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.

The most important element to MMO development and maintenance is also an integral component for comedic exploits -- timing. Here's a sterling example of bad timing: Noted spaceman Richard Garriott/Lord British's overwhelmingly unpopular Tabula Rasa, which has about two weeks left before its servers shut down, just released a patch adding "mech suits" which are available for all classes. It sounds like a neat feature -- one that might have attracted some much-needed attention to the game before it nestled soundly into its death bed.

If you've been intrigued by Tabula Rasa, but couldn't be hassled to, you know, purchase it, it's free to play now. Just don't get too attached -- the game's servers are going down on February 28, at which point Garriott's final project with NCSoft will have an ironic, though extremely appropriate moniker.

[Via EuroGamer]

Terminal sci-fi MMORPG Tabula Rasa is free to play for all until its death on February 28, 2009. NCSoft had previously announced the game would be free-to-play beginning Jan. 10, but now new players can request a serial code from the support site and download the game via FTP. Former players can head to PlayNC.com and reactivate using their account management settings. Credit card numbers will be requested, but no money will change hands.

Here's your chance to get a free Christmas present and play the game before its servers get wiped clean.

[Via Eurogamer]

Joystiq's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute.

	EA licenses Dungeon Keeper MMO, for China Electronic Arts has licensed out the Dungeon Keeper property as an MMO to Chinese-based developer NetDragon Websoft with the intent to eventually bring it overseas.
	Warhammer Online 1.0.6 patch adds new classes, tidal wave of updates Today, Mythic brings us Black Guards and Knights of the Blazing Sun! For those who didn't finish the full Heavy Metal event, don't worry, the classes will become available to everyone next week.
	DC Universe probably coming early 2010/late 2009, says comics writer Most intriguing was his up-front information on the game's launch window. According to Johns, the developers are aiming to release the game in "early 2010, it could be late 2009." Read on into the brief interview for the goods.
	Richard Bartle responds to "torture quest" issue A few days ago we ran a report on Richard Bartle's take on a torture quest in World of Warcraft, the Art of Persuasion. Since then, the discussion has exploded and some have taken Bartle's quotes out of context. Because of this, Bartle has created a follow-up post to clarify some of the points that may have been misinterpreted.
	NCsoft clarifies its rationale for closing Tabula Rasa Last week we spoke very briefly with NCsoft's Director of Public Relations David Swofford about the company's decision to close Tabula Rasa. He reiterated the basic statement we heard from several sources surrounding the call: this was all about the bottom line.

[Via Massively]

Boy, a guy takes one flight to space and suddenly he's too good for all of us earth-bound jerks. Tabula Rasa creator and semi-professional spaceman Richard Garriott recently revealed that his flight to the cosmos awakened some new interests in him, and that he'd be leaving TR publisher NCsoft to pursue those interests.

We at Joystiq HQ would like to suggest Garriott begin his search by looking for the Planet of Misfit Games, where technically sound titles that were utterly ignored here on Earth are each found by a special girl or boy and loved for all eternity. Barring that, a planet made of oil would also be super.

Joystiq's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute.

	World of Warcraft cranks it up to 11 (million) Just two weeks before Wrath of the Lich King descends upon the denizens of Azeroth the world over, Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft has reached the 11 million subscriber mark. That's yet another milestone for the oft-celebrated MMO from the house that built Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.
	The Digital Continuum: Let's talk about the Fallout MMO What's always been in the back-burner of my mind is whether or not the Fallout license would be necessary for a post-apocalyptic to flourish. While endlessly exploring our own personal post-apocalypticia is incredible fun, do we want a massive one?
	Please make George Lucas stop Dear Massively, What exactly are "they" smoking over at the Skywalker Ranch, or wherever it is that LucasArts has set up shop these days? "Star Wars: The Old Republic will be bigger than World of Warcraft" ?!?!?! Is Jar Jar Binks working in their PR department?
	The Best of Massively: Our five all-time greatest hits Three of these are top five articles, so we're three-fifths of the way to making a top five top fives list, it would seem. The numbers don't lie, though, so enjoy!
	Tabula Rasa finally gets an FPS camera view Have you ever wondered why a game like Tabula Rasa never utilized that classic first-person view, considering the fact that it's billed as an FPS-style MMO? The over-the-shoulder view never really did it for most players who were looking for more of a shooter aspect in their game. Rest easy in knowing that the FPS view is finally coming to this NCsoft sci-fi MMO, according to the latest Feedback Friday.

After finishing Tabula Rasa, Richard Garriott decided to take a break from reaping the adoration of the game's dozens of fans to be (literally) shot into space. Video of his flight was released yesterday, and you can watch it just after the jump.

