Speaking to developmag.com, Richard Garriott revealed that his keynote speech at the Brighton Develop Conference will be entitled "The Rapidly Maturing Genre of Online Gaming." Garriott said that in this speech, he will outline what he sees to be the future of MMORPGs, and what possibilities are there for game developers and gamers alike.

While talk about NCsoft's Tabula Rasa is unavoidable, since that game is Garriott's next baby, we'll give you all the revealed Tabula Rasa contributions to the MMO genre later. For now here's how Garriott sees the MMO genre the way it is now:

The MMO world is both the same and different. It is the same, in that I believe MMO game design has not evolved nearly as fast as it should have in my mind. Nearly every MMO to date is still built in the mold of Ultima Online and EverQuest, which laid the design foundations ten years ago. People still level grind in the constantly replenishing static respawn zones, carefully managing their D.O.T (Damage over Time)

Garriott also says that "community" is what makes MMOs different from so many other types of games. He says that in order to support the "community", one has to not only support the clans, guilds, and other player groups within the game, there must also be dedicated employees ready to support and represent the player community as directly as possible.

As for MMOs in consoles, Garriott notes that that is an ever increasing possibility as large hard drive space and online support is becoming more common on consoles. He says that MMOs on game consoles is something that he "will be watching keenly."

As for Tabula Rasa's contributions to the MMO genre, more of that when you click on the "Full Article" link below.

Speaking to MMORPG.com, NCSoft's Richard Garriott revealed that Tabula Rasa is unlike other traditional RPGs. In TR, towns don't always stay the same. Garriott says that in traditional video games, players usually visit "level one towns, which send them on level one missions, to level one areas where they get level 1 gear." In NCSoft's game however, towns may change depending on enemy AI.

Here's an example: A player may return to town after his quest only to discover that the town has been taken over by the enemy, and the player will only be able to finish his quest by helping friendly NPCs and other players recapture the town. Nice, huh? A large number of players going off on quests may leave towns undefended and open to attack from enemies - a decent dynamic right there.

Other differences in TR include the different structure of instances and missions. For instances, Garriott said that they plan to use that as more of a storytelling tool. Players will supposedly be able to influence instances in a dramatic way (rescue NPCs, change the environment, etc). As for missions, Garriott says that it is possible for missions to have multiple exclusive outcomes.

When it comes to that common MMO issue where players have to play multiple classes to see most of the class-exclusive content, there's also a workaround for that in Tabula Rasa. As the character progresses, "clones" of the character can be made. This means that while the original heads off on one branch of the class tree, the clone can head in another. Clones are almost perfect copies of the characters as skills, quests done, and logos found are copied. We say "almost perfect" because things like equipment don't get copied.

As for the worlds in the game, Garriott says that so far they've got Foreas and Arieki. However, they do have a third world planned.

Ryan C already gave you a decent dose of NCSoft's Tabula Rasa in the form of videos the other day, but just in case you need more, here's another batch of 20 screenshots featuring classes, weaponry, stages, and gameplay.

The screens are pretty random but they do give a good preview of the various classes/armor available in the game, and it does give a good look at some of the mecha you'll run into. one notable screenshot in the batch below includes a shot of a human squaring off against an oversized mech with red eyes and a lot of mean looking weaponry.

Anyhow, the images are below, click on each thumbnail to magnify. Enjoy!

   

Get the rest of the screens after the Jump!

 

A recent update to the official site for NCSoft's Tabula Rasa informs that they have expanded their Logos translation contest and included those who reside in the EU region in the list of people who are eligible to participate.

Just so you know what we're talking about, the Logos is this iconographic, universally-understandable language used in Tabula Rasa, peppering the game world with a sense of history and background. Remember that weird language in Ultima? Logos is something like that.

If you're an EU resident and for some reason you decided to send an entry back when there was still a restriction, you shouldn't worry. NCSoft says they will now include your entry.

No one has gotten the translation finished yet, so if you're eager and you think you've got it, do send an entry in. As always, we'll do our best to keep you updated with as many translated symbols as possible, just to help you along. Stay tuned.

Ah, it seems that the official site for NCSoft's Tabula Rasa has a new feature in its Community News section. Entitled "Report From the Field", the new feature seems to be a serial highlight of an anonymous blogger's musings while playing the game.

It's written in a manner where you can't really tell if he's speaking as a player of the game or as the character he's playing within the game. It's quite effective really, and not only does it highlight NCSoft's emphasis of this game being immersive, it also provides a good read. Here, check out a snippet:

We made our way through the trenches picking off the Bane (as I learned they were called) and approached the base. All of a sudden I had incoming fire from an unknown source. I dove behind some sandbags trying to ascertain the source. I saw my crew under heavy fire and knew I needed to make something happen FAST.

Incoming fire made the sand dance around my ankles as I sprinted to the next stack of sand bags. I took one in the shoulder and leg but my armor held up. I switched over to my rifle and spied the source. Turret Gun!

