NCSoft has released Designer Diary #4 from Paul Sage who goes into one of Tabula Rasa's most interesting features, Cloning. This mechanic allows players to make an identical duplicate of their character so they can go back and choose a different path later. Sage explains the reasoning behind the process and how it works over at Gamespot.

The idea behind cloning is to give players the ability to save their progress with a particular character before making a major change. It allows a player to say, “I want to do something radical or something I’m not quite sure of,” while acting as an insurance of sorts while they try something they may not have done yet. It allows players to have more choices and try new classes and builds without worrying that once that change is made, there is no going back. In my mind, while I was helping to develop this system, I was hoping that we could encourage players to not be as cautious as they might be with a typical MMO. To encourage them to take chances and try new things.

Move on over to Gamespot to see the entire thing.