The Great Tree

[K'Dahta]

Very OOC-

This is coming out of left field, but I was just reading thru some of the discussions over at the Uru Live forums, and it got me thinking.

Someone started a topic in which he/she stated that he/she was bored with Uru. This is a sentiment that is probably shared at this point by many people who have been around since the beginning. Eleri summed it up very well in that thread- for many of us, Uru has been a 4+ year beta test. We have done everything that there is to do a thousand times. The only varying and non-static elements of the game right now are chatting, helping new explorers, and playing Heek (if you can call that non-static). There are also the fan-made storylines, (the "sit-ins" and "movements"), but those are a dime a dozen it seems. I think that the reason we are seeing so many of those is due to the lack of new things to do. People are trying to fill the void with their own material.

When Prologue launched 3 years ago, everything was new. The Journey was new, so everyone was in the same boat. We were flooded with new content, new things to do, and new places to explore. On top of that, we had a dynamic and evolving storyline to tie the game elements together. Granted, the game is new to many current explorers, as clearly only a fraction of current explorers participated in Prologue.

Now, we have a void. When Uru launched, Cyan released 5-6 years worth of content development all at once. Now, we're in a cycle of "create a bit of content, release it, repeat." Things are much slower.

I guess I'm begging the question- can a game like this truly work? It is the only game in its genre. Virtually all the other multiplayer online games work differently- they are RPG's. There is never a point where there is nothing new for you to do in them, because you can always level up and battle opponents. Those games hardly require new input from the developers after they're released, because they fuel themselves. Uru isn't that type of game. At this point, Uru is solely fueled by inputs from the developers. I know we make our own decisions, and we decide how we want to contribute to the storyline, but as we have recently seen, the best-quality content is originated by the developer. (Bored explorers only seem to be good at causing trouble ). Even TGT, the epitome of explorer-driven content, was prompted by a lead from Cyan (Sharper's conversations with Brian).

Will Cyan be able to be quick and creative enough to keep the game alive? IMO, we will need to have visible, tangible, and meaningful inputs from them at least weekly in order to keep a good portion of players coming back. We recently received Delin and Tsogal within close proximity of each other, but those were in development since last Spring, or perhaps earlier. At their current rate of content creation, things will only continue to get farther and farther apart, because the amount of prior-created content will run out.

I'm not posting this to be a whiner or complainer. I am not in any way unappreciative of Cyan's work. I love Uru, I love the community, and I recognize Cyan's creative genius. I first played Myst almost immediately after it was ported to the PC in '94. I was only a baby then. I've been a member of the Myst community (albeit without a public presence) since the Riven Guilds formed in '97. That's about 10 years! I've visited at least one Myst community site almost daily for that entire interval of time. Sometimes, I swear, I've visited over 100 a day. I've seen the community's birth, growth, hardships, and good times. And I'm not about to go anywhere anytime soon, I can guarantee that. I am a devoted Myst fan through and through. I love the community. I grew up with it. It more than just a hobby for me, it is a way of life, and I'm sure it will remain that way into the distant future.

I'm just throwing these thoughts out there. Thanks for listening.

[Daedalus]

Just so you know, moved this to the Randomness forum for OOC's sake.

This is a great topic, but my own response must wait until tomorrow.

[Durin Mephit]

Likewise, a comprehensive response from me will have to wait.

However, I'll briefly state:
* I share some of the same concerns
* You shouldn't be afraid to express these ideas at MystOnline.com
* I'm sure Cyan will listen but it's difficult for them to predict what players want if the majority of the feedback is "not what we're getting now". It's a lot like this common problem: "What do you want to eat?" "Not Mexican. Not Chinese. Not Italian..." "OK, but what do you want to eat?" "Not Japanese. Not Thai..." "OK, but WHAT DO YOU WANT?". I'm as guilty of this as the next person, but we all need to break out of it.
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[Cycreim]

Uru being boring might be due to low amounts of communication between the devs and the players.

The low amounts of communication between the devs and the players is due to Cyan employees' time being stretched very thin between three or four or five full-time jobs.

The reason for this is because Cyan doesn't have enough money to hire on new people.

The impression I get is that they're doing the best they can with what they have... not to shoot down the sentiment, I can be bored with Uru as well. It isn't because Cyan is BAD at storytelling, it's just that they can't do the crazy fun stuff we want on such a limited scale.

If they had more staff I'm sure we'd see more interesting storyline stuff.
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[Anna Catherine]

I said this at the DRC Forums, but I'll say it again as it's somewhat appropriate for this thread.

