Game Daily: The Definitive voice of games

Richard Garriott presented us with an in-depth look at Tabula Rasa, the upcoming massively multiplayer online game (MMO) looking to completely redefine the creation of MMO's. Tabula Rasa will offer fast-paced tactical action while diverging from the traditional "whack-a-mole" style that current games employ, where players pretty much lock onto targets and deal as much damage over time as possible. Designed to look much like a third-person shooter, TR allows players to explore a world with a targeting reticule affixed to the center of the screen. However, the game won't play exactly shooter (it will remain an RPG at heart), since the reticule will drift and lock on to the last targeted foe for a short duration. Taking cover behind sand bags or rocks will increase a player's defense, and crouching will increase accuracy, but those options will also open up specific vulnerabilities. For example, players have reduced mobility when crouched, so foes can quickly run up and rifle butt them.

Tabula Rasa also seeks to bring more of the single player RPG experience to the MMO world. Missions will encourage making some kind of moral choice, and there will often be conflicting mission objectives from different NPCs. The choices players make during their career influence the outcome of the larger story later on. All missions will also include side quests, like freeing prisoners or destroying enemy communications equipment, which will determine the ease or difficulty of the mission.

If all that wasn't enough, TR will also be the first game to feature a character save system. Instead of relying on different classes, the game will employ a career tree. Players will be able to clone their characters (and even modify them) at different stages of the career path and reload them to explore a different aspect of the tree. Each clone acts like an alternate character slot, and the group makes up a whole family of characters (they all share the same last names). With a shared inventory stash, it becomes possible for players to use a family of characters to explore all aspects of game content. Lastly, there is the Logos language system, which works using symbols, making it easier for players in different countries to engage with. As players learn and collect more Logos characters, the system will automatically apply them and automatically translate any Logos messages using help windows.

There was plenty more to the presentation, but in that short time, it became clear the Tabula Rasa would be opening up entirely new doors for MMO development.

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