If there's one thing that I have started to loathe writing about since I got this job, it's mediocre games. And to me, there's almost nothing more depressing and mediocre than a cookie cutter massively multiplayer online role-playing game with no more aspirations than to prove that it can actually run online. Thankfully we have those that are looking to move past the beginnings of what I predict will eventually (as in years down the line) become the be all end all area of gaming, the massively multiplayer game. Richard Garriott, also known as Lord British, has been making games for a long time now, nearly since the beginning (his first game was released in the late 1970's) of its slow rise in popularity. He is primarily famous for a long series of work called Ultima. While the single player versions of the series went out with a bit of a splutter and choke thanks to Ultima IX getting pushed out of the door unfinished, Ultima Online started something that has continuously grown in reputation and popularity, the modern MMORPG. But after 20 years of making sword and sorcery games, Garriott and his talented group of developers including Starr Long and Carly Staehlin (who's really cute and has cool socks), decided it was time for a change of pace. It was time to go back to the drawing board, wipe that dirty piece of paper clean and begin anew, with lessons learned and a fresh perspective. This is where Tabula Rasa began.