A new week, a new screenshot for NCSoft's Tabula Rasa. Last week, we hooked you up with the screenshot of the Bane Interior Hallway wherein we saw the AFS soldiers fighting their way into the Interior Hallway. Of course, the Bane soldiers wouldn't let that happen. But enough of the trip down memory lane and on with this week's screenshot.

The battle between the AFS and Bane soldiers continue today as this week's screenshot, called Take Cover, will let us in on a small group of AFS soldiers trying to battle for control. Those guys are crouching behind Bane control panels (how ironic), and if you click on the image, you'll be treated with a better view of several armor and weapon types. You could also check out more Bane architecture.

The picture speaks a thousand words indeed and we could only hope that we have more to share with you come next week. Keep checking us for updates about Tabula Rasa!

 

We first reported about Richard Garriott and Stephen Hawking's "vomit comet" trip during the earlier parts of April. We also reported about what happened during this trip, but now, we have some photos to share with you, be sure to click on the thumbnails to have a better view of the pics.

Garriott joined Hawking, his entourage of assistants, and 25 other passengers on the converted Boeing 727 as it ascended 25,000 feet from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was Garriott's fourth trip to the edge of space but he clearly can't hide his excitement in his blog post (which you can check out in our read link below). As for Prof. Hawking, this trip is indeed another feather in his cap.

A month back, we mentioned that you guys could submit your interview questions for Tabula Rasa's community manager CuppaJo, herself. The interview is with POJ Radio's DJFanny and at that time, the show date and air time for the CuppaJo interview hasn't been revealed. Now, we might have updates connected to this.

Over at the TR Stratics boards, DJFanny mentioned that he'll be interviewing the good community manager next month (that's May, guys). Again, he is asking for your questions about Tabula Rasa which is set to make its presence felt on September.

We don't know if this is the same interview sessions we talked about last March or if it's an entirely different thing. But whatever the case may be, your questions should be submitted to pojfanny@gmail.com. TR Stratics and POJRadio are working together for this event.

So go ahead, click on the read link and ask away. Or you could leave out your questions in the comments section below.

A few weeks back, we reported that Richard Garriott's compound was burgled by some teenagers. The teens apparently stole bottles of alcohol which amounts to US$ 5,000 and they also left behind a digital camera which contains pictures of their escapade. Well, fun came at a steep price for this folks.

The Statesman reports that the nine teens who left their pics are now identified by the Travis County Sheriff's officers and that arrest warrants are now out. The department issued arrest warrants on charges of criminal trespass for:

• Amy Adams, 19;
• Christopher Erich Ambrosius, 20;
• Jamie Marie Anderson, 18;
• Jeffery Steven Figge, 22;
• Ryan Keith Hess, 20; and
• Abraham Cazares, 21.

Two more teens - Travis Lynn Foxell, 20; Steven Andrew Silva, 20; and Scott Berner, 21; were charged with burglary of a building.

Some of them are attending or attended high school at Stony Point High School in Round Rock according to detective Don Rios. Apparently, the circle of friends called Lord British's property "Midgetville" - because of several small buildings on it. A lot of those minute buildings resemble playhouses - including a fake jail and treehouses with rope bridges.

One of the brains behind Tabula Rasa, Richard Garriott, and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking are teaming up! Unfortunately, they're not gonna put their heads together to concoct a kickass MMORPG, these two guys are going to be travel buddies. Where would they go, you may ask. Well, they're off on the "vomit comet" - a zero-gravity flight that goes up roughly 24, 000 feet and induces weightlessness and queasiness.

The duo would be travelling on April 16.

Said Hawking when asked about this unusual trip, he wanted to show "that people need not be limited by physical handicaps, as long as they are not disabled in spirit". Lord British is of course not a newbie in this field - he is a space enthusiast and has gone on three zero-gravity flights before. In fact, Richard Garriott is an investor in Zero Gravity Corporation, a company who sells the flights on a modified and amped Boeing 727.

According to Mike Crouch, a NCSoft spokesman, Mr. Garriott is "very excited about it...He's read all of his books, watched as many programs on Professor Hawking as possible".

Well, hopefully after this trip, he'll give us more updates on Tabula Rasa.

