Cyan Worlds just announced that it will be reopening Myst Online: Uru Live in a limited capacity.  Uru’s history has been filled with anticipation and disappointment as it has opened and closed in various manifestations.  Which brings Eleri to ask the question “Why do we fight so hard for Uru?”

My answer?  I have an emotional attachment to the world and storyline.  I want to explore more of this world.  I can envision myself there.

I’m not sure why Azeroth or other worlds have not drawn me equally close.  Maybe it’s because D’ni was a place that was hinted at for 10 years in the Myst series until we finally got to “go” there.  Maybe it’s a level of realism and lack of a cluttered user interface.  Maybe it’s because I’ve met Uru’s players in game and in real life.  Maybe that, when I play Uru, I play “myself” and not “my character.”

I think all of these points draw towards one word: emmersion.  Whatever the reason, D’ni is a unique place that I want to continue to explore.

Related Posts

• Thoughts on closing Myst Online: Uru Live
• A beautiful home in Myst Online: Uru Live Video
• The ‘Verse meets Azeroth

Although I’m saddened to see Uru Live close once again, I’d like to thank GameTap for giving it a second chance. In this industry, second chances just don’t happen.

Uru has been an exciting and inspiring experience the entire time since D’ni Guild and the DRC site teased us with the first glimpses in 2001. I still remember the first time I saw another person in the Cavern. And the Bahro Glyph tours. And the time I watched Sharper and a group of friends tear into the Pub. And trying to figure out the puzzle that took a half-dozen people to solve. And arguing with Sharper about reading his journal. And listening to Phil. And exploring Ages with my brother. And hearing from friends about the latest Relto page to find. So many friends and memories here.

Uru was a story, a community, and an experience, which makes it unlike any game or MMO. I wonder what Cyan will do to follow it. I’d love to see the story of Uru continue, perhaps in an episodic cooperative game. Although Cyan might move on to other projects, there will always be a special place in my imagination for the story of Uru.

What do you think? What is your favorite Uru memory? What do you think Cyan should work on next?

Related Posts

• A beautiful home in Myst Online: Uru Live
• Exploring worlds beyond imagination in Uru Live
• Interacting with people makes good games great
• Wonderland: Uru Live and a note about environments
• Joystiq interviews Rand Miller of Cyan Worlds
• The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Video Games
• Uru Live to return this Fall
• Identifiable characters make good stories great
• What Uru Live could have been (and now could be)
• Christmas in Until Uru
• New life in Until Uru
• Cyan Chat Shard Party in Until Uru
• Myst teaches me how to find paradise
• Expedition Progress Report
• To D’ni
• Long Live Uru!
• Uru Goes Gold

 Related Links

•  Ten Ton Hammer interviews GameTap on Myst Online’s closure

My brother brings news that this month World of Warcraft is featuring a Brewfest. In the game you can sample a variety of ale, including Mudder’s Milk. Although I’m not a big fan of alcohol, I am a big fan of refrences to one of my favorite episodes of the Firefly TV series. Good job, Blizzard!

I can’t wait to experience the Firefly MMO where everything is a reference to Firefly. “We should go to the crappy planet where I’m a hero!”

Speaking of MMO easter eggs, I’ve known about the feather hidden in Eder Gira of Myst Online: Uru Live for a while now. But I didn’t learn until yesterday there there’s even more scattered throughout the new Ages. Have you found them all?

What do you think? Have you been partying at the Brewfest in WoW? What is your favorite game easter egg? Where else have you seen references to Firefly?

Related Posts

• Wired News: Firefly Reborn as Online Universe
• Celebrating July 4 in World of Warcraft
• Identifiable characters make good stories great
• What Uru Live could have been (and now could be)
• Ten Commandments for Playing an MMO

To my surprise last night, I overheard the evening news talking about prayer and sin. After a quick search, I found out the Vatican has issued Ten Commandments for Driving. It seemed a bit silly at first, but anything that makes drivers safer and friendlier is a good thing.

I wonder when (if?) MMO playing will be so widespread that it will prompt the Vatican to issue Ten Commandments for Playing an MMO. 2020, perhaps? Until then, here’s a few I thought of:

1. Be kind and courteous.
2. When using forums, think before you post. (See Posting and You.)
3. Share.
4. Ask before you prompt. Before challenging someone to a duel or inviting them to your group, send a private message to ask. Don’t repeatedly challenge someone to duel.
5. When going through a small dungeon or area and encounter another player, ask to group with that person before killing the boss. It’ll save the other person the respawn time.
6. After killing a foe, don’t set up camp at their body to wait for them to resurrect only to kill them for a third (or more) time.

