myst-online-uru-live
Latest
The Game Archaeologist: Myst Online: Uru Live
The impact of Myst in 1993 was akin to an atomic bomb going off in the PC gaming world. The leap forward in graphical fidelity (aided by the large storage capacity of a CD-ROM and all of the full-motion video and gorgeous images tucked into it) captured gamers' imaginations and made this adventure title the best-selling PC game of all time, at least for several years. Brothers Robyn and Rand Miller's story about a stranger who had to solve puzzles through a good-looking (if deserted) landscape was devilishly difficult, yet that challenge kept players coming back for months and even years. The Myst franchise surged forward at that point, with several sequels, remakes, and ports selling like hotcakes through the final game's release in 2005. Yet something interesting happened along the way when an offshoot of the series -- Uru: Ages Beyond Myst -- evolved into an MMO. With a focus on multiplayer exploration and puzzle-solving instead of non-stop combat, it may be one of the very few MMOs out there that eschews fighting for brainpower. It's an oddity, no doubt, and despite it being an incredibly niche title, it has fascinated me enough to pull me into a research rabbit hole. So let's take a look at Myst Online: Uru Live!
Rise and Shiny revisit: Myst Online: Uru Live
I'm just going to get this out at the beginning: I absolutely adore adventure games, and honesty above all honesty, I think adventure gaming is almost the perfect genre. I wish MMOs would play like adventure games. I wish that adventure games had multimillion dollar budgets so they could go on forever and ever, patch after patch of head-scratching puzzley goodness. I wish that adventure games were not as rare as they are. But I also wish I were actually good at adventure gaming. I have a hard time with puzzles. Gollum would have had me for lunch. I've been enjoying my time in Lilly Looking Through and Memoria so, so much, all the while becoming extremely depressed each and every time I look up a walkthrough that made me feel like a complete and total three-year-old who could barely assemble one of those funny multi-colored donut toys. The thing is, I'm smart, right? I was in those funny advanced classes that taught me languages and told me my IQ was high and were separate from the muggles. At one point they even did experiments on me that made me put together odd puzzle-thingies and attempt to control a primitive computer. Yet here I am now playing Words with Friends and trying to spell words like "THURK" or "ZSATS." Why on earth did I subject myself to the tough puzzles of Myst Online: Uru Live?
.png.cf.jpg)
Rise and Shiny: Genia Brain Storm
I love it when I come across a game that surprises me. I usually load up MMOs well before I commit to writing about them just to test out whether or not it's worthwhile. I've covered too many duds to know that if I don't check the game out, I could be stuck with a game that literally doesn't work. So I signed up for a free Brain Storm account, picked out where my city should be located (based on a real-world map), and started the tutorial. At first I thought that an MMO that is essentially one part quiz-show, one part MMORTS, and one part SimCity-ish builder would come off as hokey and much too easy. But I was wrong on a lot of fronts. This game is clever, clean, and a lot of fun.
Massively's Third Annual Frindie Awards
It's time once again for me to throw out my awards for the best of free-to-play, indie, and oddball MMOs, a real niche-within-a-niche. It might seem that I am assigned many of these titles as though I were some modern day Mikey, but the truth is that I get a huge thrill out of finding a new game but get even more of a thrill when I realize that no one is covering it. I had to really think hard about the criteria for the awards this year, mainly because "indie" is quickly becoming one of those often hard-to-define words, alongside "MMORPG" and "free-to-play." Fortunately, I think I know it when I see it. I kept my choices to games that I have actually played this year. I wanted to avoid games that appear to be really cool. If you want a more broad batch of prizes, check out Massively's best of awards. (Side note: I voted for Defiance as my game of the year.) These awards are for games that are being created on a shoestring or independent of massive budgets. Some of them are connected to some money, of course, but instead of trying to define "indie," I will only repeat: You'll know it when you see it.
Free for All: What a Memoria MMO might look like
There are a few styles of gaming that we just don't see much of anymore, and point-and-click adventure games has been one of those. The good news is that compared to other older styles like text-based or email-gaming, point-and-click adventuring is making a comeback. Thanks to the mobile market and its resurrected titles like Broken Sword and amazing newer games like The Walking Dead, adventure-lovers have much to do. Personally, I find adventure gaming to be a thrilling experience because they generally allow a player to use her brain more than her reflexes, and the experiences are usually quite beautiful too. Memoria is Daedalic Entertainment's latest adventure game set in The Dark Eye universe. It's often described as "the German Dungeons and Dragons." I'm not sure that the description gives either IP full credit, but The Dark Eye is one interesting universe. As usual, though, my mind wondered how the game could be worked into a multiplayer version. A massively multiplayer version. I've asked the same question of other games before, so let's look at how Memoria might make a killer MMO!
