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Richard Garriot recently sat down with CVG to talk about Tabula Rasa, due for release in less than a month. Garriot, executive producer and creator of the game, talks about the its development and how its game design and revolutionary concepts will affect future MMORPGs.
Garriot explains that Tabula Rasa was originally set to be more of a blend between fantasy and sci-fi, taking inspiration from both Eastern and Western cultures, partly to attract both markets. However, the developers opted to just go with their own style, and with that decision they also abandoned the fantasy theme.
This is not to say that the fantasy theme is completely out of the picture, as the whole feel of the game didn't completely extract the essence of a fantasy feel. While the principles of the story and gameplay are essentially the same, the real difference surrounds the shift to a different context.
Garriot was also asked how Tabula Rasa can compete with the ever popular World of Warcraft. He answered that WoW is "the pinnacle of the design principles of the past" while Tabula Rasa will be the herald of new trends for future MMOs much like how Ultima affected the industry when it was first released.
On that note, Garriot was also asked whether he will be returning to the Ultima series. While he says it's unlikely, seeing as the intellectual property belongs to Electronic Arts, he doesn't count out the possibility that he can make a pseudo-Ultima game as a "hypothetical future."
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