty much all that filler crap has been thrown out the window.
One of the largest wastes of time in MMOs is looking for a group of people to play with. Extreme level/gear banding splits up the population up so that not everyone can play together. To make things more difficult, you're going to need a specific number and specialization balance in your party in order to be successful. To find a viable group you have to wait around until the right people all magically materialize at the same time, which can take hours. Your only other option is to join a hardcore guild with a regular play schedule, which of course comes at the expense of your real social schedule flexibility. For a genre that's supposed to be about multiplayer gaming, it sure is frustrating matching up with other people.
Tabula Rasa somewhat addresses this problem by automatically scaling the difficulty of instances to party size. Even if you can only find one other person to play with, the two of you can happily duo the encounter and still have a good time. In fact, the entire game can be played solo. Grouping is fun, and increases your overall survivability, but it's not forced upon you. Which works well with my preferred play style, which is essentially "singleplayer with the option to become multiplayer at any time."
There's this concept in MMOs of "pulling," which is the act of choosing an opponent from a field of many to engage in single combat. It's a miniature puzzle to figure out how to attract the right combatants without adding others. You can pull aggressively, but given that the penalty (death) is high, your success is generally tied to your ability to balance risk. That's right, MMOs are essentially risk management simulators. Well, Tabula Rasa makes managing risk very difficult, because there generally aren't fields of baddies milling about. It's quite common for a drop ship to plop down enemy reinforcements in the middle of your carefully planned assault. Pretty soon you realize it's better to throw caution to the wind, spin up your chaingun, and have fun. Embrace unpredictability. The game actually rewards recklessness, giving you an experience bonus if you keep up a steady combo of kills.
As I read what I've written, this article could also easily be titled "Everything I hate about MMOs and why Tabula Rasa is different." It's because of this that I'm so forgiving of Tabula Rasa's flaws. It replaces the typical fantasy fare with a sci-fi setting, which is refreshing, but the details of this world are forgettable and generic. Everything from the character design to the architecture to the landscape you've seen done better elsewhere. And it doesn't do a good job of easing you into the world. There's a decent intro tutorial, but after that you have to figure out everything for yourself. In particular the crafting system is a completely mystery until you do some online research, and then you realize that it has potential but is severely crippled by insufficient UI. Outside of the core combat, a lot of things about Tabula Rasa are rough around the edges.
For me, two main things are critical for a game to be enjoyable: gameplay (basic mechanics and incentive) and setting (into which I'm lumping story, characters, and environment). Good games create a synergy between those, which is essentially the connection between intellect and emotion. Tabula Rasa is thoroughly mediocre when it comes to setting, which I suspect will limit its long-term appeal. But it totally reinvigorates the genre's archaic gameplay. Which is a very exciting thing, because gameplay, unlike setting, is transferable. If the MMO developers out there start taking notes from Tabula Rasa we'll have a much brighter online gaming future ahead of us.
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