There is something definitely eerie about many famous guys of the past. I see this as a trend - good game design in the past, quiet period, attempt to re-emerge, ... and a failure.
John Romero - nice game, quiet period, ... and Daikatana
Brad - Everquest, quiet period, ... and Vanguard
Lord British - Ultima 6 (imho the best), quiet period, ... and Tabula Rasa...
Cid Meyer - Civilization, quiet period, ... and each Civilization after that is worse than pervious one...
List goes on and on!
I think they all made the same mistake - in the old days, when there were few games, vision was the most important factor - people were ready to accept new ideas easier, since they started almost from a clean slate, innovating, and game development wasn't as expensive as now, do they could experiment more. Now developing a game (especially mmo) costs millions, and you do not get a second try if your vision fail to satisfy masses. I think this is exactly what kills many games nowadays, and this is why we have such a small variety of games in many genres - because people do not want to state considerable expence of developing it against questionable success. Look at RPG genre - its damn dead for years and years. Look at quests - after brilliant masterpieces of Space Quest and Larry - there is nothing, except may be puzzles like Myst. Look at strategics - its same old stuff again and again and again. Well, in case of strategics, they have a hope - if Spore succeedes...
Uh, that's one long post, if you did not fall asleep reading this, I apologize

/rollseyes.

I smell another Brad. Has he really done anything since UO? C'mon plaync games are like the Hyundai of MMORPG's. The asians buy them like they're going out of style, but reception in the US hasn't been all that hot on any of their titles.

Last I heard NCSoft laid off a good amount of its workforce.. This is just insanity. He and Brad McQuaid should team up on a project some time.

But.. But.. TR doesn't happen "in space"! Wouldn't it be cheaper just to make a few offensive TV advertisements, and maybe cobrand with Pepsi?

Where do you see that it got delayed? I dont see anything any where saying that.

Tabula Rasa which release just got delayed 2 weeks

lol nice

NCSoft: "Hey, we got a million bucks left! What should we do with it?"

QA guy, accidentally passing by the office: "Put it into TR to improve it even more until launch?"

NCSoft president: "Stop eaves-droppin'!" *closes door* "That million should -of course- stay within management!" *affirmative mumbling*

R. Garriott: "Hm... RGTR (I really like me saying my name) is a Sci-Fi game. We should learn more about all this space thing... What about rocketing one of us into space?"

NCSoft president: "Sounds nice! Who'd like to?" *everybody raises his (no 'her' in NCSoft management, surprisingly) hand, R. Garrott even raises a big football glove* "Hmkey, Richard's got the biggest raise. Go, Garriott-guy, go!"