"We invited too many people into the beta when the game was still too broken," Garriott said at the 2007 Independent Game Conference, according to Gamasutra.

"We burned out some quantity of our beta-testers when the game wasnÂ’t yet fun," he added. "As we've begun to sell the game, the people who hadn't participated in the beta became our fast early-adopters."

Garriott isn't the only one blaming Tabula Rasa's lukewarm reception on a long beta test.

"While every developer says that betas arenÂ’t the finished product and shouldn't be judged as such, they've increasingly found themselves used primarily as a marketing tool," writes Rock Paper Shotgun contributor Kieron Gillen, who named Tabula Rasa as his favorite MMO of the year.

"By having an open beta, anyone who cares about MMOs will have already played it," continues Gillen. "And when they compare their experience to a reviewer, they tap the side of the head knowingly. Because they've played it, and it was a bit nob."

"But Tabula Rasa turned out pretty neat and now it's got a large number of people who've played the game who'll roll their eyes at its existence if mentioned," he concludes.

Having given Tabula Rasa a relatively unenthusiastic preview prior to its release, Shacknews is rolling its eyes.