Chaos Theory: An adventure game is you!
I grew up on adventure games before I even knew they were called "adventure games." One of my earliest memories of a friend's computer was playing Adventure. Following that, I was hooked. Maniac Mansion. King's Quest. Zork. Planetfall. Leisure Suit Larry. Space Quest. The Secret of Monkey Island. Sam and Max Hit the Road. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Myst. Gabriel Knight. Syberia. The Longest Journey. Back to the Future. The Walking Dead. I've never stopped loving the fun of exploring these worlds, "earning" the next page of the story, and finding out all of the bizarre ways I could die. However, at some point in the '90s, games journalists apparently decided that "adventure games were dead." It's something we started hearing a lot of, especially in comparison to all of the fancy new graphics, gameplay features, and fast-paced shooters. Adventure games were seen as a relic of a time when computers couldn't process heavy graphic loads and players were a lot more patient. I never bought into the "adventure games are dead" mindset. I see them coming back like crazy these days, especially on tablets and mobile devices. And lo and behold, Funcom did something that I would have never thought possible: The studio made an MMO out of an adventure game. That's The Secret World, if you weren't following along.
The Game Archaeologist: Checking in with classic MMOs
What's this, you say as you rub your eyes in disbelief. Is it... The Game Archaeologist, long since thought lost in his expedition to Atlantis (and the trials therein)? It is indeed, my friends. TGA has been a long-running passion of mine on Massively, but I needed a break for a while to recouperate and refocus. However, as of late I've felt the call of neglected classic MMOs and wanted to make sure that they were getting some column love here on the site. So going forward, expect to see The Game Archaeologist pop out of his hidey hole once or twice a month to talk about our old favorites and perhaps pontificate more on the history of MMO development. Sound good? Did you miss me at all? You totally didn't, did you. If you've been out of touch with classic MMOs, I've done the legwork this week to provide you with the 10 important and relevant news items that are sweeping through this aging yet still vibrant community. Read on, McDuff!
Myst Online goes open source (again)
If a dictionary entry for the phrase "long, strange road" existed, it likely would feature an image from Myst Online. The fantasy MMORPG began its checkered life as the multiplayer component of 2003's Uru: Ages Beyond Mist before being scrapped and subsequently revived by GameTap in 2007. Cyan Worlds then acquired the title and released it as a free-to-play MMO, a strange move considering that the company also open-sourced Myst Online assets in 2008 but continued to support a commercial-grade centralized shard. This morning, Rock, Paper Shotgun tipped us to the fact that Cyan is once again fanning the flames of open source by announcing that the game's MOULA client engine and associated development tools (as well as a MOULA server replacement called MOSS) will be made available and hosted on OpenUru.org. "The goal of the open source CyanWorlds.com Engine and the MOSS server is to provide a playground where new writers can learn their craft, and new maintainers can inspect it, and new cartographers can map it. The Cyan Worlds MOULA servers will continue to provide a (relatively) safe environment for the D'ni faithful to mingle and share," explains Cyan's Rand Miller.
Mysterium calls the Myst Online faithful
Shorah, Myst faithful! It's time once again to make your plans to attend this year's Mysterium, the gathering for devoted D'ni scholars and fans of Cyan Worlds' Myst -- including, of course, Myst Online: URU Live. This year's event will be held August 5th through the 8th in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with tickets currently going for the low price of $20. As with previous years, the team behind Mysterium are soliciting designs for a convention logo as well as submissions of stories and other original works based on the worlds of Myst for inclusion in the convention book. (Mind you, all submissions must fit Cyan Worlds' guidelines for fan-created content.) The events are still in the early stages of planning, but they currently show live quests, puzzle challenges, and we'd bet there will be some bevin meetups for Myst Online: URU Live cavern-dwellers in the mix. Considering CAVCON (or "cavern condition" for those unfamiliar) is currently standing at 4 (read: good) in regards to the current funding for Myst Online: URU Live, perhaps we'll see some official representatives from Cyan sign up to host a panel or two this year as well. Either way, it should be fun for all the D'ni devotees!
Myst Online roars back to life with a Welcome Back block party
This is the Myst that doesn't end, yes it goes on and on my friends... All jokes about the amazing resilience of Myst Online: URU Live aside, it appears that things are going well since Cyan Worlds brought the game back online. In a post on the official forums, it appears that the CAVCON (or Cavern Condition) is standing at 4, which -- unlike DEFCON -- is a good thing. CAVCON 4 indicates that they've gotten enough donations to cover the current operating expenses and are able to put a little to the side for the future. There have also been 13,997 accounts created, and 46,881 logins during the week ending Feb. 24th -- very good news! To celebrate the resurrection of MO:UL, the Guild of Messengers is reporting that there is going to be an enormous "Return to URU Block Party" held this upcoming weekend: March 5-7. The party is being thrown by the Guild of Maintainers, and is open for everyone to attend -- from the old-school cavern-crawling D'ni scholars to brand new seekers fresh from the desert! If you've ever wanted to try out Myst Online: URU Live but didn't know anyone in the game, this is a great way to meet some new friends and fellow adventurers. So check out Sera's great new player guide, strap on your Ki, and we'll see you in the caverns!
