Fans of Richard Garriott’s MMO Tabula Rasa are massing in an attempt to gain the attention of publisher NCSoft. The fans want their game switched back on and they’re willing to do anything to get it (so long as ‘anything’ is signing an online petition).
Closing in on their first 1,000 signatures, the plan is to hit 10,000 and prove to the publisher that there’s a fan base calling for the game’s revival.
Launching towards the end of 2007, Tabula Rasa was online for just 14 months before NCSoft decided to pull the plug on the MMO in February 2009. Despite being developed by Richard ‘Lord British’ Garriott, creator of the Ultima series, it just didn’t attract enough players to make the game’s continued existence worthwhile for NCSoft.
The petition, started by Tabula fan Tilen Firmen, states that “if we collect 100,000 votes on this petition I’m sure NCsoft will at least listen to our plea and Richard Garriott Himself will seen that He has made masterpiece that He’s is still not able to understand. (sic)”.
Garriott’s return to the project is optimistic, he’s likely too busy working on his recently Kickstarted project Shroud of the Avatar, but it’s difficult to say what NCSoft’s reaction to 100,000 signatories would be.
(Also, the odds of 100,000 signatories is pretty low. 10,000 may well be possible, though.)
100,000 signatures doesn’t translate to 100,000 subscribers and it would take a good deal of support to justify resuming development of the game – it’s now years out of date and the costs of getting it up to scratch would outweigh the moderately small return of 100,000 subscribers. Though, surely the cost of running a set of servers and a six year old game must have decreased since they shut it down.
After all, if Jagex can run a 2007 version of Runescape it’s possible NCSoft could be convinced to do the same.
Let’s see what happens when the petition hits 10,000.
We’ve contacted NCSoft to see if it’s a possibility.