Starr Long, lead producer of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, has taken some time to address some of the issues - most notably the state of the Austin dev team and the game's financial impact - currently revolving around the game. Check out snippets from Long's Dev Corner post in the full article.

In an interview conducted by website Ten Ton Hammer, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa Producer Starr Long discussed the MMORPG's Personal Armor Units (PAU), Command Opportunities, and Flashpoints.

Each of these features look like they will change the way the game is currently being played. Check out the full article for more information by clicking the "read more" link below.

For as long as there are rules to follow, there will always be someone who will try to go around them, or even break them. In that respect the game world isn't that much different from the real world. In a recent article, CNN takes a closer look at cheating in MMORPGs via the new book "Exploiting Online Games" by Gary McGraw and Greg Hoglund.

They observe that some online game companies seem to have accepted that cheating is an inevitable part gaming so instead of tightening security they just observe game play and look for anything suspicious. Some companies really crack down on cheating though.

Nexon America Inc., for instance, apply patches to remove every method of cheating they discover in their games. Others just actively boot cheaters from the game. The problem with this though is that most of the time they can just return with another identity.

One idea from Intel sounds promising. To prevent cheat commands coming in from a player's computer to the game's server, a chip will be embedded unto the PC itself. The chip will monitor if the PC sends commands that don't coincide with the rules of the game, like if a single mouse click sends a "fire 100 shots" command.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa on the other hand, says they've done all they can do to prevent cheating in the game. Starr Long, producer of Tabula Rasa, comments on cheating in MMORPGs:

In the old days we didn't really think through what would happen once we started letting people play together. Every single piece of content we put in the game, the first thing we say is 'Here's what we want this thing to do.' And the second thing we say is, 'OK, how are players going to try to exploit this?

Developers certainly don't benefit from cheating. What about the players? Hubert Thiebolt, who leads one of the largest teams in World of Warcraft says that cheating degrades the experience for everyone else. Perhaps measures for preventing cheating should start with the only ones who benefit from cheating.

The Austin Chronicle recently sat down with the people behind NCSoft's MMORPG title Tabula Rasa. Creator Richard Garriott and producer Starr Long took the time to extol the virtues of Tabula Rasa and other online games.

"My passion for online games comes from history," said Long. "The first games ever were dice games. They were social experiences. They were mechanics that gave us structure for social interaction. It was an aberration when they became about solo play. Cooperative play goes back to what makes games strong."

Garriott also echoed Long's statements, pointing out that the wave of online multiplayer games can be seen as a good thing for society in general.

"Solo-player games throughout the rest of history tend to provoke an anti-social behavior that drives people to hide in their rooms in the dark," Garriott said. "That can be seen as a negative social impact; MMOs are bringing people with like interests together. So all good MMOs are having a good social impact."

The full interview can be viewed via the Read link below. Tabula Rasa touches down in October. For more on the game's story and gameplay features, check out this previous QJ post.

Tabula Rasa is this MMORPG that combines action shooter game elements with RPGs, we know. It's got a living, breathing battlefield where NPCs never stop shooting at each other. There are several job classes your character can turn into, before learning a plethora of skills such as shooting lightning from your hand.

Giving everyone a taste of the game as a recruit before choosing a class, cloning, complicated quests; many believe that this is the next-gen online game. If, for whatever strange reason, you've been missing this giant NCSoft title, don't fret - here's producer Starr Long giving us a rundown on everything TR.

Forget it's a sci-fi action, MMORPG. Forget that that it's being completed by the masters behind Ultima Online. Forget that Richard Garriott himself blesses this game with his talents. NCSoft's Tabula Rasa is a living, breathing, dynamic battlefield and it slaps you, the player, in the midst of the heat of conflict.

 

You fight for the Allied Free Sentients, an alliance of humans and humanoids in the defense against the Bane lightning invasion, and for each territory you run through, ships drop in, unload their men, and open fire on enemy troops on the way out.

In an interview with NCSoft's Starr Long, GamesRadar was able to dive a little deeper into what gamers should expect of the warring gameplay. Long described that Tabula Rasa will take a slice out of some MMORPGs and them some, but create a different experience than what MMORPG gamers could expect from other MMOs. He explains:

One of those key elements is having a very dynamic battlefield. In most online games the computer controlled characters (NPCs) are just standing around waiting for you to kill them. They don't really do anything and they certainly don't interact with each other. In TR the NPCs are constantly doing things whether you are there or not. They patrol around, they interact with the world and of course they constantly fight each other (there's a war going on after all).

Long also said, "Control Points are another big differentiator for Tabula Rasa, and depending on who is controlling them - the good guys or bad guys - changes the state of variables throughout the game." What waypoint teleporters are usable by you, what respawn locations are available to you, and what missions are available all depend on the current state of the war.