An introduction to Myst Online for newbies
Shorah! Many years have passed since Myst was released to game stores everywhere, conquering the sales charts and mystifying anyone with a CD-ROM drive. Since then, the game has pretty much been the defining jewel of the adventure/puzzle genre, releasing four more titles in the series and creating a spinoff that we here at Massively have always been interested in: Myst Online. However, its been years since an adventure game has captivated audiences. Some of you have played Myst long ago but were stumped by the onslaught of difficult puzzles while others have never even touched the game. But, with the re-opening of Myst Online and Cyan's servers getting slammed with people, you're interested. You want to know what Myst offers, but there's so much to learn, right? Today I want to guide you through what makes Myst so beautiful, and give you some tips on how to get your foot in the door with Myst Online (sans spoilers, of course.)
Myst Online: Uru Live gets a third shot at success
The online multiplayer portion of Cyan Worlds' Uru: Ages Beyond Myst has had about as troubled a past as video games can have. It never made it out of its beta stage when Uru first launched in 2004. Three years later, GameTap opened up servers for the game -- but a lack of subscribers led to them being shut down after just one year. Earlier today, the developer proved its persistence by re-launching the game once more; this time, as a totally free-to-play MMO. So, once more, with feeling -- you can download and sign up for Myst Online on the game's official site for zero dollars. After that, you and all your friends can start running around, touching glyphs and magic books to your heart's desire. [Via Big Download]
Myst Online is alive... again... for the, um, we lost count how many times it died
Myst fans, rejoice one more time. The game that gives Lazarus a run for his money, Myst Online: URU Live, is kicking once more. Cyan Worlds has gotten enough money together again to start up a brand new Myst server as the first phase of making Myst Online an open source project. The cavern that's online now is mostly the same cavern that GameTap had right as the game went offline. Best news of all? Myst Online is free. Yes, you heard us right -- free. Free as in no subscription, no paying for the client, no nothing. They're welcoming all cavern dwellers, new and old, back to the depths of D'ni. Their account creation page is getting hammered right now, as everyone wants to get back in ASAP, so if you can't create an account just give it some time. While the game is free, servers and running a business are not. Cyan has opened up a donation page on PayPal for anyone who wants to donate towards the game's bills, so if you're feeling generous then by all means show Uru some support. The game has been through hell and back, and some help would be much appreciated around the Cyan offices. They've even said they're working on a little present for those who donate... So, readers of Massively, can I get a shorah?
The Daily Grind: Should players be rewarded for creating content?
American McGee, during a recent Geek.com interview, made a comment about user-generated content in games that made us stop and think. The snip in question was: "...I think if game products or publishers are relying on "outside the box" content created by users to drive interest in their titles – then they should find ways of compensating those users for developing added value." While he may have been talking about Little Big Planet at the time, we thought immediately of City of Heroes Issue 14, and other systems like Myst Online: URU Live, which will be depending on player-created content for future growth when it comes back up.You could argue that at this point players who create and run Mission Architect content are largely already rewarded; there are several badges available that way, and it's a nice break from the regular missions when you've already run them eleventy-billion times since launch. Of course, as anyone who has actually built a mission arc can tell you, writing one can suck away some serious time from you very easily. So this morning, we thought we'd take it to you, the Massively community - do you think players should be rewarded in some fashion for creating content in MMOs? Should it be something simple like badges, or should it be more involved? Should Paragon Studios and NCsoft look at giving players who create quality arcs more space to create in? Free game time? Or is the ability to create fun content and get recognized by the community for writing good arcs enough reward in itself?
Mysterium registration open for URU Live fans
Shorah, followers of Myst Online: URU Live! We know you're waiting patiently to return to the cavern, and to add your own special contributions as part of the open-source Myst Online: URU Live project as promised back in December. However, if you're looking for something to keep your dreams alive in the meantime, there's some good news for you from the Guild of Messengers. News has come down that registration is now open for this year's Mysterium! This year's event celebrating all things Myst will be held in Spokane, WA from July 30th to August 2nd. Tickets are all very reasonably priced, with some special pricing options available for day-passes, families, and groups. Admittedly, there's not a lot up on the site as of yet, but we're sure there will be all manner of Myst and Cyan Worlds goodness dreamed up by the community in no time. So if you love all things Myst and Myst Online, consider popping in to Mysterium this year for a good time with your fellow faithful Myst friends, both old and new.
