Wolfo, it isn't that they don't listen. Anyone who isn't idiotic will understand that player feedback is an essential part of the MMO development process. It's that they aren't ambitious enough (imo)... they see people complaining, but all they do with those complaints is rationalize them away. "It's not possible." "Too hard." "Not enough development resources." So they try to get away with being just good enough... but the complaints and disappointment with the game snowballs, and the small mistakes are seen as large mistakes, and people quit, inevitably.

Unless you try to be perfect, and that means both figuring out what's wrong with your game and actually taking the time to fix it, you'll have a sucky game. And they weren't trying hard enough to be perfect.

I remember the TR beta. There were a lot of testers giving feedback on the beta boards talking about the significant issues discussed in this article, but I had the feeling that the release was coming no matter what (after quite a few years in development, including completely redoing the game). The MMO components were undeveloped, and in a game you are charging a subscription for you cannot have that. I decided not to buy the game. If they would have had a buy-the-box-only model like Guild Wars they would have done better. Relying too much on the interesting pseudo-action-shooter elements did not make for an in-depth game. It was like a PvE-oriented version of Planetside, and while that title was interesting, it too did not thrive with a subscription fee.

Whenever I read something like this, I do feel sorry for the playerbase of the game, but I also can't help but think "Why didn't the devs or whoever was in charge listen to the players?" I think that's the biggest problem with the MMO industry. The higher-ups don't listen to the people that actually play the game.

Sadly, I must agree with the conclusions reached. Good article and a pointer to Game developers.

A very interesting read even for those of us who have not played Tabula Rasa.

Well written article with some very good points.

Great article and great lesson for others to learn from. Thanks!

Definitely well written. I agree with many of the points. I disagree with the conclusion however.

Very well written article that illustrates what went wrong truthfully and accurately.