NCsoft brings us good news about the MMO game Tabula Rasa. Players who pre-order the game and take part in the beta program will become eligible to receive 10 free days of Tabula Rasa in addition to their first month of subscription. Like most free stuff, there's a catch - or in this case, mere requirements to qualify for the freebies:

• Take part (read: play!) in the Tabula Rasa Beta.
• Have a level 15 or higher character on the beta server by 11:59 PM (Central Time), October 12, 2007.
• Purchase the full retail version of Tabula Rasa.
• Pay for a minimum of one month of subscription or activate with a valid game time card by February 15, 2008 in order to be eligible for this offer.

Take note that the level 15 or higher Tabula Rasa character must be on the same account that the players are applying the pre-order and full retail serial codes for. For other details on this deal from NCsoft, better follow the Read link and read up on what else you'll need to get the 10 free days of Tabula Rasa. Richard Garriott's creation is slated for release October of this year.

Okay, remember that we reported to you folks about a week ago about this project to decode the language of the Eloh? Well, that, namby-pamby, artsy-fartsy, only-for "ghey RPers" info might come in handy right now. The folks from NCSoft have a fancy, and flavorful new Tabula Rasa contest for you folks. All you have to do is decode the message in the image below.

The prize you ask? Well, here's what the Official Rules and Regulations for the contest says:

An in-game Non-Player character will be named after the winner (retail value: $ 0.00 each). The NPC name will be the last name of the winner plus a rank designation. For example, if the winner’s real name was Bob Smith then the NPC named after him would be Commander Smith or Sgt. Smith. The Sponsor will pick the rank designation.

Well, it isn't really free play time, or a slot in some Beta Test, but still, it still counts as pretty decent bragging rights. Well? Start decoding folks! Our read link below should lead to a helpful listing of known Logos symbols.

If you happen to be part of the Beta test for Tabula Rasa, then the dev team wants to hear from you. CuppaJo has dropped by in Tabula Rasa-related forums, among them Planet TR, to pop an important question. The Beta for the game is about to wrap up, so the TR team is taking a survey: what was your favorite End of Beta (EoB) event (or something similarly large-scale) from other MMOs, and why?

Over at that forum, people started dropping their stories about EoBs from City of Heroes/Villains, Matrix Online, and Guild Wars. Since, as Community Manager, CuppaJo must be making rounds of the various fora and commentae regarding Tabula Rasa, she's sure to take these suggestions to the devs so that they can party like it's... wait, in what year do the events of Tabula Rasa occur again? In other words, to create a TR End of Beta to remember.

Suggestions like massive invasions, a large-scale stab at the heart of the Bane enemy, and ginormous catastrophes to avert are suitable to the action-RPG genre TR belongs to... and are too obvious, so get creative! One silly suggestion from this room? All the Beta players meet up on the field... and dance to "We're All In This Together" from High School Musical. It can't get any more unique (or weird) than that.

In the struggle against the Bane, nothing is more important than the constant vigilance of humanity's fighting forces. Not only must they be ever-watchful for the intrusions of the enemy, but they must also search long and hard for signs of humanity's last best hope: The Mysterious Korean Bacon.

The developers of NCSoft's Tabula Rasa took a short break from their trials but have recently come back with some great news for Tabula Rasa fans.

They've updated their clan listings to add two prominent clans for people to look at and talk about. The first new clan listed on their site is Rank and File, which carries the honor of being the oldest continually-running TR clan in existence. It's amazing how far their enthusiasm goes for a game that's only just entering closed beta.  The second is Invictus, the official clan of Planet TR, one of the other unofficial Tabula Rasa sites existing today in addition to ours.

What does Mysterious Korean Bacon have to do with anything? Well, when you're taking a break from making a game, you have to eat something, right? In any case, you can also call this your little reminder to apply for a closed beta key so you can beta test the game, since it'll be over by the end of the month. Good luck, gamers.

What in the world is Tabula Rasa and why should we bother checking out, or even trying out this MMO? Blizzard's Burning Crusade is coming out on January, there's Guild Wars Nightfall, why should I give a damn about Tabula Rasa?

Why should we care about this game? The storyline? So far, the backstory is your standard post-apocalyptic Sci-Fi fare. Nothing really new. Aliens go to earth, wipe things out, the world starts anew. Clean slate. Nothing new. Done and explored before. But what about the thicker-than-cream-soup betrayal plot? Nope. Knights of the Old Republic has explored the betrayal bit already. Not convinced.

What about the character design? Oh yeah, guys in suits fighting ugly-looking insect aliens. Nuh-uh nope. Beautiful as the screenshots may be, no. It isn't really exciting and new. It all looks like an ugly version of Halo mixed in with Star Wars.

What about the gameplay? What about the fact that in some planets, the gravity will be a bit different? What about the fact that the gameplay is a mix of MMORPG and Shooter? What about the huge choice of weaponry? What about those cool looking gameplay videos? What about the news that the development team is listening to cries in the Beta Test that people want Melee weapons, and the rumors that things like lightsabers will show up? Yawn. No not interested.

So what is it about Tabula Rasa that makes us want to play it?

Richard Garriot.

The guy responsible for Ultima. That's credibility right there.

Of course you guys can all accuse us of being a bit too snooty in the first four paragraphs, but there's reverse psychology for you.