Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 24

Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 28, Issue 24 - Index

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By Bob Hudgins
Director, Texas Film Commission
The fall season is prime time for releases of new
video games. Whether a game has taken eight
months or three years to complete, developers
hustle to release games in time for the holiday
season.
There’s a long Texas pedigree behind one
of this year’s most highly anticipated releases.
“Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa” was developed
by Austin-based Destination Games, and is being
published by NCsoft Austin.
“Austin American-Statesman” writer Omar
Gallaga says it’s “one of the few games out this
year that feel like true labors of love.” Launched
on November 2, “Tabula Rasa” is a massively
multiplayer online game (MMOG) from the
creators of “Ultima Online,” one of the first
MMOGs. It’s played online simultaneously with
potentially millions of other users – that’s
“massively multiplayer” for you.
As members of the Allied Free Sentient
Forces, “Tabula Rasa” players are immersed
in humanity’s conflict against an alien race,
The Bane. Players build and enhance their
abilities and skills, using the game’s pictographic
language, Logos, and fight in environments from
lush forest planets to volcanic moons, advancing
in rank along the way.
Unique to the game is a player’s cloning ability.
Players can follow more than one “career track”
by cloning themselves into different characters,
each with the skills that they’ve already gained
at previous levels.
After an initial download, anyone with
high-speed Internet access can begin playing
immediately; there’s no need for a controller or
other hardware, just a monthly subscription.
“Tabula Rasa” also allows gamers to modify
game play according to the time they have to
spend; take your time to “explore,” or leap right
into “play.” That option has proved its worth
to Max Redd, a longtime Austin gamer. “It’s a
fresh change from anything I’ve played before,”
he says. “In 20 minutes, I can feel like I’ve done
something, without investing the rest of my
natural life to get there.”
Destination Games, with more than 300 Texas
employees, was formed in 2000 by the founders
of Origin Systems and serves as the Austin office
of South Korea-based NCsoft. In addition to
creating original IP online games, Destination
(aka NC Austin) helps support other NCsoft
games such as “Lineage,” “Lineage II” and “City
of Heroes.”
So, wouldn’t “Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa”
be the perfect holiday gift for everyone on your
list? Sign up now, and take your place in further
global domination by Texas games.