Tabula Rasa Interview with Richard Garriott
Sia 'Garrett' Manzari, 2003-06-03

Richard Garriott aka Lord British is back in business for quite some time now, but hasn't said a lot about his new project Tabula Rasa yet. We had the chance to put a few questions about Tabula Rasa and other things...

RPGDot: Hello! First of all, I'm a little confused about the whole NCsoft and Lineage situation. Which part of Ncsoft is actually working on Tabula Rasa, and which part is developing Lineage II? Also, how did you, as Destination Games, ended up being a part of NCsoft? How did you find each other and how different is game development in Korea from how we know it?

Lord British: A bunch of us ex-Origin / Ultima folks formed briefly under the Destinations Games moniker. Soon after we became part of NCsoft and began the US offices of what is now the #1 world wide MMP company with about 4 million subs to Lineage (mostly in Asia). We met when Jake Song heard about our mass Origin exodus and he flew down to meet us in Austin. We merged into NC almost immediately, as we have a very common belief about the MMP future! Here in Austin we are developing TR (most team members are ex-Ultima/UO). L2 is being developed in Korea. However TR hopes to sell in Asia and L2 hopes to sell in the US, so we travel and visit each other a lot and even send team members across the ocean. Development issues are similar world-wide, but long distance communication is definitely a challenge.

RPGDot: The name "Tabula Rasa" refers to the originality of the game concept, to the fact that you're rethinking the whole mmorpg gameplay, I guess? Will Tabula Rasa truly be a second generation mmorpg? What will make it so different from the others?

Lord British: Right you are! TR is not a "virtual world" like UO or EQ. TR is a compact social hub of activity but game play focuses on instantiated adventures for a party of players. In those instances, scripted quests ala solo player Ultimas will be the norm.

RPGDot: Could you tell us a bit about the background setting of Tabula Rasa? We picked up something about it being Near-Future-Science-Fantasy game... What can we expect that to look like?

Lord British: LB: The look and feel of TR is something we have slaved the hardest over, to create a fresh new look, and is thus also one of the most closely guarded secrets! It is best described as a "Myst like" surreal new world.

RPGDot: Is the game first person or 3D-isometric?

Lord British: The game is full 3D, 1st or 3rd.

RPGDot: I understand there will be hubs for each player of party of players. Can you explain in detail?

Lord British: The MMP social Hubs are where all players meet and buy, sell, socialize, for parties, etc. Then all adventuring takes place in private spaces to the party, unless we the designers plan a meeting of multiple parties!

RPGDot: Will there be an evolving storyline in Tabula Rasa, or do you count on the players to create their own stories and events? What about your appearance in-game: a new Lord British or maybe Lord British himself?

Lord British: TR definitely has a deep back-story and compelling participatory story for the players. Honestly we are not yet sure the exact role (if any) of LB in TR

RPGDot: Are you concentrating on online games only anymore or may you do a single player game in the future?

Lord British: NC is focused on games that develop a direct relationship with the customer. So, traditional solo-players games are not likely, but we are far from limiting ourselves to just virtual world MMPs.

RPGDot: I heard that UO didn't work out very well in Korea, while Lineage didn't have much success in North America; still I personally always felt that both games were very much alike. Which important features that make these games so differently accepted did I miss out? How different is the player base in Korea from ours?

Lord British: Asian players do differ from US players in some important taste issues like PVP, which is very popular in Asia but no so much here. That being said, in design discussions we all seem to favor similar broad design issues. UO and EQ have both failed in Asia, just as L1 is small in the US, We think this is largely because, unlike in their native markets, they were not 1st to market. We believe new games stand a much better chance of crossing the ocean as they will be new state-of-the-art games when they cross over.