Apocalypse Soon: Tabula Rasa going out with a bang

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 27th 2009 at 11:20PM }

It seems that NCsoft will be ushering the fairly unsuccessful Tabula Rasa off this mortal coil in a somewhat unorthodox, yet completely awesome fashion. Soon-to-be-retired players won't be popping champagne and mingling during tomorrow's server shut-off festivities -- no, they'll be pushing back one last onrush of bloodthirsty Bane combatants in a cataclysmic event that will likely see the annihilation of every living thing, ever.

Players were warned in an in-character message on the Tabula Rasa site that should their defenses crumble during the Bane's final onslaught, humanity will turn to its ominous-sounding "last resort weapon," which will ensure the complete destruction of both sides of the conflict. The missive's reasoning was concise -- "if it is truly our destiny to be destroyed," it explains, "we are taking them all with us." Tabula Rasa may have not made a flashy arrival onto the MMO scene, but it sounds like NCsoft is making sure it has one hell of a departure.

Tags: apocalypse, mmo, ncsoft, pc, server-shutdown, shutdown, tabula-rasa

Related From Joystiq

Garriott hits NCsoft with $27 million lawsuit
216 days ago
Tabula Rasa shutting down on Feb. 28
382 days ago
NCsoft Austin to expand at a 'dramatic pace'
446 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

DBuck_Eye @ Feb 27th 2009 11:25PM

Best. Death. Ever.

emirabal @ Feb 28th 2009 8:20AM

Could not have said it better. This is how you go out, in style.

UltimateQ @ Mar 1st 2009 4:27AM

The event was pretty cool. We got to see AND fight the Neph. We also reclaimed earth. It was a hollow victory though, we essentially lost the war. All of the other areas were completely taken over by bane forces.

Every (non instanced) zone had "Capture Points" if the bane managed to capture all of the points in a given area then we lose the area permanently, and can never zone back into it. Eventually the waves of badguys (and lag) got so bad in areas that we couldn't hold control.

We finally made a last stand on earth and pushed through the bane forces and completely secured the area. We all celebrated for about 20 minutes with fireworks, cheering, and heart broken goodbyes. And then the imminent and final, "You have been disconnected from the server."

I managed to get video footage of the event. About 2.5 hours worth. I'll put something together over the next couple days for everyone interested.

Vegnagun bwf @ Feb 27th 2009 11:27PM

Damn, that is a classy way of ending your game.

Hashbrown Hunter @ Feb 28th 2009 8:21AM

Seriously. That's ridiculously badass. I may just buy the game to play that ending!

Ignatius @ Feb 27th 2009 11:30PM

Better than how Asheron's Call 2 ended.

Oh, by the way, everything you paid for is going to be worthless in 5... 4... 3.. 2.. 1.

Disconnected from server.

BB @ Feb 27th 2009 11:38PM

It will all be worth it just to see how this ends.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Feb 27th 2009 11:39PM

It's been free for a while now.

Too bad I never got to play it,crappy pc ; ;

Vegeta (DAT ASS!!!) @ Feb 27th 2009 11:39PM

Jesus that sounds fucking awesome!!!

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Feb 27th 2009 11:46PM

It would be more awesome if all players had to make a run for a giant ship or something to leave B4 the nukes.

The game just ends and you can see the nuke.

GenBanks @ Feb 28th 2009 7:11AM

and if you don't make the ship in time, you see it leave with all the other players, and the nukes start dropping and you die.

The ship idea would be cool though, at least then there'd be scope for a sequel with all the people on board the ship...

LaughingTarget @ Feb 28th 2009 9:32AM

Or like in Left4Dead, you an be a dick and shoot the guy off the plane right as it's taking off.

WINterfang @ Feb 27th 2009 11:58PM

Man that sucks for them, the game had a good idea but the competition was harsh.

Awesome way to end it all, my tip of the hat for the Directors, producers and developers, Best of luck to your team in future projects.

Rahul (Rurouni Kenshin Forever!) @ Feb 28th 2009 12:01AM

Its such a simple idea but yet so brilliant as well, too bad I never got to try out the game.

Drago Dracini @ Feb 28th 2009 12:09AM

I wish I had had the chance to play this, I'm sure some private servers will stick around. If there are any. But mainly, I hope really hard that the end event is recorded in it's entirety and able to be viewed on youtube... or somethin.

Otis Whitaker @ Feb 28th 2009 12:20AM

I downloaded it today to try it out, but I guess it was a waste of time :/
Too damned confusing, and it seems I won't even get to see the fireworks since I'm not high enough level to see anything :(

mocax @ Feb 28th 2009 12:32AM

wow.... i must've been in Tyrian dungeons for too long.....

didn't realise tabula rasa's out of beta..... and now ending?? o_o

i wonder if guildwars will get a grand sending off mission when guildwars2 comes around.

don't really dig the "200 years later, your heroes died of old age.... now you start with new characters in GW2...." story....

Deone @ Feb 28th 2009 12:51AM

That is simultaneously awesome and sad. I didn't know it went F2P, I might have considered picking it up, that is if I had a PC worthy of it.

UltimateQ @ Feb 28th 2009 1:08AM

I'll be sure to record it. I'll free up as much space as I can and try to record as much as possible in high quality.

