TR - Next Generation: "When Cultures Collide" : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion

04 / 10 / 2007

Next Generation recently talked to Richard Garriott about Tabula Rasa and the difficulties of trans-cultural development projects.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4995&Itemid=2

Here's an excerpt from the article:

NCSoft began again, with a more realistic approach. “We erased, abandoned that first couple of years worth of work which was a huge tragedy. But we felt that compared to finishing something that neither territory would really think was operable we should use the design skills of the local team and create a game for America and Europe. The Korean office could take it and see what we might do to optimize it for the Asian territories.”

Tabula Rasa (pictured) is now noted as a potential landmark on the MMO scene, offering an innovative action sci-fi design that’s been created with one audience in mind.

Garriott adds, “There are very few games that have succeeded substantially in both markets. We consider Lineage to have been a success here in the United States, but compared to how well it does in Asia it’s ten to one depth of penetration and vice versa when we take US games over to Asia.”