Tabula Rasa free for all until death

By Robert Purchese Published 23 December, 2008

First of "really fun" ideas goes live.

NCsoft has decided to make doomed MMO Tabula Rasa free-to-play right now, up until servers shut down on 28th February 2009.

Newcomers who fancy a Christmas jaunt can request a serial code from the support site to create an account with, then download the client from Tabula Rasa FTP.

You'll be asked for a credit card number, but there are no charges as this is an identification process. Former players can also reactivate at the click of a button.

Characters will disappear in February, obviously, but the first batch of "really fun" content for the closure period - "Earth, PvP Wargames, Epic Caves of Donn and more" - has already gone live.

Tabula Rasa, the brainchild of spaceman and Ultima creator Richard Garriott, launched just over a year ago, on 2nd November 2007.

The developer openly explained that the sci-fi MMO simply "hasn't performed as expected", and therefore "never achieved the player population we hoped for".

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (26) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • PearOfAnguish #1 3 years ago

    Maybe should have made the whole game 'really fun', hmm?

  • Eraysor #2 3 years ago

    How fucking random, I was thinking they should do this earlier this morning O.o

  • theodg #3 3 years ago

    "Epic Caves of Donn"?

    IN

  • dacicus #4 3 years ago

    Mybe they sould give the possibility of private servers for both Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa.

  • PearOfAnguish #5 3 years ago

    They need to start open sourcing these dead MMOs. They're lost forever otherwise.

  • Eraysor #6 3 years ago

    Can anyone actually find the free serial key link?

  • leftlion #7 3 years ago

    On their support boards it says that the game will be free to play after Jan 10th 2009

  • Eraysor #8 3 years ago

    Cheers Leftlion.

  • Gurrah #9 3 years ago

    They should really release some sort of single player patch, so you can play it even if the servers are shut down. It's an awesome single player game, but failed as an MMO.

  • Nithron #10 3 years ago

    Has to be said, even if the MMO left something to be desired, this is a pretty awesome gesture.

    Be even better if they released the server software, like someone else said... I mean, it's not like they'd be making any money by keeping it to themselves, is it? Guess there might be licensing problems or something, though.

  • Galathorn #11 3 years ago

    Is the gameplay similar to Planetside ?

    Ok, too bad, thank you for your answers.
    Edited by 1 at 24/12/08 @ 14:47

  • TriggerHippie #12 3 years ago

    No, Galathorn, unfortunately.

  • SuperBas #13 3 years ago

    No Galathorn, it's about shooting aliens, and bullets will always magically find their way to their target when the dice rolls are in your favor.

  • SniperZoz #14 3 years ago

    They should release the latest server build to the public!!

  • Kami #15 3 years ago

    Tabula Rasa is all about "potential", and has been since launch. There was potential in the clan wars, the instancing, the alien worlds, the questing, the hybrid system, crafting system, enhancement system... everything has had "potential". It works, I mean Tabula Rasa isn't any different to many other MMO's out there (but like the crusts, even though it's just as good no-one wants to eat it), but it could have been MORE.

    This could have been a great MMO, blaming it on the setting is just wrong. EVE has been going for bloody ages, and Neocron seems to do fine. They just couldn't get it past "okay" and into "great". Everything still retains "potential", and I hope the server source is shared so we can maybe carry on, or like some old games - maybe the fans will find a way to help it live on and fix what NCSoft clearly couldn't.

    Tabula Rasa isn't bad. But it's another MMO example of "Potential. Wasted." Just another game to add to the memorial stone, another potentially good game just left to rot.

    RIP Tabula Rasa. "Solar System, signing off..."

  • Kami #16 3 years ago

    If you're going to charge a monthly fee, there has to be a sense of direction, a purpose and ultimately new content, regularly.

    Sadly this is a reality many developers are failing to grasp. You can't sit back and wait for players to come in - you have to make them come in by making a game more desirable. Tabula Rasa and Hellgate London are the bigger names to fall. There are many smaller names falling as well. Some we already know are in trouble and may fall.

    WoW and Guild Wars work because they understand the markets being aimed at, and provide. People may think it weak to copy a model similar to these games, but when compared to how tits-up most MMO's have been going, I'd rather see people copy the model than try to reinvent it badly...

