Tabula Rasa is Shutting down Feb '09: What this will mean for SGW

[Utopian Hok'taur]

For the full article of what is happening with Tabula Rasa, click here: http://kotaku.com/5095941/tabula-ras...it-by-lay-offs

Well, Tabula Rasa is shutting down February 28, 2009 while players, starting January 10, '09, can play for free in the last few months. Servers will be closed down March 1st and we congratulate the TR team for trying to make something different in the MMO community and market but sadly, they did not get the numbers they were hoping for to support the game.

Now, what does this mean to SGW?

Well, it frees up the Sci-Fi MMORPG market a bit more, even though Star Trek Online is planned to be released Fall of next year and the Star Wars: The Old Republic won't be coming out for a couple of years, there will be gamers that will keep watching those games. But for those who want a Sci-Fi MMO, Stargate Worlds will a big contender in that respect, especially since there is a large SG community to spread the news of such an MMO that is different from World of Warcraft, Everquest, Final Fantasy XI, etc, along with CME's marketing team.

Another thing this does is since there are no more players playing TR, it is essentially erased from memory except for the fact that people just disliked the system; little by little, the players will forget what exactly was the problem except that they remember not liking it and stop comparing SGW to TR (Not in the near future but later on down the line). Also, with the fall of TR, CME can see what TR did wrong, did right, and adjust the game accordingly since much of the game is completed and what can be changed is how the gameplay works.

What does everyone else think about TR going under and its effect on SGW?

(^'.'-)^ ^(-'.'^)

[Alexander007]

This means I still can't wait for sgw! Im gonna play sgw and it dosen't matter what anyone thinks about the game or says im gonna play and already know im going to like it. Because it's diffrent from alot of mmo's

[Capt. Crunch]

Star trek online? bye.

JK im staying right here

[varis2000]

If only SGW could be released by March 1st, or at least generate a good hype at that point, it could siphon in many ex-TR players. Saw that happen when I joined Eve, they closed down another space MMO and Eve's number of subscribers jumped by a few thousands in a short span of time.

[angelus]

As said before, I hope that SGW picks up what TR did wrong, right, so-so, etc, and just accordingly while bringing out a game that will be true to Stargate.

But at the same time, this goes to show that the economy is starting to affect MMOs as well. I would say that probably in the next year we will see other MMOs shut down due to lack of number and lay off teams.

[Aszrayel]

Well didn't see TR going down so fast. Saying that, on the positive side (thank god I didn't buy it), and it means we could have a big influx of members

[Utopian Hok'taur]

Many people thought that the gaming industry wouldn't be hit so hard in the current state of the economy but in this case you have various factors: gameplay, low player population feeding money back into the company, the economy, the fact that the game is sold on amazon for 99 cents.

Originally Posted by varis2000

If only SGW could be released by March 1st, or at least generate a good hype at that point, it could siphon in many ex-TR players. Saw that happen when I joined Eve, they closed down another space MMO and Eve's number of subscribers jumped by a few thousands in a short span of time.

Really? Interesting.... CME! Get on this!

[Chalky]

This shouldn't really shock anyone, TR dramatically failed to live up to it's projections, making back just 10% of it's development cost in the first year, projected to make only half that the following year.

[Fumbles]

Yeah no suprise for me to read, Although I thought they would try to keep it alive a bit longer then they will.

[Symbiote]

Originally Posted by varis2000

If only SGW could be released by March 1st, or at least generate a good hype at that point, it could siphon in many ex-TR players. Saw that happen when I joined Eve, they closed down another space MMO and Eve's number of subscribers jumped by a few thousands in a short span of time.

If it had "many" they wouldn't be shutting down.

[Aszrayel]

I wasn't surprised at all. It was my dry humor

[Nehu]

Dam n!. Very bad year for the game industry...
Maybe a good news for Stargate Worlds...
Maybe a bad news...


But over 2.5 millions of WoW Extension: Wrath of the Lich King have been sold in 24h...

[Guan Thwei]

Originally Posted by Utopian Hok'taur

For the full article of what is happening with Tabula Rasa, click here: http://kotaku.com/5095941/tabula-ras...it-by-lay-offs

Well, Tabula Rasa is shutting down February 28, 2009 while players, starting January 10, '09, can play for free in the last few months. Servers will be closed down March 1st and we congratulate the TR team for trying to make something different in the MMO community and market but sadly, they did not get the numbers they were hoping for to support the game.

