I'm not quite sure why I've just gone and subbed up for what remains of Tabula Rasa. A number of reasons, I suppose. The game is effectively over; and will be gone for good at the end of February '09; leaving about three months of play left. After that, it won't be possible to play it at all.

I think this is one reason. I still have an Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings box sat in my game-pile, an object with is absolutely useless now, and has been for some time. I still look wistfully at it sometimes, and would love the opportunity to have a wander about that place; an opportunity now lost for good. And so I sign up for another title that will shortly be removed entirely, in hopes of satiating myself perhaps.

Perhaps it's a kind of solidarity, albeit a hypocritical one at best. I left the thing to hang many months ago, which in some small part, probably lead to its forthcoming execution. I doubt anyone will thank or praise me for this last token effort on the Numbers front. Its gone beyond that now anyway, and I expect even if two million people dashed out to sign up this month, it wouldn't make any kind of difference, or repeal its sentence. Its a very personal kind of homage though; the game deserved better than this, I think, so the least I can do is hold vigil with it.

Another reason is my own completionism. Despite having played practically all of them, I don't as a rule finish any of these strange offshoots of the Computer Game, which in its Single Player form, I complete all the time. Ten years at it in various forms, and all I have to show for it is two 'Max Level' characters, anywhere, ever. One is in World of Warcraft, a game noted for is comparative ease of progress and levelling; a pre-Burning Crusade L60 Warrior. The other probably doesn't even count; a BR23 Terran Republic soldier in Planetside. Was quite chuffed with both of them, but some time after achieving these heady goals, both games have since moved the goalposts, damnit, and I'm now 20 levels short in WoW and two Battle Ranks behind in Planetside. It'd be nice to have 'won' one of these things, and what with one thing and another, if I can get to L50 in TR before the end, its a safe bet that those goalposts won't ever be moved again.

Given that folks say you can go 0 to 50 in less than a week at a fair push, I'm confident I can fill in my last seven levels on schedule. Another aspect of the game I always enjoyed was hunting down the Logos locations and filling in my own little blank slate. If I manage the levelling in time, I'd love to make a big push at that if possible.

I think the main reason though, is one of academic curiosity. I left the thing, and had my own reasons, sure, (only some of which were even to do with the game itself) but I'm not sure I ever worked out why everyone else gave up on it. Post-mortems abound (and not just since the closure news), and I've seen many cogent and credible theories as to What Went Wrong with what, on the face of it, ought to have been an MMO revolution and step into a whole new phase of MMO design and gameplay. Its easy to just post a hearty 'lawlscifi' or 'RG is teh sux!', but I suspect its probably more complicated than that.

So in the time I have left, I want to give it a really good picking apart. There's probably a great deal we can all learn from the whole project, and I hope, over the next, and final, three months, to analyse, and understand...