DENVER, 1:49 AM, FRI MAY 16 | 62 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@kotaku.com | SUBMIT A TIP | RSS
AU
Posts Tagged “

richard garriott

tabula rasa

Tabula Rasa Offers Free Re-Enlistment Week

Tabula Rasa has only been up and running for six months, but they've already lost a sizeable enough chunk of folks that they'd do anything to win you back. Since release they've had 8 new content updates, introduced alien hybrids, and added respec tokens to the mix, and for the week beginning May 5th and ending May 12th players who've passed on the action can log into their accounts and see how the game has been shaping up, completely free. I played the game a bit during beta as well as a good month after launch, and it just couldn't hold my attentions, but I'll log in next week, just in case it was just a case of bad timing.

oddities

The Official Seiko Richard Garriott Space Watch

Ultima and Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott loves two things: Space and rattails. Man not only has his own sputnik, but his own rattails. This October, Garriott and his flowing locks will be blasting off to the International Space Station. He plans on making a spacewalk, which would make him the first civilian with rattails to do so. Historic! To commemorate the event, Seiko is creating a titanium spring-powered "Spring Drive Spacewalk" watch, which will be limited to 99 pieces only — at a price! But really, can you put a price tag on a Richard Garriott watch? Yes, yes you can.
Spring Drive [Seiko via Watch Report via BB Gadgets]

mmo

Further Tabula Rasa Reassurance

Update on that MMO Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa clusterfuck. The game bombed, and The Korea Times reported that heads rolled at the developer's Austin Studio. So now that the dust has settled, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa producer Starr Long now says:

We also launched in an insanely competitive time frame, with several well-known intellectual properties launching follow up products at the same time... We also launched in an insanely competitive time frame, with several well-known intellectual properties launching follow up products at the same time... This is standard in our industry - you ramp up to launch a game and then ramp down once it's live. This is what we are doing over the next several weeks, and it only affects the Tabula Rasa team. Once all is said and done, we will still have a substantial live team for industry standards... NCsoft has committed a lot of money and resources into continuing post-launch development of Tabula Rasa.

As long as Richard Garriot's rattails are safe, everything else is gravy.
Tabula Rasa Producer [Eurogamer]

rumor

Tabula Rasa Totally Tanked? NCSoft Austin Downsizing?

Apparently, MMORPG Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa bombed. And when games bomb, heads roll. If true, it's at NCSoft's Austin Studio! The Korea Times reports that the Austin subsidiary "has proven to be a financial disaster." Making Tabula Rasa was no cake walk, with rattailed Richard Garriott restarting the project several times, costing NCSoft added expenses. In a conference call, NCSofts chief financial officer Lee Jae-ho said:

Because of this disappointing result, some downsizing in Austin is inevitable. We are going to revamp our Austin development organization... I should admit that the actual result of Tabula Rasa has been disappointing... If you talk about our development cost we spent in the past several years, probably we are not making any money from this Tabula Rasa project. That should be the reality.
More »

clips

Tabula Rasa Adds Fuel-Efficient Hybrids

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has from the start been a story about humanity, but since before the game launched players have been clamoring to play something outside of generic human number five. The lack of character diversity is one of the main things I didn't like about the game, but that's all changed now. Patch 1.4 saw the introduction of human alien hybrids - human characters spliced with alien DNA to create something entirely new. Thrax, Brann, and Forean hybrids, each with unique stat bonuses, are unlocked via quests that start at level 15. In order to help facilitate the new options, new emphasis has been placed on player stats, clones can now reassign ability points, and an option to hide your helmet to show off your new blue head have all been implemented. Enough to draw me back into the game? Only free time will tell, my friends.

space commander british

Be Garriott's Backup Space Wingman

Richard Garriott is busy preparing for his journey to the International House of Pancakes Space Station, and Space Adventures wants you to join him - kind of. The company is now offering a chance to undergo training as a back-up crew member on Garriott's mission. The individual selected will undergo rigorous training at Space Adventures' facility, at the end of which they will be certified as a fully-trained cosmonaut. Now the press release doesn't say that you will actually be joining Richard on his mission, but you will be an 'active participant' as well as being featured in a documentary TV series about the endeavor. The price tag? $3,000,000. Don't worry though, the fee can be credited towards the price of a future space flight mission. Thank goodness. More »

sweet release

Tabula Rasa Is Live

Six years and one major revamp later, Richard Garriott's science fiction MMORPG Tabula Rasa is now live. Gamers across North America and Europe can now purchase the game and try to catch up with the preorder folks, who've been playing nonstop since October 30th. Damn head starts.
"Now the fun begins! I can't wait to join thousands of other players in this exciting galactic war," said Richard Garriott, the game's executive producer. "It is time for us to release Tabula Rasa to the players. I am eager to see player reaction to the game, and am ready to build on what we've started here. We've got plans for new features and expansions for the foreseeable future and I'm hoping the players will enjoy the game and get excited about what's in store for them next!"
NCsoft was kind enough to send me a retail copy of the game yesterday, and I have to say I am really enjoying reading the game manual in the bathroom. As soon as I have some time to actually play the game I'll let you know how that works out. More »

final frontier

Garriott Scarred For Life By Space Travel

In a recent theater review, we see that while attending a show in his swank Curtain Theater "royal box" seat, NCSoft's Richard Garriott (man in front of the flames) flashed... well, we'll tell the story directly:

when asked about his recent operation to remove a mole-like spot on his liver — the better to travel in space a year from now — he gamely raised his shirt to give everyone a gander.
Oh, and he told a story of how a truckload of Tabula Rasa copies was stolen, all of which will be trackable by serial number. But we're more interested in the PG strip show, honestly.

