Tabula Rasa - Visa/Mastercard/Grandmother accepted
If you’ve had enough of swords and sorcery you probably are already looking at Tabula Rasa. An MMO set in a sci-fi universe with shooter-like combat and the development of an RPG. All seems grand. At least, that’s what I was thinking, being a huge sci-fi fan this was going to be the game for me. Mind you details on, well, anything, have been slim, but that didn’t stop me and many others from just imagining how mind-numbingly cool this game was going to be. The excitement was, and still is high (take a look at the screenshots or videos to see why). This article has me a bit worried though. To quote a small piece:
The system requirements will be fairly steep, with a 3.5 GHz processor, 2 MB of RAM and a high-end video card currently recommended.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy they are utilizing the best stuff to make this game and all, but, if that’s the recommended, what will just the base needed be? If I’m running on the low-end with my computer will the game even be worth playing? My big problem is, from a pure business perspective, requiring such high system stats alienates a massive amount of your possible player base. Part of the reason WoW is so popular is because most people didn’t have to go out and buy a new computer/video card/more RAM, it’s recommended requirements weren’t very steep even, most people could buy it and load it right up, no upgrading required. For me, and I assume others as well, playing this game is going to be a bigger investment than the ~$50 and the ~$15/month charge if we want to get the most out of it, it’s going to cost us $1000 or more (most likely more). Call me crazy but, I’m not sure I really want to spend that much money to be able to play a game.
I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong though, maybe the necessary system requirements will be low enough that I won’t need to sell my extra kidney to play.
October 18th, 2006 at 11:00 am
This is why I don’t play pc games. I don’t feel the need to upgrade my computer every few years for the newest and greatest game.
October 18th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
It’s definitely unfortunate and consoles are much better in that area than computers. The real problem for me is that developers seem to think if they don’t optimize performance for “Captain Ubercomputer” then he won’t buy the game. They don’t seem to realize that most people just want to be able to load it on the same computer they do all their other work on, not make a new investment for a “gaming machine” that’s why people buy consles after all.
Also an edit, the article I quoted listed the system requirements as 2MB of RAM, I believe they meant to 2GB. I apologize for any misunderstanding this may have caused when read.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Well Paul hate to say it but it seems even the consoles are heading that way. What with all the peripherals that each company is making must haves so you can play the latest version of your favorite game. Its certainly not to the degree that we see with the Tabula Rasa issue; but another console generation in the future it could be a whole different ball game.