MUDs, Tabula Rasa and Sony Online

OK, wow. I haven't posted an update in two weeks. But it's been a relatively slow two weeks: not much new in the MMO-sphere with the exception of a controversy, enlightenment and a marketing push.

The Controversy: It seems that articles in Wikipedia dealing with the history of MUDs, specifically Threshold, have come under attack recently. Massively did a pretty good write-up of the situation. I wonder how it will unfold?

Enlightenment: Adam Martin, a former CTO for NCSoft's European  development studio offered a very insightful post about the trainwreck that was Tabula Rasa. Which I haven't been able to bring myself to play, even though it is free right now. While not leveling blame specifically, he does seem to lay it at the feet of NCSoft as an organization.

If you have ever worked in a dysfunctional corporate setting or been on a team that just can't pull it together then this angle makes a lot of sense. The most telling example he gave, in fact, was that apparently to this day NCSoft still does not officially recognize TR as a failure. And as he points out, recognizing failures is what helps prevent us from repeating them.

Lastly, the Push: You may have noticed that SOE is now offering their MMO titles on sale through Steam. While I highly doubt SOE is suffering from a lack of subscribers to their various franchises, it seems to me that those numbers could be a lot higher, especially for games like Vanguard.

Hopefully Steam can attract some new blood into games like Vanguard or Pirates of the Burning Sea which have languished in the morass that is borne of failed launches and highly negative word-of-mouth against SOE's management of other games - SWG, CU and NGE are three acronyms will probably always have baggage in many MMO players' minds. And now SOE may be committing another marketing blunder with their adoption of RMT. So Sony can probably use all the positive advertising it can get in the MMO world.