Can't wait to get patch 1.6 for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa? April "CuppaJo" Burba has announced that the update will be arriving very soon. To find out more about this, head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

If you're a denizen of one of the more popular MMOs out there like World of Warcraft or Tabula Rasa, chances are you've visited their respective wikis for information. Useful tomes aren't they? This subject was actually a point of interest at this year's SXSW Interactive, where notable members of the gaming community talked about the symbiotic relationship between gamers and wikis. Read about it in the full article.

With the servers for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa now open, NCSoft is currently letting those who availed of the Pre-Order headstart trickle in.

It appears there are still a few problems with the log in process, though, but it's nothing that a little patience can't overcome. community manager CuppaJo recently posted the following on IGN's Tabula Rasa Vault:

Everyone should be able to log in now (all the pre-order bonus headstart people). If you have issues, wait about 20 minutes and try again, if that doesn't work, go to support.plaync.com and go to the ask a question area to contact support.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa will officially go live on November 2.

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa end of beta event had players find and kill General British. But why? How? Who the hell is General British anyways? (Hint: Richard Garriott = General British) Well, April Burba (AKA CuppaJo) discussed about the end of beta event and how it came about. Veteran MMORPG players will know this bit of gaming lore for sure.

For those who aren't aware, this event has some historical roots from all the way back in Ultima Online. When the game launched back then, Richard Garriott (the game's creator) he addressed the crowd in-game and... well, died. Apparently, upon giving the other players the challenge to kill him, he had forgotten to make his character invincible. So, right as he jumped into the fray of battle... well, you can probably figure out the rest.

Now in Tabula Rasa, they've recreated the event from ten years ago, with a few tweaks though. For one, Garriott wasn't invulnerable. What made him seem so were the clones of himself causing chaos in the battlefield. As CuppaJo explained before the event:

A lot of the developers will be in the game, dressed in the General British armor, and although they will look identical, they will have names like General Br1t1sh or General Irish. Only Richard Garriott himself will have the correct name, General British. As the players encounter these clones, they will have to eliminate them so that they can find the right one and take him down.

 

Talk about the beta phase drawing to a close has been confirmed by none other than NCsoft community Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba. "We are also ramping up for the end of beta event," said CuppaJo in an interview, as NCsoft gears up for the release of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa coming real soon.

According to CuppaJo, NCsoft is already going through with the implementation of "Operations" - Tabula Rasa's equivalent of content additions. In this regard, the developers have already mapped out Operation 0 (that's Operation Fair Trade) and are prepping to spill info on Operation 1, all before the game even launches!

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is developed by Destination Games and is expected to hit PCs on November 2, 2007 over DVDs and digital download means.

If you've ever played MMORPGs, chances are you're familiar with the various regular content updates that a lot of MMO titles have. According to April "CuppaJo" Burba, Tabula Rasa will be no different.

The updates, called "Operations", will be similar to the "Issues" in City of Heroes and Lineage 2's "Chronicles". Operations will add stuff like more areas, PvP system enhancements, Clan system enhancements and more missions. Patches will still be released between Operations as needed, though.

The first Operation for Tabula Rasa will be Operation 0: Operation Fair Trade. This mini-Operation will happen around the game's launch, so check back here for more details. CuppaJo also hinted at some updates that seems to indicate new alien-human hybrids or - at the very least - new skills and classes, so look out for more on that one too.

If you've ever played Where's Waldo, then you have a pretty good idea of what the folks at NCSoft and World of Roleplayers Radio have cooked up for beta testers in Tabula Rasa. On Friday, August 10, at approximately 8:00 to 10:00 P.M. Central time, the World of Roleplayers Radio website and NCSoft will be sponsoring a "Find General British" beta event on the U.S. Server.

In this event, which players will engage in an epic MMO version of hide and seek as they try and find Richard Garriott's avatar inside the game world. The first people to find General British will receive a variety of prizes, from T-Shirts, Dog Tags, Signed Artwork from Tabula Rasa's Dev Team, Tabula Rasa Challenge Coins, and an NCSoft iPod.

Folks will be enticed to listen in on World of Roleplayers Radio as CuppaJo will be offering clues to General British's location during the broadcast to help players out. All in all, it certainly sounds like a fun alternative to spend an evening of beta testing, doesn't it?

In any case, if you don't have a beta key for yourself just yet, you can check out the source link we have below for more tips and info on getting a Tabula Rasa beta key of your very own.

Now while there are no shortage of Medics in the on-going closed Beta phase of NCSoft's Tabula Rasa, any player going to jump into a seemingly endless war waged against the Bane would think once about taking the more offensive classes and take second opinions when choosing stealth or support classes, such as the Medic - or the Tier 4 Medic class in this case.

In order to diffuse confusion with support classes' offensive capabilities, Community Manager April "CuppaJo" Burba demonstrated the Medic class at the recently concluded ComicCon 2007 at San Diego, emphasizing how useful a support class can be in the United Free Sentients' struggles against the Bane.

Those who haven't been lucky to participate in the Beta phase but are heavily interested in the upcoming sci-fi MMORPG can check the video embedded below for some gameplay features discussed in earlier articles, including ceaseless conflict even while offline and capturing outposts.

Uberguilds Radio has announced that Tabula Rasa Community Manager April "Cuppa Jo" Burba will be on hand on Saturday, July 21, at 3 P.M. EDT for a live interview.

Fans can submit questions for the interview so if you have any burning questions about Tabula Rasa, send 'em in. Those looking for Tabula Rasa beta keys should also try to catch the interview as Uberguilds radio will also be giving free beta keys to 35 lucky listeners.

Speaking of beta keys, the Uberguilds Radio interview announcement also mentions that gamers can also get free beta keys from GuildCafe every day until Saturday, July 21. The person who has invited the most friends to GuildCafe during the giveaway period will also get a special bonus of five beta keys.

 

In line with continuing interviews with WarCry, April Burba (AKA CuppaJo) spilled some beans on another aspect of Tabula Rasa that some of you "make love, not war" gamers might find interesting. TR's also got other activities that you can involve yourself in, more specifically social systems that allow you to spice up your gaming experience.

WarCry: We know there is lots of fighting in Tabula Rasa, can you tell us a bit about what else you can do in the game, for example what type of social skills are available in game?

April Burba: Besides fighting we have a crafting system, the hunt for Logos (collection), taverns (social RnR), and a Clan system (Guilds). These are just the first steps in these areas and I expect more social systems to show up in some of our major content releases. // The worlds themselves are also great for explorers who enjoy wandering. (Not all that wander are lost.) Unlike some MMOs where you can walk for an hour and see only some dried grass and a lion or two, the worlds of TR are large, but dense with points of interest.

Also in the interview, CuppaJo talks of how they were able to balance FPS aspects in an MMO. It's not only about FPS aiming, because more than that, you also have to consider factors such as which body part would do more damage when hit or even down to how "sticky" you want your reticle to latch onto your target.

More on instancing, Banes, and progress on the beta right behind the Read link below.