I shouted to my crew to keep the soldiers off of me and emptied clip after clip into that steel bastid until it finally crumpled. My crew and I cleaned up the lingering trash and I approached the force barrier to the base. After we all tried our hand at shooting through it, I finally put a charge on the wall and blew it open.

The base was ours.

No indication yet if this new feature will continue the way their Screenshot of the Week did, but at least for those who aren't in the beta but are still yearning to get a taste of the game, it's a decent preview.

 

Okay, this may cause some alarmists to scream "Big Brother!" so before all the speculation, here are the known details - just so all you privacy advocates can relax a bit.

Google has filed a patent that reveals that they plan to compile psychological profiles of millions of gamers by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. Now you may think that this only concerns folks who play MMOs on their PCs, however, the patent apparently says that Google can also monitor people playing on any game console that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360.

What's even more hair-raising is that it says that information could be retrieved from previous game details saved on memory cards. To quote: "Such saved information may be thought of state information, and offers a valuable source of information to the advertisers." Yes, if you've played 350 hours of Oblivion, they'll know. Yep, the patent is that creepy; it even says:

In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying 'if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation', etc... If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee.

Now here's why we're asking all those privacy advocates to calm down and not cry foul. Google has said that they do not plan to roll out the technology in the near future. They say that it was just one of the patents that they wanted to file. The Guardian reports that a Google spokesman had this to say: "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."

So no, Big Brother, er, I mean, Google isn't watching you. Not yet. *insert cheesy B-movie sci-fi music* It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

The Tabula Rasa screenshot that NCSoft decided to feature this week gives us an idea of what to expect from Eloh Architecture. If you can bring yourself to ignore the the oddly posed AFS solder and her hairdryer-esque gun, you'll notice that pretty, pretty pretty column in the background. Notice the glowy blue lights? That's there to evoke "remnants of advanced civilization from eons ago."

 

If you're a bit confused an all, the Eloh are also known in-game as The Benefactors, and they're the guys responsible for giving us poor humans the tech to fight the evil darkness that threatens existence... or something like that. Anyhow, the Eloh are also responsible for all those weird Iconographic text that's scattered throughout the world. Some would think that, those would help add layers of depth and history, and an air of mystery to the setting, others choose to think that they're just plain leaving a mess.

Oh yeah, notice that the face in the far left looks like the supposed face on Mars? But that's just probably me, and I always thought that the face on mars looked like a mutated potato.

Okay, here's even more screens of the Arieki area. This week's featured Tabula Rasa screenshot show an AFS soldier surrounded by Arieki rain trees. The official site describes the soldier as "preparing for battle."

 

Perhaps what's noteworthy here - as that previous "swords and wormholes" screenshot showed - is that as much as NCSoft's upcoming MMORPG emphasizes it's integration of FPS features into the game, there's still some room for weapon's that are a bit more up-close-and-personal.

We find it highly unlikely though, that they'd include a "sword of a Thousand Truths" type weapon into this game.

For those of you who care about NCSoft's upcoming sci-fi FPS-esque MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, below is a set of recent Logos discoveries. These four logos were unearthed by the folks of AtomicGamer and Woot radio, and were made known to the world via the Stratics Message Boards

 

Given that one of the symbols, specifically the one for East, has a logical sense to it, it's pretty much a no-brainer to figure out what the Logos symbols for North, West, and South look like.

For those who are interested about this MMORPG by Richard Garriott, have no idea what Logos are, or how these symbols tie-in to the game, and are curious and eager to learn more - hey, it's a Garriott game: like Ultima it should come with its own language - feel free to click here for more info.

Information Week's Cary Doctorow muses in his lengthy article if it is indeed possible for a complete democracy to exist in MMOs. It's not just that namby-pamby "what the masses say goes in terms of game-rules" and what not, but a game where in-world property is really yours.

In his effort to highlight that difference - the difference between being a citizen in a world, and being a customer, Doctorow notes several in-world incidents in MMORPG worlds, and how people are treated as entities in the opposite end of a business deal instead of a citizen with rights and co-ownership of the a game world.

The Gay/Bi/Lesbian/Transgendered-friendly guild shut-down in World of Warcraft was noted, the "Dentara Rask pro-piracy anti-merchant EVE Online economy crash" was detailed, and most amusingly he notes that even Second Life isn't safe from this phenomenon. Yes, you can get rich in SL but, if you lose an argument with the company running Second Life, your Linden Dollars are gone. The only stable wealth in Second Life, is the wealth you take OUT of the game.

But would a democratic virtual world be the solution to the possibility of poor treatment from game owners? Doctorow thinks that while it can solve that problem he doesn't believe that it would be plausible. The reason? Running things yourselves, the responsibility, sort of takes out the FUN of it all, which is the point of getting into all these MMO worlds.

Personally, I'm thinking that maybe it's like communism: people have to go against human nature to make the utopian dream of a true democratic MMO work. But that's just me, and I'm just a nobody who's overdosed on caffeine.

Anyhow, Doctorow's piece, while lengthy is an awesome read, and if you feel like getting more detail about his musings, feel free to head to it via our "read" link below.