Just after liftoff (at about 2:15 into the video) Lord British holds a message up to the cockpit camera written in Logos, the language of Tabula Rasa. We'd love to make fun of him for doing something so incredibly nerdy, but we're ashamed to admit we actually think it's kind of cool. Sorry.

This according to David Reid, the president of publishing at NCsoft's recently christened Seattle office, who despite rumors to the contrary recently assured Edge that the company's Austin office, which includes customer service, QA and the Tabula Rasa team, isn't going away anytime soon. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Reid describes Austin as "critically important" to NCsoft.

"We really do believe that Austin is going to grow at a fairly dramatic pace over the next few years," noted the exec. Growth is expected to be fueled by the company's upcoming MMO Aion, as well as other unannounced projects based on NCsoft's existing franchises. Truly, we're excited to hear of NCsoft's future plans, though we imagine not half as much as those in Austin who can now rest easy knowing, for the time being at least, any slips they may find at their desk when they arrive in the morning will be anything but pink.

Hot on the heels of news that Midway would be laying off approximately 90 employees from its Austin location comes a tip from a reliable source that NCsoft Austin (a.k.a. NCsoft North America) is on the verge of eliminating all of its development staff. The studio is currently home to the teams behind Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners, the latter of which will "be closed," according to our source. We've been told that only customer support staff will continue to operate out of the branch.

Future development of Tabula Rasa will reportedly be handed over to Seattle-based Guild Wars creator Arena.net, with Massively reporting that the title may meet a similar fate as Dungeon Runners if it "fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations." It has also learned that any future collaboration between NCsoft and Tabula Rasa principals Richard and Robert Garriot will be "limited in scope," due to a souring of relations with the Korean management team over their title's lackluster performance.

With regard to City of Heroes, a source at NCsoft's Bay Area studio confirmed with us that its development staff will be completely unaffected by the events transpiring in Austin, saying that the title's status is "sound." Further to this, the source echoed Massively's report that only the Austin studio is being affected, with remaining development proceeding normally in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Korea.

An NCsoft Europe spokesperson tells Eurogamer that Tabula Rasa has a growing player base and isn't in any trouble. Recent reports suggest otherwise, as NCsoft was apparently too embarrassed by the game's performance to mention it in its recent Q1 financial report. NCsoft states that a recent European trial met with "great demand" and it'll do a similar promotion later this year.

It's no secret that Tabula Rasa's had a slow start, but just how bad is it? If MMOGCHART is to be believed, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has approximately 75,000 players, the same subscription numbers as his decade-old Ultima Onine.

Wherefore art thou, Tabula Rasa? Though we knew the title's been a bit slow to start, we were still a shocked when Richard Garriott's MMO was largely absent from publisher NCSoft's Q1 financial report. As Massively reports, the title appears only twice throughout the publicly accessible earnings report, and neither time in a particularly favorable light.

In a conference call following the release, CFO Lee Jae-Ho confirmed that the "Tabula Rasa operation" has not yet been profitable for NCSoft. This point, however, was only addressed during the Q&A session, and otherwise entirely ignored during Jae-Ho's formal presentation.

For those interested, Massively presents a more thorough breakdown of the financial standing of Tabula Rasa. We'll summarize here by saying "it ain't good."

Though it certainly looked promising pre-release, it has seemed to us that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa isn't exactly taking off. We're not playing it, and as far as we know, we don't know anyone who's playing it. Now, in a "State of the Game" post on NCsoft's official website, producer Starr Long admitted that they haven't received the reception they would have liked, saying, "the game has not taken off as quickly as we had hoped."

The admission comes almost a month after reports of major financial trouble and layoffs for NCsoft caused by the game. That said, Long does have some good excuses, and he reaffirms that NCsoft is still devoted to seeing the game succeed. Meanwhile, Richard Garriott is training to go into space. ... We don't have a joke here, we just thought you should know.

[Via Eurogamer]

[UPDATE: Starr Long is, in fact, a male, not a female. We regret the error.]

Despite confirming an October 19th release date early last month, NCSoft has announced their years-in-the-making MMO Tabula Rasa will see a minor delay, bumped two weeks back to November 2. A message from the game's producer, Starr Long (now that's a stellar name!), on the official site explains, "This short but critical amount of time will give us time to address several issues including stability and balance as well as allowing our players to test the continent of Ligo (L38+) and our major changes to crafting for a few weeks rather than a few days."

Don't get all worried pre-orderers, your Halloween plans aren't ruined after all; you'll still get the game three days early on Oct. 30. Everyone else, what can we say besides we're sorry?

[Via Gamespot]