Chicago Mafia @ Feb 28th 2009 1:22AM

If you do record this, post the link up here. I'd love to check it out.

ebola! @ Feb 28th 2009 2:08AM

I'd like to see it too! Thanks.

Einhanderkiller @ Feb 28th 2009 2:15AM

If you can, encode your video in h.264 at around 4000 kbps and upload it to Wegame.com. It has the best streaming video quality I know of.

Wiizer @ Feb 28th 2009 12:28PM

Yes, please record it! We are counting on you! ;D

Nikonov @ Feb 28th 2009 1:15AM

Well, I have to say that's ... pretty f'ing awesome. Good luck with Guild Wars 2, NCsoft.

1337stra @ Feb 28th 2009 1:31AM

Downloading now, Even if I'm the level of a grunt, I want to be part of this.

UltimateQ @ Feb 28th 2009 1:34AM

You can get +2000% exp tokens and get to 50 in about 3 hours.

You can also get AMAZING "Red" armor which makes you virtually invincible for all of the leveling content. Don't do quests, just grind kills at the capture points.

UltimateQ @ Feb 28th 2009 1:35AM

I should clarify, those boosts were added only a couple weeks ago, so everyone can get to level 50 for the end.

Ignatius @ Feb 28th 2009 9:53AM

Might as well play til the end today then, I only played during Beta and couldn't stand the grind.

Courtney @ Feb 28th 2009 1:57AM

The weapon to end all weapons is revealed, and it looks, strangely...like something, something we've all seen before, my god, it looks like...a halo.

milton359 @ Mar 1st 2009 10:08AM

You mean Chuck Norris

ebola! @ Feb 28th 2009 2:07AM

That's cool as hell. More MMO games in dire straits should have their own little armageddons or do something else creative like this, instead of just sending out the generic "pulling the plug" notices to their players. Props to NCsoft for making the last few hours a bittersweet treat for their customers!

There's an odd sort of miniature phenomenon that happens when a studio can't continue to support its product and an online game's universe ends that doesn't really have an easily comparible scenario in the real world.

t_m @ Feb 28th 2009 3:12AM

This is it!! This is my chance to finaly play an MMO without worrying about all my free time and money getting sucked away. I'm gonna sign up!

I wish all MMOs were like this and self destructed after a month...

Kraux @ Feb 28th 2009 3:22AM

I only got to play the trial of this a few months ago, I realy did enjoy the game, and im hoping that some private servers may pop up at some point. Sure is a shame for it to be ending, i had been considdering buying it before i found out it was doomed.

melbolt65 @ Feb 28th 2009 3:59PM

I think this game might have had a lot of potential but really terrible PR. I really would have liked to try this game but by the time I found out about it, it was already flagged for termination. Not sure if it was just me though who found out too late.

R @ Feb 28th 2009 3:40AM

Hard to compete in an MMO market dominated by WoW. NCsoft needs to cut their losses on their unprofitable mmos, and focus on Arenanet/Guild Wars 2 (which just got pushed back to 2010-2011). With NCsofts financial troubles, if GW2 flops, they might be looking at Chapter 11...

Oh, and to mocax, GW1 will still be supported and up and running when GW2 comes out. Since GW2 is going to be alot different, they say they plan on keeping GW1 running for the people that want to stay there. So dont look for any "going out event" anytime soon.

Uncontrol @ Feb 28th 2009 4:37AM

jeez, if they'd done stuff like this before maybe they wouldn't have to shut it down because i'm ready to play!

Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Feb 28th 2009 6:23AM

The real question is whether the invasion can actually be held off or if it's just a giant five-hour set-up to blowing up the entire universe.

t_m @ Feb 28th 2009 6:33AM

I say Joystiq should organise a massive sign-up off all commenters. We could all band together and try to take out the "last resort weapon" before NCsoft can use it.

Dadidito @ Feb 28th 2009 7:33AM

Asheron's Call beta ended like this. Coolest thing i had been part of in MMO.

Maverick Saturn @ Feb 28th 2009 8:25AM

This is why I hate multiplayer only games sometimes, servers shut off and you're pretty much fucked, there goes all the money you spent on buying the original game, expansions, DLC and the monthly subscription, I just feel sorry for anyone who spent loads.

Ah well, at least the finale is kick ass :)

drktranquillity @ Feb 28th 2009 12:29PM

Completely agreed. The one nice thing about Hellgate: London was the fact that it had a separate off-line mode but TR any most other MMOGs? Nope. Once the Company decides "Aww man, this is never gona be as popular as WoW!" and throws in the towel, that's it. Ever wonder if Blizzard isn't paying people under the table to shut their stuff down? Just to assure their uncontested dominance. I mean c'mon... you've got millions of people paying $15 bucks a month and they're only now getting ready to release Diablo 3... maybe.

That money has to go somewhere.

Nick8708 @ Feb 28th 2009 8:37PM

A lot of their money goes to their employees. Not just in salary (which at Blizzard is, for most, quite nice), but in excellent work environments and other amenities that just make it a fantastic place to work. Check out the Blizzard campus on their website and drool over how fantastic it is.