When I look back at my year playing Tabula Rasa, the Richard Garriott/NCSoft sci-fi MMO, I get all introspective. First, I’m not a fanboy– meaning: if I think something sucks, I’ll at least watch to see if if it improves. Tabula Rasa did improve, but not for the mass market measure of success. (read: $)
I’ve played World of Warcraft over the years, only because a) it’s like McDonald’s at this point, and b) many friends bugged me enough to play. What kept me from playing WoW without peer pressure: I hate the Fantasy genre.
Oh sure, there are some sci-fi titles coming out/on the market, usually with the prefix of Star- and the suffixes of -Wars -Trek or -Gate, respectively. Yet those unto themselves are just more of the same, predictable mainstream content. Simply put, we’ll never escape from the major franchises or the historical staples that will continue to deplete our financial mana.
That’s how the game is played, though. The creation and/or licensing of intellectual property, the creators, and the programmers– they all cost money– and of course, the presence of game servers. For $15 a month, it’s not a bad deal, per se, unless the cost of a few months of MMO play equals the cost of a console game.
If it doesn’t work out, well, you’re screwed. Do we the players have a Bailout option? Or is there a model that can disrupt the MMO space? The latter of course, is the hardest question to answer.
I don’t expect answers from anyone in the gaming industry to answer my rhetorical questions, because the industry Works Like This and Shall Not Change. I am optimistic that Big Gaming will adjust as Little Gaming begins its ascent.
It’s unrealistic to expect any amount of begging and fanboy love will change the fact that Tabula Rasa isn’t going to work financially and is going away. While the game itself improved, the genre isn’t as mainstream as the fantasy genre (which fully reminds me of American overconsumption being the mainstream, but not necessarily the right thing), and not nearly a guaranteed profit center. Or, top of the head of Long Tail, where blockbuster successes are required.
It’s also unrealistic to think that NCSoft (or whoever owns the TR IP) would be so bold to release the server software/IP into the market. That’s not the way Big Gaming works. Although, what am amusing slap to Blizzard, perhaps. I think of how the web software/open source/DIY types-that-aren’t-gamers would react to or handle this kind of situation.
Maybe we’ve been down this road before, maybe we haven’t. Maybe we need to look at the landscape again and see what might be missing for MMOs as a whole. We need to think constructively and destructively (eg., you have one year to exist before your industry is open sourced for good). Look at what is peripherally changing around us, while we’re glued to our grind. Some sort of change is afoot, it’s just not clearly visible yet.
Nothing is technically impossible, although politically, it most certainly is.
Until Feb 2009, you can find me in Tabula Rasa on the Orion server. Name: Spin Martin, Exobiologist