It's up to the player to tip the balance of the war. The very presence of a player in one segment of a battlefield could mean disaster for the enemy. But that's not to say that the Bane aren't helpless. In fact, Long explains that at any given time, a player can accomplish a certain objective for one NPC at a certain base, only to find out the base is no longer theirs. Long expounds on the scenario, stating:

For example, say you got a cool mission at one of these control points and when you complete it you return to the base only to find that the Bane may have overrun that base. Now you have to get with some other players to take back control of that base in order to finish your mission.

Getting excited? So are we. As the game already entered a closed beta stage, we're hoping it doesn't take long for everyone else to join the battle.

Over at CVG, Starr Long of Destination Games had quite a lengthy interview about Tabula Rasa. And while pretty much everything they've discussed has probably already been covered before in our numerous TR updates, one of the more interesting points during the sit-down was when they were talking about how big the game was.

After all, the game allows you to explore different planets (Starr says we'll be starting out with two planets upon shipment of the game), so how expansive is the MMORPG, really?

Jason Starr answers CVG with the following:

We're shipping with two planets, and each of those planets has two main continents, with many instanced spaces on each of the continents. You'll have to play to find out the exact size of these planets. But the game is pretty large, and very in-depth, with a lot of beautiful crafting of the spaces by our world builders and artists. For example our Logos elements; some are easy to find and some are very well hidden and you will have to explore these places to find out. I don't event know where all of them are, which is good. I don't want to know. I want to play the game to find out.

So not only does it sound massive, but more importantly, Starr convincingly (for this writer at least) says how immersive it is - saying how the only way to really find out is to play the game.

For those who want to read the full transcript of the interview, you can click the Read link below.

Gaming news website GameSpot recently scored an interview with Richard Garriott and Starr Long. The whole interview touches on the backstory and the enemies in NCSoft's upcoming MMORPGS Tabula Rasa.

According to Long, the game's producer, players will only be limited to playing human characters at launch. As the game continues to expand, players may be given more choices on what races they choose to play as, and "there may be options in the future for you to play one of the aliens who are our allies in the Allied Free Sentients."

Another cool feature that Long revealed is that players can freely check out the other variations of a character's class tree without having to create another new character. "What makes Tabula Rasa truly unique, though, is that at any point, you can create a clone of your character so you can explore all the variations of our class tree without starting over each time."

Combat will also be very fast-paced. As game designer Garriott revealed, apart from the humans fighting the bane, the game's whole environment is also up to its knees in action. "Non-player characters are constantly fighting each other (Bane versus AFS, predators versus prey, and so on) instead of just standing around waiting for you to kill them."

Tabula Rasa has just entered closed beta testing, and the developers are now focusing on new maps and missions, finishing all the Tier 4 abilities and weapons, crafting, and clan versus clan warfare. After that, finalizing content will be the main focus in order to meet the game's late 2007 release schedule. For the full interview, click on the "read" link below.

Starr Long and Richard Garriott (Ultima Online, a.k.a. Lord British) shared the same concept and it's evident by the way things are going on at the Tabula Rasa headquarters. Judging from the developments, we're seeing a lot of concepts materialize in the beta stage. But since the game's continually morphing, we don't see the end of it until...who knows when? Suffice it to say that with Lord British taking control over the FPS-MMORPG hybrid Tabula Rasa, we're going to see lots of wonderful and fresh features by the time the game gets released.

Richard Garriott has been grilled a lot for certain points in the game that most concern the players: character cloning, teleportation, and Damage over Time versus FPS, among a few. Like his compatriot Starr Long, the idea is to encourage more players to get the real feel of FPS while still going through a storyline that tells the players if they complete certain missions, they will affect the big battles eventually.

Garriott and the rest of his team put themselves on the player's shoes and asked, "Is it really wise to choose a class when creating a character? Why can't we just travel in lightning speed when meeting our friends? Should other number-smart players win over tactically-smart ones?"

Consequently, we get dished out with the ability to clone our characters to give us advantage. Teleport stations let us complete our missions the fastest way we could. And the absence of Damage over Time feature lets us enjoy the fact that it's an MMORPG anyway, and not 100% FPS, so to speak. In short, it isn't just "he who does the most damage over time wins" concept anymore.

We realize that the reason why Garriott is saying that Tabula Rasa is going to be a really exciting, fast-paced game is that unlike other MMORPGs "players will live and play on worlds under constant pressure and change. Battles will be won and lost and with it, control of territory. Players will go on a personal series of missions through which they can actually solve epic storylines and participate in events that significantly change the game state." And as far as harvesting monsters and seeing them respawn goes, this is basically not the usual MMORPG for us.

There's more to learn about Tabula Rasa as the details on the beta stage unfold in the future. Keep reading here at QJ for more updates.

Pre-order: [Tabula Rasa]