MMO Gamers

     I’ve been over at the official Tabula Rasa website reading their latest Feedback Friday.  Lots of improvements to the PvP but little mention of PvE.  TR has been struggling since its release, having only made about $5 million to date from an estimated development cost of $100 million according to an article on the Korea Times.

     I picked up TR on the day it released and played for about six weeks before I tired of it.  Now I actually liked TR, the world, the futuristic setting, the combat.  So why did I give it away.  Its solo ability.  What?, you ask.   Is it hard to solo?  On the contrary.  It’s quite easy to solo.  I expect you could solo all the way to level cap, regardless of class.  For me it felt like a single player game in many ways, and it’s hard to justify the payment of a subscription fee for a single player game.

     Vanguard, on the other hand, is very group orientated.  Of course there are solo quests, but there are many quests labelled as “group” or “small group”.  And you wouldn’t set foot in the dungeons alone.  And the chat channel is busy with LFG, LFM, LF Tank etc.

     I like to group, that’s why I play MMOs.  I’ll continue to watch TR for improvements and perhaps I’ll give it another try down the track.  But with talk of Warhammer going live 2nd quarter ’08 and Age of Conan with a May release date it’s unlikely I’ll ever get back to it.