And much more about the Austin social scene
[statesman] [image]


clips

Zero Punctuation Takes On Tabula Rasa

Here's the latest rant from Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw on Richard Garriott, MMOs and, of course, Tabula Rasa itself. Enjoyable as always, we especially appreciate the shots at "Lord British" and Croshaw's softly crafted review feedback such as, "I'd never actually pay for this kind of crap, because even if i did somehow desperately need to lose money, I'd simply throw it off a bridge."

We hope you enjoyed that quote. Because he talks really, really fast and that one line took us like 5 minutes to transcribe. We guess it was sort of funnier with the little man and the yellow background and everything.

Zero Punctuation: Tabula Rasa [theescapist]


rule britainnia

Lord British Heading For Outer Space

While it's been talked about for quite some time, industry legend and slightly eccentric rich guy Richard "Lord British" Garriott is heading into space. Through space experiences company Space Adventures, Garriott is scheduled to take off on the world's first private spaceflight to the International Space Station in October of 2008.
"I am dedicating my spaceflight to science," said Mr. Garriott. "It is my goal to devote a significant amount of my time aboard the space station to science, engineering and educational projects. I understand the necessity for conducting research in extreme environments whether it is collecting microorganisms from deep sea hydrothermal vents to carrying out experiments in the continuous micro-gravity of Earth orbit."
Whatever dude, you're going into outer space! Rock! Garriott's father Owen is a former NASA astronaut himself, and is understandably proud of his offspring. "I am so pleased that he is able to embrace this himself and that he is dedicating his flight to research. I am very proud of him." More »

clips

Tabula Rasa Logos Academy Video

Last week I was given the chance to visit Richard Garriott's estate and tour his house as part of the Logos Academy event to promote Tabula Rasa, NCsoft's upcoming sci-fi MMO. While I covered the event as best I could, some parts of the evening just didn't translate well into pictures. Luckily for me, NCsoft was on hand with video cameras, and they cut together this little clip for your viewing enjoyment. If you pay close attention, you might catch a glimpse of my giant shaved head in several scenes.

feature

Enrolling At Logos Academy

As we sat in the foyer of the Austin Amerisuites awaiting the busses that would take us to Richard Garriott's home for the Tabula Rasa Logos Academy event, a scraggly looking man snuck up to the couch I sat upon and handed me what you see above. The scrawled notes were a key to unlocking the graphical code, and I quickly translated the notes. "Meet near entrance before 5:30, not after. You will journey in vehicle. You will eat. You will think. You will return after midnight." Not exactly a big secret, but other than that the assembled crowd from various segments of the gaming industry had no idea what to expect as we boarded the busses. What we got was a tour of Lord British's amazing home, food, drink, and a spectacle that had to be experienced to be believed. More »

zero g flight

Videos From Beyond Gravity

In my defense, I was on some very nice anti-motion sickness drugs and being crushed by tremendous g-forces, so me calling Crecente a fucker should be in no way take away from my deep love for the man. It's very hard to keep your camera steady once weightlessness kicks in, so mind the spinning. Perhaps I should have issued you guys those meds. Hit the jump for a peek at Super Garriott! More »

gallery

Zero G Souvenirs

Well my Zero G Flight experience is now over, and I am left with nothing but a tummy ache and a bag of swag to commemorate the event. While I am still busy putting the whole experience into words, I thought I would go ahead and give you guys an idea of what I walked away from the event with materially, so you can see how little material things matter when I recount the experience as a whole. Here you can see the commemorative photo of our flight, a Zero G t-shirt, the special socks they issued us, the one bag to hold it all, and last but not least, the flight suit. That little baby fit me like a glove, but only if the glove were on my crotch and three sizes too small. More on that later. For now, a gallery.

lord british

Garriott's New Playhouse

While the majority of last night's Tabula Rasa event took place at Britannia Manor MK II, the festivities came to an end at the site of Britainnia Manor MK III, Richard Garriott's new Texas castle, 10 years in the making. During a gap in the presentation, Garriott took some time to explain why his new house is going to be an 8 year-old's wet dream. First off is the tower, which is pictured here. Excuse the darkness of the shot, but it was taken at nearly 1AM by a large sweaty man wearing a hard hat. The five story tower will form the central point in the sprawling manor, and will consist of an observatory at the top, planetarium underneath it, and a giant room-sized elevator that travels the bottom three floors.
More »

street date

Tabula Rasa Dated

I just returned from Richard Garriott's Britainnia Manor, which tonight hosted the Tabula Rasa Logos Academy, a well-crafted event that I will go into at great length at a later date. What I can tell you right now is what was revealed at the end of the event. Tabula Rasa now has an official street date. October 19th is when the game service will officially go live, with preorder customers getting a 3-day head start beginning on October the 16th. A newly redesigned website should be going live within the next day, so keep an eye out on http://www.playtr.com/ for updates throughout the day.

tabula rasa

Heading Down Garriott's House

As you read this I am on my way to Richard "Lord British" Garriot's stately Britannia Manor to participate in a special event involving his new sci-fi MMO, Tabula Rasa. I really have no idea what to expect, other than the fact that the instructions suggest wearing shoes I don't mind getting dirty. The lazy part of me is slightly frightened about that prospect, while the dorky fanboy inside me is off in the corner doing things I'd rather not repeat in mixed company. Look for more on the mysterious event tomorrow, should I live to tell the tale. For more on Garriott's digs, check out N. Evan Van Zelfden's feature from back in June. It's LARParific!

clips

Tabula Rasa Closed Beta Walkthroughs


Mike Fahey will be heading out to Austin tomorrow to both cover the Austin Game Developers Conference and hit up the Tabula Rasa party first hand. Until then, let's sit and watch Lord B talk us through the nuance of his latest MMO. Two more after the jump.

More »