Monthly Archives: November 2008

Bye bye, erm, Tabula Rasa

Published November 22, 2008

No-one can really say, hand on heart, that this was a surprise.

While the games media was very quick to pile in whenever Tabula Rasa looked shakey, and perhaps over-zealous in their declarations of its impending death, the truth is the game was never in that good shape subscriber wise. It never did as badly as Auto Assault (which had problems beyond the game itself), but it was never called a ‘hit’ internally. At least, not with a straight face.

For me, personally, it was symbolic of the last attempt by NCsoft to do something a little bit different. At least, it was when I joined the company in 2004 – when it was still ‘unicorns in space’, and before it became Starship Troopers. Having said that, a year after the reboot, I really liked what I played in 2005 (and still maintain that if by some miracle it could have been released then, it would have been a hit) but by 2007 it was never, ever going to be serious competition to… well, anything really. Continue reading →

Posted in MMO-related, Rockjaw | Tagged

Bye-bye, Lighthouse

Published November 17, 2008

This was a surprise. Looks like it took place end of last week, but with my ear very much not pressed to the ground regarding these things, it’s no surprise Massively was the first I heard about it. (Also shows how much of a WoW-obsessed press we have when this took days to surface; everyone’s busy reporting the most intimate of details from the frozen north.)

Straight off, I’d have to say it’s a shame; just because it’s always a shame when someone moves on from a job that they most probably loved and enjoyed, because of internal pressure or because of a mistake they might have been able to weather. You can probably sense my ambivalence here though, and that’s simply because I didn’t know Alex (AKA Lighthouse) as well as others did. (Not to be confused with Alex AKA GhostRaptor, EU Community Team Lead, by the way.) Continue reading →

Posted in Community, MMO-related, Rockjaw | Tagged

All quiet

Published November 11, 2008

A little quick note.

Things are moving forward on a number of ‘fronts’ for me, job-wise – most of which I can’t share for understandable confidentiality reasons. (And some things I won’t share, just because frankly, the bureaucracy of immigration drives me nuts so why should I drive you nuts too?)

Anyway, I hope you’ll bear with me. I’d love to tell you all about everything, but I just can’t otherwise I’ll wind up as a headline story like QUIET LONER MURDERED FOR NO APPARENT REASON. (Did I just call myself ‘quiet’?) Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Rockjaw | Tagged

Change is coming

Published November 5, 2008

It’s a pretty surreal world out there today – for me, at least.

Four years ago I went to bed in Brighton, hearing the pundits say that John Kerry was going to oust George W. Bush from the White House. I woke up and felt like I’d slipped into a parallel dimension.

Last night, I went to bed knowing for certain that the near-impossible had happened; America had voted for its first black President. I only managed to make it to 10pm before I fell asleep, but I knew at 8pm, unlike my wife who knew at 4am… because I was sitting alone in a California hotel room, eating pizza and watching CNN.

Why? Well, I’ve been here since Friday, interviewing for a job – which I got an offer on yesterday. Yeah. I’m going to move to the USA and live in California. It felt pretty surreal. Two monumental events, and I’m celebrating with Dominos… Continue reading →

Posted in MMO-related, Personal, Rockjaw | Tagged

Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved.