ActionTrip's 2007 Game of the Year voting poll registered 10673 participants. 1809 registered users voted for Call of Duty 4, 1279 for Halo 3, 1192 for Assassin's Creed, 837 for "None of the Above", 716 for BioShock, 710 for Crysis, 627 for The Orange Box, and so on. The rest of the results can be viewed in ActionTrip's voting poll section.

¿ People's Choice: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Runners-up: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

¿ Game of the Year (ActionTrip Staff): Portal
¿ Runners-up: Mass Effect, Halo 3, BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Witcher

¿ Best Action Game: Halo 3
¿ Runners-up: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, God of War II, BioShock, Crysis

¿ Best Strategy Game: World in Conflict
¿ Runners-up: Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

¿ Best RPG: Mass Effect
¿ Runners-up: The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

¿ Best Sports Game: FIFA 08
¿ Runners-up: SSX Blur, NHL 08, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

¿ Best MMOG: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
¿ Runners-up: Tabula Rasa, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

¿ Best Rhythm/Music Game: Rock Band
¿ Runners-up: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

¿ Babe of the Year: Joanna Krupa
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The folks over at NCSoft have amassed quite an interesting collection of eBay auctions for Child's Play this year. The auctions, which will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Child's Play, includes signed copies of games and posters, rare finds and, the best one, having a Tabula Rasa NPC named after you.
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Dec 6, 2007 Richard Garriott has attacked the beta test of his sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa, saying that game has been hurt by inviting too many testers. Speaking about marketing in relation to the game, Garriott said, "I actually think the biggest mistake was made not by the marketing department, but by the development team. We invited too many people into the beta when the game was still too broken." "We burned out some quantity of our beta-testers when the game wasn't yet fun," he added. "As ... » Read More

Tabula Rasa creator Richard Garriott weighs in on what he thought as done right with the game, and what may hurt the title.
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NCsoft is slowly but steadily expanding to the non-game Internet service sector, while its cash-cow game business is losing vigor.

Korea's largest game company this year has released a series of social-networking services from Openmaru, an in-house software studio, with strong support from its CEO Kim Taek-jin. Meanwhile, its stock price almost halved over the past two months, as investors raised doubt about the prospect of its online games business.

CEO Kim said Wednesday that the firm will increase investment in the online services sector, which is dominated by big portal operators such as Naver, Daum and SK Communications.

"After games, the Internet has become my new dream," he said during a special lecture to students of Seoul National University.
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Most MMO players know the story of IGE and Affinity Media by now, (the owners of WoWhead, Allakhazam, Thottbot and WoWinterface), and their relationship. A really interesting article popped up on Radar Online today which highlights some of the dodgy characters that are involved in the Affinity Media business which had claimed to have no involvement with IGE. Brock Pierce who is an advisor and a board member of Affinity Media, is highlighted in the above article and I have to say there's some pretty unsavoury stuff here pointing at child abuse. This has been brought up before regarding Brock Pierce who has apparently denied charges but there are filed legal cases which he has tried to settle.

In related news, there has been paperwork filed this week where IGE admits that it is Affinity Media (see additional link). Not that anyone doubted it. Next time you hit up an Affinity Media site, just think about who you are supporting and who's pockets your traffic is lining with cash.
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Tabula Rasa producer Starr Long discusses the dynamic battlefields being built into Richard Garriott's upcoming MMO...

"One of the fundamental goals for Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa was to simulate a war by creating what we call a dynamic battlefield. One of the ways we did that was to have the NPCs fight each other, but we wanted to take these battles a step further where they didn't just fight each other sporadically as they encountered each other. Instead, we wanted them to actually fight over key pieces of territory which could alter the game environment in that area. These key territories are control points, and they are an integral part of what defines our dynamic battlefields."
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The New York Times report on October 16, 2007:

Where have all the elves gone?

That's the question gamers and the people who love them are bound to ask this fall as they take in the latest crop of big-budget video games. Since the 1970s, dragons, orcs, wizards and dwarfs have been staples of interactive entertainment, yet this holiday season there are hardly any top new games in the traditional fantasy mode.

Instead 2007 has been dominated by perhaps the deepest lineup of science fiction games ever.
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Oct 3, 2007 Tabula Rasa producer Starr Long has revealed that the MMO will suffer a small delay while it slaps on a final coat of polish. Originally slated for an October 19 release, Richard Garriott's new venture in MMO land will now launch worldwide on November 2. Tabula Rasa pre-orders will still get to start playing three days early, but that will now kick off on October 30. "This short but critical amount of time will give us time to address several issues including stability and balance ... » Read More

Tabula Rasa seems to have been delayed by a couple of weeks due to some tuning of the gaming engine as well as testing a new area of the game.
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Sept 14, 2007 Famed game designer and space travel enthusiast, Richard Garriott sure makes a good case for his latest sci-fi MMO, Tabula Rasa. It's promising all the sorts of things we'd like to see changed in the stagnant genre. Like Garriott, we're tired of the typical whack-a-mole combat, class systems that lock you into choices you made without even playing the game, and forgettable plot points. Tabula Rasa seems ready to address these issues with its semi-shooter combat system, flexible ... » Read More

Listing of superb games due to be deployed this fall.
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Sept 7, 2007 Tabula Rasa has gone gold and will launch across Europe and North America on October 19. As an extra incentive you get on there three days early if you pre-order. Producer Starr Long, who co-founded developer Destination Games with Garriott in 2000, told us back in June, "Tabula Rasa is a science fiction MMORPG being created by Richard Garriott and other key folks like me who have some of the deepest experience in the genre. The game features some key elements that differentiate ... » Read More

At an Austin press event last night, NCSoft announced that the sci-fi MMORPG Tabula Rasa will launch October 19. People who pre-order will get to play the game three days earlier, on October 16.
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If you've been following CB Games like the good gamer you are, then you're aware of an upcoming MMO that looks to be taking the genre to the next level. NCsoft today has announced that fans looking for the ultimate Tabula Rasa experience will be able to purchase a special Limited Collector's Edition.
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Theres been a lot of hype about Richard Garriotts upcoming MMO, Tabula Rasa. Its out-of-this-world sci-fi setting - which stands in contrast to the ocean of high fantasy WoW clones on the market - and its untraditional combat scheme - that introduces a mix between first-person shooters and traditional MMO gameplay - piqued our interest when we first scouted out the title. Each new player will start out as a recruit with basic firearms skills and access to Tabula Rasas mysterious Logos powers. ... » Read More

Richard Garriott, former Origin man and currently executive producer at NCSoft, Austin, where he's involved with Tabula Rasa, reckons the traditional MMORPG has hit its limit and the stage is now set for innovation in the genre. "I think that if all you're trying to do is do what we'll call the traditional feature set, where you highlight an opponent and do the Whack-a-Mole combat and what I'll call the 'WoW' feature set, I think yes, World of Warcraft is the end of that feature set arc," ... » Read More

Richard Garriott "We're considering the PS3 version".

NC Soft announced a deal with Sony to bring games exclusively to the Playstation Network, and Tabula Rasa may end up being one of them. At the moment, they're just trying to get it finished and launched, but Richard Garriott (who gave the demo today in full Tabula Rasa uniform, beret and all) said that they'll consider porting it to the PS3.
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Dubbed Lord British during his high school days for what his peers perceived as a British accent, Richard Garriott is best known as the creative force behind the Ultima series. Garriott has often donned medieval attire to promote his fantasy games in the past, but at publisher, NCsofts press event during this years E3, the gaming luminary updated his attire to promote his new sci-fi themed MMO, Tabula Rasa. Always the showman, Garriotts futuristic military uniform fit well with Tabula Rasas ... » Read More

NCsoft today revealed its line up for the E3 Media & Business Summit July 11-13 in Santa Monica where the company will provide a preview of several of the most anticipated online games coming out in 2007 and 2008.

Read On.
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