Getting started in Tabula Rasa

While i played the game, all I could say was:

Quests, quests and more quests... I feel like crying.

And that grieved so much the fanboys, so I spammed it... A LOT.

Igh igh igh.

But seriously, TR is really boring and a wow-clone.
Sure mmo's can still provide quests and tasks... if they don't wanna find a REALLY new way for chars to develop their chars... in innovative unimaginable revolutionary ways *deep sigh*

but AT LEAST pleaaaase nomore collecting glands and spleens and bones and boners, and testicles, and brains, and feet, and rats, and anything else anatomical... and even not collecting-wise, i don't want to do a double-click quest, of placing bombs, and deliver packages, and similar crap.

For goodness sake give us players interaction !!!

This is the world of MMOs, if you don't like fedex quests or collecting quests you may need to find another genre because its not going away and I don't expect it to anytime soon =(.

Aw dear.
May I at least cry on your shoulder ?

And, well, i have to disagree with you tho you sound friendly and sympathizing.

Just because one way to intend mmo (the EQ and WoW way)has become so much popular and so much a standard it doesn't mean that it's become the very genre :)

The only rule for MMO's, it's just what's explained in these 3 letters.... that it's infact massively online :)

Everything else is at the designers' discretion!

I am so much experiencede in game designing, I could come up with 10 ideas for mmo's in 1 hour. For the sake of mmo gaming, Richard Garriott, my liege, if you're reading this, HIRE ME, and lemme help save your S.H.

Armchair MMOG game designers are like a dime a dozen, visit any mmog message board and they're littered with people with their "ideas" on how to improve the game(s). The reason it doesn't happen isn't due to lack of ideas or innovation, its really a financial issue, and game designers aren't comfortable with spending development cycles developing new ideas. Aside from maybe Second Life and some other social mmogs there isn't one mmog out there that doesn't have "collect 10 rat livers and bring them to me" quests.

New designs require more cycles, more manpower, more revenue, etc. An up and coming mmog designer is not going to spend days or months developing a new questing system, it needs to be tested and tweaked and could require a substantial amount of work. And if it doesn't work that is money flushed away, developers are operating with a tight budget and they cannot take those chances. They put their money into maybe graphics, which look real nice in their marketing promo ads. Their goal is to get you to the game.

I had to laugh when I read the "wow-clone" line. If you seriously think that TR is anything like WoW folks are MUCH happier to not have you in game with them.

I went ahead and got Tabula Rasa because it was $9.95 at Amazon. Here is what I think so far after getting two characters to level 15.

For one, it's not an MMO. At least not as we usually think of what an MMO is. Yes the game is presented in a "massive" world with lots of players on one server, but the game is pretty much a third person shooter/action game. Not that there's anything wrong with third person action games. But it's being presented as an "MMO" and this is simply wrong. It's no more an MMO than Planetside is an MMO.

Secondly, it's a lot of fun but not "I'll play for two years" kind of fun. It's a good game to hold me over for the 2 months until Conan comes out but won't entertain much past that time frame I'm sure.

Third, it's certainly not a $14.95 a month game. At most I would pay maybe $5-$10 a month for it.

Things I like: The sci-fi setting is a very nice change of pace. Graphics are very cool in some places (very boring in others). It runs very well with no lag at all. It's fun as hell to blast a group of aliens with a shotgun.

Sterling191:
And i'm most sad at not being there and grieve you guys to death.

TR has npc's with their cute "hey i got a damn quest!" mark above their heads (oooh a fricking radio! now that's innovative), and their accept/decline button, and the quest description window, and the rewards below.

That's enuff for me to say it's a wow-clone even if it's not really enuff to say it :)
But isn't it? Quests are such an important part of a mmo, you do 'em bastards for 90% of your /played time. So naturally playing such a chief role in the gameplay gives you the right to make a big deal out of it. Hence this system being so much similar to WoW, well i think calling a game that re-uses this system a clone isn't such a crime.

Sure it's important to say that I saw this quest system first in DAOC (EQ I never tried, im a UO guy FTW), but who cares, WoW established it as a standard cliché of the genre, plus daoc wasn't based on quests, it was based on simply grinding thru the mob, wow established it as the MAIN way to level.
So HAH I happen to have the right to blame this (now) boring old system, and thanks for your concern :)

Gylfi, according to your logic we should call an 18-inch battleship gun a clone of a musket because they both fire solid projectiles.

And the fact that you think TR is based around questing makes me doubt even more that you spent any significant time playing it. CPs are possibly the most fun ive ever had in an MMO, having hundreds, yes hundreds of enemies trying to take a position that you and maybe a handful of other players are holding is absolutely awesome.

Tell me again how its a WoW clone because it happens to have missions?

pufonthis>
I really don't get this. Where in the acronym MMO is explained what kind of combat is the game bound to employ and what camera visual and whether it's action/shooter/strategy ?

the acronym just reminds you that it has to be heavily online and that there has to be loads of players.

everything else is optional

Planetside is a MMO because it's entirely online and a lot of players play at the same time. That's enuff for the genre.

the other aspects of gameplay are to be specified after these generic 3 letters. How can people be so silly and ignorant as to imagine other requirements in a 3 digit label ?

because you level with them, not thru the sieges.
Look, maybe it's not really a wow-clone (though for me IT IS because personally i believe levelling is the most important thing you do in a mmo), but the gameplay element is still from WoW, among the other games, albeit the fact that wow didn't even invent it.

and i do NOT want to see that element anymore, after playing it for these 4 years in every single MMO i tried.

I HAD ENUFFFFF!