You make a fair point, I'll give you that. However you do leave out a particular bit of information that pertains to this:TallanKhan said:Yes I did indeed play Tabula Rasa, and it was one of the most dissapointing games i have ever played. As for him having an idea that is now a commercial success i would make two points, first of all that his MMORPGs still weren't a commercial success in any meaningful sense. Secondly a game doesnt have to be good or well designed to be a commercial sucess.
Yes, a game doesn't have to be good to be a commercial success, but an ORIGINAL game does. If you have a game that already has a running franchise, such as Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Resident Evil, etc... or one that's based on a popular license, such as Aliens: Colonial Marines, then you are correct.
However if you have a game that's original then, even if it's incredibly good which you are right in that Tabula Rasa was not, there is still no guarantee of commercial success. Look at Tim Schaffers Psychonauts or one of the latest MMO flops, The Secret World for proof.
Tabula Rasa went the way of most original ideas, into the historical trashbin, but that doesn't mean it was a bad idea since, now, everyone appears to be using it as a basis. Something that, I might remind you, also happened with modern Western-style RPG's, the other franchise Garriott is known for. And if you haven't played any of the Ultima series, which isn't that surprising in this day and age, I'll enlighten you on something:
Ever wonder why games like The Elder Scrolls, Gothic, or even World of Warcraft seem to function off of the exact same system of quests and rewards with the 'wandering around the world' thing tying it all together? That entire framework was ripped wholesale from Ultima. I can probably guarantee you that every Western RPG you've ever enjoyed had half of it's design doc copied off of Mr. Garriott's homework sheet.