Happy holidays! Have a present from all of us here at pixelsocks.com. Ok, so it was technically from NCsoft, but we aren’t above regifting.

You may recall Lord British’s abdication of his NCsoft throne or have heard that Tabula Rasa was in its final hours, but it’s finally completely free to play. Either way, the sci-fi MMORPG with FPS overtones is on its way out and the profit is all yours. If you’re willing to submit your credit card number to a MMORPG in its death throes, you can download the client for free and play without charge until the last server closes its ports forever.

Even if you’re not particularly excited by the gameplay, this is a chance to see how a MMORPG closes up shop. Will there be epic griefing now that there’s no banhammer to fear? Will there be any recognition in the game of the inevitable end? Will the servers fill to the brim with curious onlookers, or will Tabula Rasa pass unmarked? No matter what happens, you can always play armchair analyst and try to figure out what went wrong.

Richard Garriott (Lord British of Ultima fame) will be giving up his position at NCsoft. The eccentric multimillionaire gaming personality had an epiphany during his TRIP INTO SPACE. Time away from earth evidently shifted Garriott’s priorities and he has chosen to pursue other interests.

The trip, named Operation Immortality, also served to carry the work and genetic information of modern geniuses like Dr. Steven Hawking and honorary DFA Steven Colbert into space. Our human representatives will be preserved for posterity on the International Space Station in case of a catastrophic extinction event. If you’re into MMORPGs, think of it as wipe protection for the species.

It’s no secret that Garriott’s most recent game with NCsoft, Tabula Rasa, was something of a flop, but fleeing to space seems somehow excessive. Seriously though, it’s difficult to imagine what Lord British’s next exploit will be now that he has singlehandedly saved humanity from extinction by becoming the sixth private citizen to fly into space.