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Myst Online: Uru Live Again

Welcome back, again,

Everything takes longer than expected these days. Cyan Worlds’ plans are to move MO:UL to open source, and we finally have some good news. We’ve taken a first step and started a MO:UL server, so the Ages of Uru are available again. We’ve opened all the Ages, and added most of the goodies in MO:UL. We’re referring to it as MO:ULagain—feel free to explore and enjoy.

And the cost is pretty good. Free!

To begin playing, click on the Play link to create an account.

If you’re so inclined, we’ve provided a way for you to donate via PayPal to help offset our costs, and show your support. Five or ten bucks would go a long way toward helping pay the server and people bills. (No promises, but we’re trying to figure out a way to show our appreciation to supporters by giving you a little something extra in MO:ULagain.) But don’t feel obligated—we’re just glad to have the cavern open once again.

Thanks for helping keep Uru alive!

If you would like to donate to the MO:ULagain project, click on the PayPal button below. During the checkout process, please click on MO:UL Account and Player ID and enter both your Account (email address you used to sign up for MO:UL) and your Player name. We’ll need both—spelled correctly. Thanks!

Open Source Uru Live

Shorah fans of Cyan,

As you may be aware, Cyan’s situation has not improved on the “resources” front. We continue to work on small projects (including Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch), and it looks like we will only be able to concentrate on projects that are fully funded for the foreseeable future.

However, all of us at Cyan and everybody that has ever worked on the creation and building of the dream called Uru Live (a.k.a. Mudpie, Untìl Uru, Myst Online: Uru Live and MORE ) can not just let it die! (My definitions: ”Uru Live” is the original dream of the virtual world. And ”Myst Online” is the current implementation of Uru Live.)

So, Cyan has decided to give make Myst Online available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for Myst Online as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for Myst Online. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.

This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we’ve poured so much into Uru Live, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for Uru Live and/or work on the next Uru Live.

This is also a bit scary for the fans. We realize that this could turn Uru Live into the “wild west” and lead to many fractured and diverse Myst Online servers. But it is our hope that with the help of dedicated core fans (if you are reading this, it probably means you) that a safe and secure Myst Online server set (many servers from around the world working together as one) can be created that will let people explore and live in Uru Live.

We also are pretty sure that releasing Myst Online will result in some pleasant surprises for us. Our fans have always been so innovative, creative, and resourceful!

This release will probably be accomplished in stages, but we hope to get things ready for the first stage very quickly. More details to surely follow.

MORE Uru Live status—strange times

Sorry for the long silence, things have been quickly shifting in these strange times.

Even though the development of MORE Uru Live has been progressing (the new account system is nearly done!), I’m sorry to say that outside events have caused us to put this project on indefinite hold.

The MORE project was not funded directly but was riding on the coat tails of other projects. Unfortunately and very suddenly, a major revenue stream to Cyan was disrupted. The current Wall Street problems have had a significant, although indirect, effect.

We have no alternative than to put this project on hold. The ultimate future of MORE Uru Live will be determined over the coming months. If or when moneys become available we will reassess the roadmap at that time.

Currently, Cyan is redirecting its priorities to focus only on fully funded projects. Of which, Myst for the iPhone/iPod Touch is one of and that project is progressing very well.

From all of us at Cyan, thank you for all your support.

Myst Online: Restoration Experiment

Shorah,

We’ve got some good news. GameTap and Cyan Worlds have reached an agreement that would return the rights of Myst Online to Cyan Worlds! We’re very excited, but at the same time, there are some hurdles to overcome. Cyan Worlds is currently operating at a reduced capacity. We’re not in a position where we have plenty of resources and people to bring Myst Online back fast and furiously. But we’ve got a plan, and we’d like to run it past you—our fans and supporters.

Please realize that this roadmap is tentative and dynamic—but it’s a starting point. There’s no guarantee that we can accomplish all of these milestones, but they are something to discuss, adjust, and shoot for. We also need to mention that the roadmap below will most likely involve some minimal subscriber fees—something along the lines of $25 (US) for six months. (That number is subject to change.) We are not trying to make any money on this at this stage—but we do need to cover some of the costs. (Additional fees may apply for future Cyan content, front-end shard ownership, etc.)

You should know that the roadmap does not involve any new content from Cyan at this time. The plan is to start to move the content creation—the “Art”—to you. In addition the guilds themselves will start to exercise some authority in writing, monitoring, approving, communicating, etc.

For now, please watch and participate in the Myst Online: Uru Live forums. This will be a good place to find updates—as well as through the Guild of Messengers and their affiliates. Also, consider joining one of the Guilds.

And because we felt like we all needed a little levity to combat the crazy whiplash of the continuing death and resurrection of Myst Online, we’ve decided to temporarily name the resurrection plan—Myst Online: Restoration Experiment ( MORE ) as in “We want MORE!”

Thanks again for so much support!

The MORE team

Roadmap

MORE servers will be restarted. These will be run by Cyan and run on machines that are either owned or leased by Cyan. The software and game assets will be as it was when Myst Online was shutdown on the GameTap servers. However, all accounts and avatars from the GameTap servers will not be available and will have to be re-created.

There will be some restructuring of MystOnline.com to accommodate the new direction of MORE . Including the forums and the policies running the forum.

Release of the 3ds Max Plasma plugins for creating MORE content. Release of the source for the plugin (only) to the Guild of Writers. This will allow for the easier creation of fan created tools as well as being able to use what Cyan used for creating Myst Online content.

The Guild of Maintainers (in conjunction with the Guild of Writers) will act as an agent in approving fan created content creation for MORE .

Create methods and processes for testing fan created MORE content. How this will work has not been determined but is crucial for fan created content. Then a process will be created to bring Guild of Maintainers final approved and tested content forward to main server for all users to enjoy.

Release binaries for a few front end servers to be run on fan run servers (front end shards). These fan run servers will have to be registered with the Cyan server and will help alleviate bandwidth issues. These front end processes will be limited to game servers and file servers. All authentication and avatar databases would still be handled by Cyan servers. This way a user needs only one account with all their avatars, no matter what front end shard they connect to. As a matter of fact, accessing the front end shards will be seamless for the user, and they may never know (or care) which one they are running on.

Create processes and release binary updates to the front end shards so that shard owners can host specific age game instances (such as a particular Neighborhood) and be able to control the states of that instance. End users will not have to do anything special other than link to that age and they will be routed to the shard that is hosting it. This will allow the front end shard owners to provide unique experiences on the age instance that they host. (By the way, the states the front end shard owner’s change will only affect the instance of the age they are hosting and will not affect other age’s states, even if it is the same age.)

(Pie in the sky milestone!) Cyan Worlds will create new content and storyline. This may be done solely by Cyan or in conjunction with the Guilds.

Press Conference

To answer the inevitable deluge of questions arising from this roadmap, Cyan will conduct a press conference on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) starting around Thursday July 3, 2008 at 9 AM Pacific Daylight Time (Noon Eastern). (For a list of international cities and times, please see timeanddate.com.)

If you are not familiar with IRC , the Guild of Messengers has put up a gateway to make your experience easy and pleasant. Visit rel.to/IRC and click the “#cyanchat” entry, and after a moment, you will be prompted for your name. Enter your nickname and press “Connect”, and that is all you need to do. No pre-registration or account is needed.

If you are a veteran at IRC , all of the information that you’ll need to join the press conference is listed on the rel.to/IRC page.

Note: Conversation that you observe from a user named “CC” is being channeled into #cyanchat by a relay connected to CyanChat, Cyan’s own chat room. For relayed chat, the name in brackets following “CC” is the identify of the speaker.