The Daily Grind: Open source MMOs
In an amazing bit of news yesterday, Cyan Worlds decided to fully open-source Myst Online: URU Live. When we say fully, we mean it - art, client code, server code, development engine, everything. It was a bold move for Cyan to take; essentially trusting in the fans and other MMO addicts to take their code and continue growing Myst Online: URU Live.This morning we thought we'd ask - now that this first step has been taken, what other games would you like to see go open source? Which ones would you like to work on, purely as a fan contribution? What would you build into those worlds if you were given the chance?
Myst Online goes fully open-source
As many know, Myst Online: URU Live has had an incredibly rocky road throughout its history. First sunsetted by Ubisoft, then by GameTap, URU's fans agreed to trying MORE (Myst Online Restoration Experiment) after Cyan Worlds got their IP back. Most recently in October, Cyan posted word that due to financial difficulties, URU and the entire MORE project would be placed on indefinite hold. Since then, nothing - until now. In a startling move, Cyan Worlds has decided to release all of URU Live's assets to the public as open source. This includes the client and server architecture. Amazingly, they aren't simply releasing it into the wild and leaving it alone; Cyan has decided to hold one Myst Online server shard open for players to have a centralized world, despite the fact that others can now freely put up their own Myst Online servers. It's a bold and daring move to open source a project of this scale. We applaud Cyan Worlds' dedication to their fans and love of their game to take a brave step like this, and wish all the URU users the best as they develop their worlds as they see fit. It's going to be really interesting to see how this develops.
The week in Massively features
Massively interview: KingsIsle on Wizard101We recently had the chance to check up on KingsIsle and talk to them about their three-year conjuration, Wizard101. We sat down with the studio's director, Todd Coleman, to discuss what's in store for the tween-centric wizard school MMO. First Impressions: Requiem: BloodymareWe've been talking about this game for months now, and Requiem: Bloodymare is finally available to play. Hailed as the first horror MMO, there are definitely aspects of R:B that are pretty gruesome. EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with ChribbaTrust is a rare commodity in EVE Online. Many players are drawn to the game by the fact that almost any form of deceit, betrayal, and outright treachery is allowed in EVE. Not all players head down this path, of course, but plenty do. This element of risk is what makes the game exciting ... MMOGology: Mobile MMOGsSeveral weeks ago at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) Steve Jobs announced the 3G iPhone. The announcement wasn't much of a shock to industry experts since other cell phones have been using 3G networks ... MMO MMOnkey: Why I stopped playing Age of ConanI like Age of Conan. I like the combat system that demands active engagement rather than the auto-attack, go-make-a-cup-of-coffee style of combat used in so many other MMOs. I enjoy exploring Funcom's recreation of Hyboria ...
The reasons why you need to play Myst Online: Uru Live
Shorah, readers! Kehnehn rahm b'yihm shehm!Myst Online: Uru Live seems to be one game that not only continually gets the proverbial shaft, but also knows how to come back from the dead better than the Scourge of the Eastern Plaguelands. Ubisoft canned it, Cyan Worlds brought it back via a shard system in "Until Uru", GameTap brought it back officially, GameTap canned it after one season, and now Cyan Worlds is once again attempting to put life back into their only online Myst game thanks to the extremely active and vocal community.Mike Fahey over at Kotaku might think Uru should die already, but this blogger is currently squealing in glee in his computer chair. In an attempt to pass the glee on to you, loyal readers of Massively.com, I've compiled not only what Myst Online: Uru Live is all about, but why you should turn your attention to this massive online adventure game.
Cyan acquires Myst Online, opens game development to fans
We all felt for the Myst community a few months back when Myst Online: URU Live was shutdown. Yet there looks to be some light at the end of the dark tunnel for fans of the unique MMO experience, as Cyan Worlds has acquired the game back from GameTap and plans to re-open its worlds for fans to not only play in, but help develop as well. With a staff that equals less than ten people total, we can understand why the developers are opting for letting the fans help develop new content. Plus, it's a really interesting prospect to have people like the Restoration Engineers creating new content in their own beloved title.We've seen a few games take on user-created content, with Pirates of the Burning Sea coming to mind. However, the type of content one would expect for Myst Online is entirely unique to any other MMO. This is literally a chance for players to see their own stories and puzzles featured in one of their most beloved franchises. Cyan has said that they're considering a $25 per six month fee purely to maintain in-house servers for the players to run on, which is a very small price to pay for the resurrection of an MMO like this.[via Kotaku]
