Garriott: Tabula Rasa launch undermined by having too many beta testers

Lead designer of Tabula Rasa, space adventurer and man behind the Ultima series, Richard Garriott, has spoken out about the hit and miss launch of the MMO. Talking at the 2007 Independent Game Conference, Garriott said “We burned out some quantity of our beta-testers when the game wasn’t yet fun. As we’ve begun to sell the game, the people who hadn’t participated in the beta became our fast early-adopters.”

Tabula Rasa struck out to offer an alternative to the rather monotonous combat which supposedly tarnishes other MMOs (but in no currently discernible financial manner). To be fair, the combat was a bit more interesting, but TR let itself down by failing to provide an easily accessible and compelling world. Although, I was one of the same beta testers, so perhaps I’ve fallen into the very trap Garriott is taking about.

However, the ‘too many beta testers’ argument is really interesting. As I’m currently playing in another beta (I’m guessing I’ve signed some form of NDA and I don’t want to jinx it either, so I’m not going to mention its name) which is a much hyped, upcoming MMO – it has gone down a similar route of having a boat load of beta invites floating about, but as it stands the game feels a very, very long way from being ready.

Of course it’s not fair to judge based on the experience now, but each time I play, my hopes and dreams of what the game was going to provide seem to sink just a little further out of reach. In the end that could undermine its launch day sales, no matter how many of the problems the developers manage to fix. Hopefully Garriott’s warning will give more developers pause for thought when they’re feeling a little too generous with the beta invites.

Source
Gaming Today

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