I think players have a habit of ignorance; They don’t realize the avatar on the screen (either in the game or on the forums) is a real person. Or is rude behavior as prevalent in real life as well? I’ve been lucky to develop circles of friends in both virtual and real worlds; Not everyone in these worlds may be nice, but I’m very thankful to have an environment of kindness among these friends.

What commandments would you add to the list?

Related Links and Previous Posts

• Interacting with people makes good games great
• What Uru Live could have been (and now could be)
• Raph Koster posted Commandments for Online Worlds last year, with a target towards game developers.

So… Your Wife Doesn’t Game? reports on the recently named LEGO Universe MMO:

Brick by brick, the Dutch based LEGO Company and NetDevil are building excitement for the LEGO Universe and rebuilding the partially soiled reputation of NetDevil.

With an established brand name like LEGO, it’s easy to get too excited too quickly about an upcoming title, but LEGO and NetDevil are doing a tremendous job holding down the frenzy of excitement and faboi-ness surrounding the game.

My childhood was built around LEGO bricks. The fun and creative energy of LEGO has transfered well into the video game arena through LEGO Star Wars. This game surprised me and quickly became one of my favorites because it is easy to pick up, fun to play, and directed better than the new Star Wars movies. These two factors lead me to be very excited about the concept of a LEGO MMO.

But if the MMO will be focused on building (similar to LEGO Creator), it’s doomed to failure. Nothing virtual can duplicate the fun of building with real bricks. But if they head in the direction of LEGO Star Wars and use the LEGO franchise as a backdrop for cooperative gameplay, it could be just the game I’m looking for. Some building will be excellent to tap into the player-generated content buzz, but the cooperative style of LEGO Star Wars (and LittleBigPlanet) is what’ I’m looking for.

What have you built with LEGO bricks?

Previous posts about LEGO

These past few months have had some thrilling adventures in both the real and virtual worlds I explore. For now, I present you with Journey, my in-character journal for Myst Online: Uru Live. I think dinah and xamount at Angled Whiteboards get the award for most accurate and humorous description of one of my web sites:

“Deg [...] is journaling his experiences deep in Myst Online. So deep, in fact, that I have no idea what he’s talking about (Bahro screams? Hinged versus sliding doors?). But it sure sounds all kinds of intriguing.”

Check out Journey and see what I’ve been up to down in D’ni. In the meantime, I’ll keep chugging away on school/social/work/everything excitement.

Wired News: Firefly Reborn as Online Universe:

“Like Capt. Mal Reynolds stumbling in after a bar fight, the short-lived but much beloved sci-fi series Firefly will soon make an unexpected return, not as a TV show, but as a massively multiplayer online game.”

Very exciting news. I daydreamed about how I would do a Firefly MMO awhile back, but decided it would be too risky and hard to recreate the flavor of the show. I wonder if Multiverse can live up to the show’s quality…

Although Tom at Newbie Gamer Blog may be new to games, he’s quick to find my favorite theory behind fun:

“But when I think back on it, it wasn’t the games that made those nights so much fun. It was the fact that we were playing those games together.”

He’s got it exactly right. I’ve talked before on how identifiable characters can really improve stories. That’s amplified when those characters are real people.

I hate leveling in World of Warcraft, but I love playing with my friends and teaming up with (or against!) them. The fun comes from the stories–our triumph over a dragon, or our tragic death–we create together, not the tedious clicking on spider after spider. I stopped playing WoW a few months back because it was too hard for me to meet up with friends (most on different servers) to quest.

That’s partly why I’m so attracted to games like Myst Online: Uru Live. I also think it’s why I don’t see kids in the dorm rushing out to by next-generation consoles. We’re playing Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo64 and Guitar Hero on PS2. Because it’s the interaction with each other, not the console, that is fun.

I try to always play video games with friends. If I’m sitting in front of the computer for 4 hours by myself, that time has been wasted. How much of the time you spend gaming is with other people?

Wonderland: Uru Live and a note about environments:

“Uru Live is the first MMO since WoW [...] that has made me sit up and take notice…”

It’s great to have Uru Live coming back. It alone will justify GameTap’s subscription cost for me ($60/year - the price of one game for hundreds).

The environments definitely surprised me in the game (when it was in beta the first time around). I remember seeing a concept art sketch and thinking, “that could never be created in a realtime game.” Then, after turning a few corners, there it was. I was soaking up the vista view I deemed impossible.

Wonderland: NYTimes’ multimedia photojournalism
Entitled ‘Let The Video Games Begin’, Seth Schiesel narrates his story of the state of videogames in South Korea. It’s a nice, simple roundup of S.Korea’s particularly gaming-oriented culture; the multimedia presentation is also quite pleasant and lazy, allowing the reader listener viewer to sit back and watch the story, hands clasped contentedly on tummy . This is newspapers now? I like!

Excellent story.  Newspapers need more of this type of online presentation.