It seems like every day, the brothers Garriott have something new to say about their prized MMO, Tabula Rasa. Recently, they were interviewed by The Mercury News' Dean Takashi and the Garriotts talked about Tabula Rasa, MMOs, and how Tabula Rasa could just be the World of Warcraft-slayer.

Well, they divulged that it's been five-six years since they started developing Tabula Rasa. When asked where they are in terms of developing the MMO, Richard said:

We’re very close to the end now. We opened it up to public beta testers just before Christmas. We’ve been letting hundreds more in every few weeks. Next build is due in a week and a half (interview was done Feb. 8). We’ll start inviting thousands at a time. Within a couple of months, we’ll be in the closed beta phase with numerous thousands. Then after that we’ll drop the NDAs and have tens of thousands and then release. We aren’t public with an exact date yet but it’s measured in months.

When asked how different they're MMO is from all the others out there, Richard said that:

Tabula Rasa is a real-time tactics game. For example, if you and I were fighting, the game is full of sand bags. If you and I were fighting, we would do equal damage to each other. If I were to step behind a sand bag, I would take a lot less damage. If I squat down, I can get an easier bead and I am taking considerably less damage. The monsters know that too. If you’re in a tactically superior position, they will come around and kick you to the ground because they know while you are squatting you are a much more vulnerable hand to hand target. It’s all still done with die rolls like an RPG. It’s still my equipment and my character’s attributes that affect the calculation on damage. So instead of looking at my user interface, I have to watch the behavior of the creatures.

Ok, we dig that, stop enticing us! When is the game coming out, Lord British?!?

We’ll ship the game when it’s done without regard to the coming and going of consoles and Vista. We won’t hold the game for a particular window...

Now it's the older Garriott's turn to speak up. When asked if he thinks that the eight-million strong WoW population would play the game, Robert said:

I think the market is far from saturated. The best example is Korea. There, we have five million people who regularly play Lineage I. We have about 5 million people who regularly play Lineage II. With Lineage I, about three years ago, and we launched Lineage II, people said it was saturated.

Of course, a little optimism could never hurt. To check out the word-per-word account of the interview, click on our read link below.

This Tabula Rasa update doesn't involve the lovable CuppaJo or the master rhyming/rapping skills of Richard Garriott - but it involves NCSoft's financial status. The online game developer suffered an almost 6% drop in shares after reporting recently about their fourth-quarter earnings that missed some analyst forecasts.

The company's consolidated net profit fell 6% to 18.7 billion won compared to the previous year. Operating profits also slumped by 24% to 15.4 billion won. Analysts estimates were 19.4 billion won for the consolidated operating profit. ST Hwang, a Hyundai Securities analyst said that the reason why this so is because of the lower-than expected revenue from Guild Wars in Europe and Lineage 2 in Japan.

The online gaming company also said that their expected 2007 consolidated operating profit is between 42 to 49 billion won - an amount still below analysts' estimates.

With that said, NCsoft's earning this year will depend on the success of the launch of their two new games, Tabula Rasa and Aion: Tower of Eternity.

MTV Overdrive recently paid a visit to what is arguably the Mecca of gaming development. Where else but in Austin! Anyhow, one of the show's segment, My Gaming Block, featured various game developers in the Austin Area such as Midway and NCsoft. It looks like Sway Calloway is having a grand time talking with the devs and lending his voice to an in-game monster or something.

But unlike our previous report, this time we'll dwelve with the specifics and focus on the interview with Richard Garriott a.k.a Lord British, Father of Ultima, and Executive Producer for Tabula Rasa. When asked why he think Austin is perfect for the gaming industry, he mentions that Austin is this "high-tech, art town and computer games is the best high tech, art you can do...and that just matches the personality of Austin really well".

He even divulged that he went to Austin to study and he became a statistic in the classic story of high tech business, in other words he dropped out of school to play and make games. He also compared the early days of the computer business to the Wild West in the sense that "people worked very hard but stayed up all night partying."

And yes, he admits to Sway that in the NCsoft office, they make up some rap tunes. Just what are they rapping, well here's a crude snippet of the lyrics of Lord British's rap song:

I'm a programmer
Code so well I can't bear it
I instantiate, destruct
and virtually inherit

Listen to this guy, he is an ace in our books. You could watch the My Gaming Block video by clicking on the link below.