  • Spekingur #17 3 years ago

    What I don't understand is why NCSoft doesn't go the 'micro-transaction' way in these so-called Lost MMOs. That way the games could be free to play and they might even still make money from them. The monthly cost is what keeps most people from even trying out an MMO but as soon as they don't have to pay for it they'll at least try it out.
    At least this way NCSoft could try another way of MMOs that has been tried, tested and successful in Asia whilst in the "western world" micro-transactions are being viewed as something horrible (mostly because giants like EA and Sony are playing around with the idea for games you have already paid for).
    It might re-vitalise some of these Lost MMOs back to life.

  • Kami #18 3 years ago

    It is certainly a possibility, and I agree games like Tabula Rasa should not die completely. It's still a perfectly good MMO.

    The problem isn't the companies though, it's OUR attitudes to micro-transactions. Players attitudes. Blizzard have been getting enough crap in the neck over the paid services like name change and character recustomising and server transfer for ages, as many people still argue if we're already paying we shouldn't pay further.

    It's just a peculiar quirk. Logically, micro-transactions for games like Tabula Rasa makes sense. It's going to be applied to Hellgate London after all, but I'd wager the western unwillingness to adapt to this payment idea is why we're not going to be able to access it. But attitudes have to change on this front.

    That all said and now looking like an MMO cock, things are changing. But change takes time and money, and servers and manpower cost money - and when you're pretty much out of money, there's not a lot you can do...

  • smelly #19 3 years ago

    Tabula Rasa was DOOMED the minute they announced its name!

  • Kami #20 3 years ago

    Hi smelly, you one of those guys who screams out "WE'RE DOOMED!" to strangers in the street maybe?

    Tabula Rasa had a smoother release and has had a much smoother time than, let's use another MMO, Vanguard (which has probably lost more money but SoE aren't ever willing to ditch dead weight). Vanguard would have been doomed if not for two things - SoE's ridiculously large pockets and a price drop within days of hitting the market to shift copies. Tabula Rasa has had neither the funds thrown at it (I would assume the lack of new content is a result of the underfunding) and the price didn't drop quite as sharply either. Vanguard is better than the stinking cesspool of crap it was at launch but I'd need to be escorted around for 20 levels by a naked lady consistantly telling me how wet she was for me to go back to that game. I'd still happilly dip back into Tabula Rasa every week or two for an hour or so.

    I made the joke about Garriott staying in space - whilst these people dicked about paying customers just got fed up waiting for content. Maybe their heads should have beeen a little closer to earth, maybe then they'd have heard its customers crying about this great game being neglected...

  • Stickman #21 3 years ago

    Come play our shit game for a month, then stop!

    Er, no thanks.

  • Daikon #22 3 years ago

    Richard Garriot has enough cash to play space tourist but not enough to invest in an overhaul Tabula Rasa?
    Something is rotten in the state of Garriot...

  • Petrarch #23 3 years ago

    Garriott was gone before the shutdown was announced, but I suspect he saw it coming.

    The development costs of TR were huge and the released product hasn't even come close to recouping them. It was released too early and even 6 months later it was suffering from the same problems. A very common complaint was that high level and end game content was virtually non-existant, yet rather than fix this, they pushed a lot of stuff onto the back burner (like the PAUs which had been promised since beta) in favour of introducing a new PvP system - which went against their previous promise that PvE would be the priority.

    Simply put it was all about the potential, but it's turned out to be a case of too little, too late. I'm sorry to see it go (even met Garriott in-game once, albeit for about 2 minutes as part of a competition) but I can't help but think if they did 6 months ago what they're doing now then the game may have had a future. Unlike SOE however, NCsoft aren't afraid to can a game if it's not doing well.

  • mcmothercruncher #24 3 years ago

    I'm giving out free pokes in the eye from now until the end of January- see press for details.

  • Wildsleven #25 3 years ago

    its always sad to see mmorpg to go out of fuel...

  • actionfitz #26 3 years ago

    Is this good or bad news?

    You try to polish a turd and sell it to me and I say no...
    you then say 'oh alright you can have the turd for free'...
    am I supposed to get excited?
    O.o