What is it like travel to a distant country?  You've probably been preparing for weeks, and when you finally get on the airplane you feel a little nervous, a little apprehensive and more than a little excited.  Then when you actually get there you get off the plane with a debilitating jet-lag migraine, get sick off the water, food-poisoning from the food and spend the rest of the week in a voodoo witch-doctor's hut cursing yourself for visiting a third world country.  Visiting NCSoft is like the first part of that, the plane part.

  Upon arriving I was greeted with a scene out of The Matrix.  There was an abandoned receptionist desk in front of me with large bundles of networking cable behind it, a lonely placard reading "NCSoft", and one telephone.  Since the only other option seemed to be the door with the security keypad, I picked up the phone and punched in the number I had been given.  Before it rang twice, it was picked up by a pleasant-sounding lady and I could finally attach a voice to Susan, or "Leilo," who I had spoken to through email previously.  Momentarily, she was downstairs and we introduced ourselves formally.

"Hi!" I said, "I'm Morticae."
"You know I can't tell you what character I play, Doug." she deftly replied, defeating my first attempt at eliciting a slip-of-tongue.

  I immediately realized that I was not going to be pulling any punches so I conceded to play by the rules for the rest of the trip.  After going up to the second floor where NCSoft resides we took a right turn from the elevator, walked through another security-clad door and entered the surreal.  I momentarily reflected on the mental image of fanciful creatures shuttling back and forth between glowing screens which I had confided to Susan earlier as my perception of the inner-workings of NC.  This long hallway was plastered with posters and concept drawings for creatures that only the most creative minds could have conceived.  Above each door was affixed a unique piece of glowing neon-light art that arced from the top of the door frame to the ceiling in styles ranging from dark and mystical to fairy-dust and rainbow looking.

"This is our in-development hall," Susan informed me, "Here is where we work on all our new projects including Tabula Rasa." My ears perked up.

  Sure enough, after walking down a few more doors, next to an office adorned with a particularly arcane looking piece of light-art, Susan said "Ah and here's Richard.  Richard Garriott." as though I needed a last name.  At the risk of sounding like a little girl at an N-Sync concert, I regret that at this point my hearing became a little distant and I'm sure I looked to Richard every bit like a little girl at an N-Sync concert.  I imagine that he would actually prefer a fan base consisting of young, hormonal girls who would sell their shoe collection to shake his hand, but he played it off fairly well and snapped me out of my reverie with a firm handshake. 

  "Wow, finally I get to meet Morticae!" he said inside my head followed quickly by "And you are...?" outside.  In reality, although I met him only briefly, he seemed like a very cool guy which makes sense considering the creative genius he has demonstrated.  Interestingly enough, like my cartoon persona (Doug Funny), Richard also possess only one shirt.  As you can see here in his profile, Mr.Garriott is wearing the exact same outfit he had on years ago for that picture.  I spotted his closet and discovered that he does not have only one, but indeed a vast wardrobe of jean shirts and beaded necklaces. ^^

  Anyway, I think I stammered something inane about Tabula Rasa and I only pray that I didn't say something retarded.  The walls behind his desk (in picture) are covered with awards and honors, which you can read about  at that previous link, and wrap completely around the office along with various maps and sketches for the future and past games this man has worked on.

  Lineage II.  I had heard mixed reports on how cool Lineage II was before visiting NCSoft but now I know exactly what I have to look forward to.  Lineage II is simply amazing.  (There are some who call me) Tim, who is an experienced member on the QA team, showed me around the Lineage 2 world as it currently exists.  At NC Austin they have both an internal server set up for testing and demonstration purposes as well as links to the Korean open beta.  Something which I don't think has been fully conveyed to the US audience and something which is horribly portrayed in screen shots is the utter grandeur of Lineage II.  I tried to find a screenshot that at least hints at this aspect (I took this one from Lineage2Compendium.com.  You see that statue in the background?  It is unbelievably enormous.  You can walk up to it and stare straight up, you can fly around it on your pet dragon (a very difficult item to acquire).  It is not just scenery, it actually exists as an entire object.  I haven't been taken aback by something like that since Quake I came out or maybe Diablo I with its innovative cut-scene animations.  This is something NCSoft does that no other company seems to quite be able to match.  I have played the new Star Wars Galaxies and some of the other similar games including Anarchy Online and none of them came even close to the sheer awe-factor that can be found in Lineage II.

  You may be one of the people who is fairly uncertain whether you are going to give up all your hard work in Lineage I to play II.  I felt the same way, but now that I've actually seen it, the US beta can't come soon enough.

  "What!?  You visited NCSoft headquarters and didn't find out one damn thing about Lineage I?" you ask.
"Wrong!" I tell you.  This trip was actually sparked by the recent prat banning incident.  I wanted to not only dig up all the company secrets I could, but also to discuss some points of NC's policy surrounding issues such as bannings.  After discussing this with CaptSturm and Leilo, I am left with no doubts regarding their policy.

- Morticae/Bizanti