I think at least part of the current discontent is that Uru was marketed very strangely given what it actually is. The way the game was advertised focused not on non-stessful exploration and community dynamic (which are Uru's clear strengths) but, with the "Destruction is coming, find a way, make a home" thing, on plot... which at the moment is an admitted weak point.

I think the reason people aren't picking up on more subtle potential plot threads... which are definitely there... is that they were led to believe something more dramatic and epic is coming. People are waiting because they were told to wait. They were told something is coming, not that they would be the ones making things happen. And... I think this marketing strategy may have done some serious damage to Uru that Uru really didn't need, and is making it harder for people to see ways to be involved because the expectation is so different from the reality.

Can Uru work? Well... yes, I certainly think it can. If I didn't believe in it, I wouldn't be here. But I do think Cyan needs to make sure everyone is on the same page with expectations. If they can't do any more plot than they are at the moment... make it clear that interaction with the official characters is what there is to do now. Play up Uru's strengths rather than trying to disguise its weaknesses. Give people a little guidance about what is likely to advance the story, even in very general terms (i.e. not necessarily "Talk to Engberg about X," but more like "The best way to advance the plot is to talk to the official characters and see what they know.") Back off "destruction is coming," and focus on "make a home."

Some people will still be discontented, because that's human nature, and there's never going to be a time when everyone likes Uru. That's OK. But if Uru is going to make it, there does need to be communication and a clarifying of expectations on all sides.

Annacat
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[Erik]

Yeah, lots of topics going on about people who're becoming bored... I must day, I'm getting bored of those topics from those who are bored.

We all know (don't we?) that Cyan has the skills and the imagination to make URU something beautiful, something exciting, with a cool storyline... we know Cyan can do that.

But, they don't have that much money at the moment, and not that much developers. We have to give them a chance... things are a bit slow now. But if we'll continue to support Cyan, I know URU will become the awesome game we all want that much.

I'm not saying this for charity for Cyan, but I just know that Cyan can make something beautiful out of Uru, if they have enough resources...

I'm still enjoying URU every minute, all those posibilities... al those pedestals... the Age list.... there's a lot to come.

[Eleri]

Cyan NEEDS an anonymous, behind the scenes, fan council that they can discuss meta-plot elements with.
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[Daedalus]

What Cyan needs is a friggin' plot, which is nonexistant at the moment.

[Durin Mephit]

As long as by "meta-plot" you mean details of fan-run plots and not Cyan's, I agree.

And I agree that right now, we need some of that to fill the void because Cyan's plot is MIA.
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[K'Dahta]

Daedalus- that's kind of exactly my point.

Annacat is right- we need to be given the leads. We need to be pointed in the right direction. Even if there's not a lot on the table, we need to be shown what out of that amount of content we should focus on, and how we should go about doing it.

The question I was trying to raise here was a broader point. My point is, can a game like Uru work, even if Cyan were fully resourced and pulling all the stops? Will they be able to provide years of evolving storyline? I think that the long-term goal for Uru's success is explorer interaction. We need to strike a balance of how explorer input should occur, and how it should work in coordination with the "official" storyline elements. Prologue seemed to successfully find that vibe. In my opinion, we should strive to return to that former state.

[Quaxo]

I think something like Uru can "work". It's just a matter of keeping people busy. Okay, I haven't played much World of Warcraft, but enough to see why people keep coming back and spend hours upon hours...okay, maybe not that last bit (I'd like to think I have a bit more of a life than that). The point is, in a game like that with immersive multi-player capacities (like Uru claims to have) is that there is ALWAYS something to do. I am VERY glad there are no weapons, levels, currency and crap like that (something that turned me off of things like WoW and Gaia - I have a strong antipathy towards money), but people need to be kept busy. I despise make-work and I think Cyan does to, therefore there needs to be something else to keep people entertained between updates of new ages and such.

With something as ambitious as Uru, you have to start out whole-hog. What is happening now is what happens when you don't. Personally, I think it would be best to go into debt in the short term and hire more people, than to watch another iteration of Uru go down the tubes. Now, I don't think things are as serious as all that yet, but I'm concerned about what will happen in the next two months or so if things stay the same.

If Cyan has anything going for them, it is their fans. Myst fans are the most supportive, caring, in-depth community I have ever seen. They have carried the dreams of Cyan on their backs and made the dreams their own. I think - to pull them through this slump - that Cyan needs to make better use of this resource. This community is full of very intelligent people who are often willing to give their time and ideas to help! I agree with K'Dahta that a balance needs to be struck between them and the explorers...and soon.

Bottom line: explorers aren't the only ones who need to change and seek out new methods of achieving their goals.
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