Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. NCsoft, publisher of such MMORPGs as Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa, seems to have suffered a slump in sales and profits during the last quarter of 2007.

Despite the setback, company executives aren't looking down. More statistically significant news follows after the jump.

Now that making a leisure trip to space is possible, even Korean MMORPG giant NCsoft plans to send someone beyond the atmosphere. Spokesman Kim Ju-young is not certain whether it's for the company's social contribution program or to promote Tabula Rasa, but the idea of sending Richard Garriott (known as Lord British to fans of his games) to space sounds solid.

This October, NCsoft will confirm if Lord British will take the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2008 to drop by the International Space Station and spend a full week there. Space Adventures, the private space travel company, has reserved a seat on the fall 2008 trip for Garriott.

Being the son of Spacelab astronaut Owen Garriott and after working with Space Adventures, it doesn't come as a surprise that Lord British is fond of space travel. According to NCsoft, he decided to take the trip. NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin may do the same in 2009, but there are no official confirmations as of now.

Ko San, currently in training to become Korea's first astronaut, already has US$ 30 million on his bill before even before reaching space. However, NCsoft is capable of dishing out the money, especially after spending billions of Korean won to develop Tabula Rasa. Being a prominent figure in the online gaming scene, Lord British could very well make the promotional trip pay off in spades.

Tabula Rasa's fall release is getting closer and closer by the day, and today we've got more words from NCSoft's Richard Garriott. This time, it all comes from his recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Read on for a few snippets.

The past. Garriott points to the stock "fundamental creative differences" answers when asked about his departure from Electronic Arts. Going more in-depth, he explains, "EA's core business is making sports games, and they've got a machine and a process that does that very, very successfully. Frankly, EA wasn't convinced that the MMOG business model was the way of the future and so that ultimately led to my retirement from EA."

The present. While most analysts say that the MMOG market is already saturated, Garriott begs to differ. "Lineage is already up to six million players in just Asia alone and something like one out of 10 people in Korea have a Lineage account," he says. "If you compare that sort of penetration to the U.S., we still have a long way to go to reach saturation."

He further adds that while World of Warcraft is clearly a gaming phenomenon and is currently selling millions of copies right now, most blockbuster games also sell in the millions of copies nowadays. "I don't personally think that any game has hit market saturation, including Warcraft."

The future. Garriott says he believes that MMOGs are "still in their infancy," and that World of Warcraft is still in the first MMOG generation. "I love the game and have nothing but compliments for it," he says. "But it is also extremely derivative of the other online games that have come before it."

He acknowledges that change will come slowly, but the process is already starting. "The winner in the competition for the next-generation MMOG will be the developer who can create a game with the same real tension and excitement that solo-player games offer."

For the full interview, click on the "read" link below.

Richard Garriott sat down on Thursday morning at GDC and gave a seminar about the history and future of Tabula Rasa, apparently his seminar was one of the more popular ones. Richard has been hard at work over the past few years working on several incarnations of Tabula Rasa. Richard is a legend in the MMO community making it nice to hear about the struggles and achievements the Tabula Rasa team has been through. Keep your eye open for part two.

GDC Panel: Designing Tabula Rasa

In the first part of our two part preview, we cover Richard Garriott's GDC talk

On Thursday morning at GDC, Richard Garriott gave a seminar about the history and future of Tabula Rasa. The seminar was one of the more popular. Richard is a legend in the MMO community so it was great to hear the struggles and triumphs the team on Tabula Rasa has gone through. Part two of this article will focus on the sit down interview I did with Richard after the seminar.

One of the main points that Tabula Rasa is trying to give individuals is the special feeling you get from solo player games. Rich’s point that MMOs are simply about numbers of players takes away from a persons individual experience. The other important element that Tabula Rasa is trying to implement is a system where both Asian and western players can join the same game with very few barriers in language or culture.

Click the jump to catch the rest.