Now, what does this mean to SGW?

Well, it frees up the Sci-Fi MMORPG market a bit more, even though Star Trek Online is planned to be released Fall of next year and the Star Wars: The Old Republic won't be coming out for a couple of years, there will be gamers that will keep watching those games. But for those who want a Sci-Fi MMO, Stargate Worlds will a big contender in that respect, especially since there is a large SG community to spread the news of such an MMO that is different from World of Warcraft, Everquest, Final Fantasy XI, etc, along with CME's marketing team.

Another thing this does is since there are no more players playing TR, it is essentially erased from memory except for the fact that people just disliked the system; little by little, the players will forget what exactly was the problem except that they remember not liking it and stop comparing SGW to TR (Not in the near future but later on down the line). Also, with the fall of TR, CME can see what TR did wrong, did right, and adjust the game accordingly since much of the game is completed and what can be changed is how the gameplay works.

What does everyone else think about TR going under and its effect on SGW?

(^'.'-)^ ^(-'.'^)

You forgot Earthrise.
That's coming out next year aswell.
It's a post apocalyptical Scifi MMO, skill based, top graphics.

SGW is more for the fans.
While earthrise is made for a, let me say, general scifi fanbase.

But I certainly hope that with tr's end, sgw will get more players =).

[dead_man316]

The thing you need to remember with SGW is you won't only get MMO fans, (which i am not mind you), but you will also get Stargate fans playing this. There isn't an official stargate game on the market, this is the first and there are plenty of stargate fans out there who will buy this game purely because it is stargate and not because it's an MMO. I personally dont like MMO's, but i dont care, it's stargate, i will buy it, and i will pay to play, and i will like it.

[Sapranos]

whats tabula rusa????????????????????????

[ColonelJax]

I've said it since probably February, TR was about the main competition that SGW would of faced. It's death was foreseen however, me having played it for some time, been in beta, and played a couple months after launch. That game was going down hill about a month after it's release, slowly but surly so it's not surprising. I am surprised at how quick it's being shut down since that announcements, even Ashren's Call had a good 2 years going after it was announced it would be shut down; that just goes to show how much money DG accumulated.

So without it's competition, I think as long as CME aims for doing right where TR went wrong, it should be a fairly good launch. Take the time, mind what mistakes TR did and try not to follow those problems; I'm sure this could be a great opportunity.

Originally Posted by Guan Thwei

You forgot Earthrise.
That's coming out next year aswell.
It's a post apocalyptical Scifi MMO, skill based, top graphics.

There's still not enough info on Earthrise to actually be concerned about. I mean it sounds neat but sounds like a totally different mechanic based MMO. At this moment it sounds more like Anarchy Online, which is a sci-fi version of EQ. At the moment it's just way too much speculation for what Earthrise could be and not what it's going to be.

[Sapranos]

it would be a better launch if the economy wasnt in the crap hole, but hopfully obama would fix the world's problems by then

[ColonelJax]

That had little to do with TR's downfall really. It was just retrogressing with every update that came out following launch. Personally I found Richard Garrot more so hooked on the idea of using the player community's money to launch him into space, because it was a child-hood dream, than rather trying to keep a good product from going South. Making that silly contest of his just a cheap gimmic to make people think he cared when really, he just wanted to excuse to go out and do something. Guess you could say I felt abandoned, the Captain bailed on the ship just as it set off to sea rather than going down with it days later

[Sapranos]

nice, lol

[Shepard]

This means I still can't wait for sgw! Im gonna play sgw and it dosen't matter what anyone thinks about the game or says im gonna play and already know im going to like it. Because it's diffrent from alot of mmo's

ypu me too!
I've never played it but dont care!

[Rodney_McKay]

I just hope that they keep NBC's grubby little paws out of SGW. I just can't believe they have cancelled SG1 and Atlantis on SciFi channel (probably to add more wrestling and reality crap shows) I notice they are cancelling My Own Worst Enemy on NBC too. Those people are insane. Anyway MGM KEEP NBC FAR FAR AWAY....send them over to SWG!!!

[Blinvan Camlost]

Originally Posted by Utopian Hok'taur

For the full article of what is happening with Tabula Rasa, click here: http://kotaku.com/5095941/tabula-ras...it-by-lay-offs

Well, Tabula Rasa is shutting down February 28, 2009 while players, starting January 10, '09, can play for free in the last few months. Servers will be closed down March 1st and we congratulate the TR team for trying to make something different in the MMO community and market but sadly, they did not get the numbers they were hoping for to support the game.

Now, what does this mean to SGW?

Well, it frees up the Sci-Fi MMORPG market a bit more, even though Star Trek Online is planned to be released Fall of next year and the Star Wars: The Old Republic won't be coming out for a couple of years, there will be gamers that will keep watching those games. But for those who want a Sci-Fi MMO, Stargate Worlds will a big contender in that respect, especially since there is a large SG community to spread the news of such an MMO that is different from World of Warcraft, Everquest, Final Fantasy XI, etc, along with CME's marketing team.

Another thing this does is since there are no more players playing TR, it is essentially erased from memory except for the fact that people just disliked the system; little by little, the players will forget what exactly was the problem except that they remember not liking it and stop comparing SGW to TR (Not in the near future but later on down the line). Also, with the fall of TR, CME can see what TR did wrong, did right, and adjust the game accordingly since much of the game is completed and what can be changed is how the gameplay works.

What does everyone else think about TR going under and its effect on SGW?

(^'.'-)^ ^(-'.'^)

We have had so many threads about other MMO's influencing SGW. I think we shouldn't really look at other MMO's, but look at SGW as something new.
Sure we can learn from other MMO's, but than again, CME isn't trying to copy existing games, but to create a new one. SGW already has a solid fan base. The rise & downfall of any MMO won't change this. The mini games ensure that SGW will get additional casual players to play the game and MMO players will surely join is as well. Sure, if TR goes down, it will mean more players for SGW and if some new MMO takes away these players, CME might lose some money, but the game itself has enough players that will stay.
If you want to play an MMO, there's a lot to choose from, but there's only one STARGATE game out there. (Actually SOE made Stargate TCG Online, but that hardly counts as an MMO)

[varis2000]

Originally Posted by Sapranos

it would be a better launch if the economy wasnt in the crap hole, but hopfully obama would fix the world's problems by then

It's true that economic conditions at the time are very hard for companies. Consumers are cutting down spending but it's also very bad for new game companies that it's hard to get funding, thus it's not easy to get past the early stages - development and for MMOs, maybe the first 1-2 years - when the revenue stream and customer base isn't there yet.

Outstanding games will always have plenty of customers... provided the gaming community catches on. There have been games that were absolutely fabulous, like World in Conflict (RTS/RTT) which I think is the best game that has come out for PC ever, but still didn't attract a large following. Then there are games like WoW, not to mention the various "deer hunter" games which are hardly the top of the stack as innovation, design, quality, features etc. go but still attract a huge following. But the bottom line is the gaming industry is a winner-takes-all market, if you can do things right you'll be hugely succesful, while 90% of games just fall flat on their face, because they're crap, or because the gamers aren't really interested.

It's always a huge challenge to break even, and everyone involved takes a big risk. So best of luck to CME

[buckmana]

This came as quite a shock to me, as the game seemed to be doing so well.

We had a ######## dedicated group of loyalists and every week new people showed up.

This is a truly great mmo and the greatest sci-fi one currently available.

They were coming out with lots of new content, new maps, battle robots, new weapons, armor sets.

So what went wrong?


The general consensus among the Tabula Rasa players is that the other games made by the company should be shut down and Tabula Rasa kept alive.

In fact, in some cases, the player backlash is so vehement they'll refuse to play the company's other games, even though, as a sop, we're being given free time in the others.


I'm worried about what this may mean for sci-fi mmos in general. In a world full of lame sword and sorcery mmos, surely we can be allowed to have at least a few sci-fi ones.

We should have killed WOW as soon as it was conceived, how is a game like that, with no soul, doing so well when a well concieved game like Tabula Rasa, with a great and committed community of both players, senior gms and devs is dying?

[jefus]

Originally Posted by buckmana

We should have killed WOW as soon as it was conceived, how is a game like that, with no soul, doing so well when a well concieved game like Tabula Rasa, with a great and committed community of both players, senior gms and devs is dying?

Wow is doing a lot of the business things right, people try and make an MMO that is nothing like WOW and the result is a failed model for business. WOW has nothing that remotely comes close to taking anything like it in pay back for investors and most companies don't get that it got that way because at its most buggy what else would you play?

Just hope that development teams are looking at what games like WOW and TR are doing right because too many new mmos are looking at what they did wrong.