The Great Tree

Daedalus · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:31 pm Post subject:

Yes, I can imagine that character interaction would have been brought down quite a bit post-prologue. The opening of new shards was the first sign of this, for continuity of the story can't happen on multiple servers -- and they never advertised likewise. They advertised new worlds and discoveries, not the character interaction.

The story was a huge surprise for me, and was responsible for how I became so involved with Uru. There was no question I would be playing the game, but I was certainly not expecting to be able to contribute to the grand scheme of things. Even if it was just done to keep things going between content updates, it was an ingenious way of doing so. I was certainly enthralled.

brian · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:40 pm Post subject:

Well, personally I hope they realize the power of that aspect of it, and if they somehow bring things back, make full use of it.
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Daedalus · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:42 pm Post subject:

Whenever I tell people of my time in Live, I usually receive a very intrigued response. If the interactive story was the selling point of Uru, I feel Live would have had a much different fate.

Professor Askew · Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:45 pm Post subject:

You're absolutely right, Daed. If Uru wasn't going to be a shooter...or a traditional leveling up RPG....what was it going to be? To push the theme of exploration is a mistake...there's not enough "game" there in this day and age. But, an interactive, immersive storyline? Now that's a hook. Even if only temporary. Because a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know what that means and the curiosity factor would play a part there. Of course, I'm not knocking exploration in any way, shape, or form because I'm an explorer at heart. But, to push that aspect is too definitive and misleading.

I never caught up with any of the Uru advertising so I'm not really sure what approach was taken. But, let's not talk about Uru advertising. That subject was beat to death years ago.
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tkwiggins · Explorer Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 23

If you can bear with me through a story...

For many years, until the dark days of the Empire (Eisner et al, c. 1984), my favorite escape was to the immersive virtual environment called Disneyland. As originally conceived, the purpose of the Park was simple -- to give visitors the feeling that they were in another world. Walt put it on a plaque that everyone can see as they enter: "Here you leave the world of today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy."

The pre-Eisner Park was conceived by film storytellers as a connected series of walk-through 3D film stories -- the VR of its day. Visitors were encouraged by what was not in the Park environment, as much as by what was, to suspend their disbelief and go along with the story. The tales of Walt insisting on what would later come to be called "IC" are legion. Anachronisms of sight, sound and speech were banned as carefully as on a movie set, and for the same reason -- suspension of disbelief, once broken, is harder to reestablish than it is to create in the first place.

In those pre-VR days, Imagineers talked about there being two kinds of Park visitors -- those who got it and those who didn't. That is, those who were predisposed to meet the storyteller halfway and go with the flow of the fantasy, and those who just saw the place as an amusement park. Age and sex had nothing to do with it; there seemed to be no common denominator to who was a "kid at heart." It's interesting, though, that up to the mid-1980's, adults outnumbered kids at Disneyland 4 to 1.

Reading the forum posts of those who not only don't get it but are frustrated with those who do, I'm reminded of the last time I sailed through Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a cavern I've explored literally hundreds of times, and still enjoy. On that particular trip the boat was packed with return visitors, a couple newbies, and a group of excited kids.

A 12-year-old boy in the back of the boat was the most excited of all. For some reason, he chose to express his excitement by loudly pointing out to his newbie cousins everything that had to do with the mechanism of the show, and nothing about its story or characters. "See that seagull? It's audio-animatronic!" "Aw, the donkey's still busted. It's been busted for a month. When're they gonna fix it?" "Check the clouds! Cool! They're projections. See? There's the projector." "Look! There's the camera where they watch us from!"

It went on like that for half the ride, until a little old lady in the seat in front of him turned around and yelled, "Put a sock in it, kid!" Whereupon the boat erupted in applause. The rest of the voyage was enjoyable, and everybody spontaneously sang the theme song at the end. Except the 12-year-old boy. He was silent. He looked unhappy.

Some people (I like to think most people) get it, enjoy it, are drawn to it -- that savory Twilight Zone where mind and heart coexist in a state between fantasy and reality. That delicious blending of what is simultaneously possible and impossible, serious and silly, profound and ridiculous.

Others don't get it. Of those, some are compelled to proclaim so to others.

The DRC Forum, like Uru and the Myst worlds, was and is about storytelling. About suspension of disbelief.

About inviting the audience to meet the storyteller halfway.

-tk

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"Why to we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. They're people who don't give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures."
--Walt Disney, 1965

brian · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:49 am Post subject:

Great post.
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taniith · Great Tree Member Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 98

Indeed. Very well put tk!
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Professor Askew · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:29 am Post subject:

Great poast, tk! And it's great to see you here at the Great Tree! Very Happy

Man, I can still remember my earliest rides on the Pirates of the Carribean. I didn't just meet the Imagineers halfway, I took off like a rocket!

"We're beggers and blighters and ne'er do well cads, drink up me heartys, yo ho!
Aye, but we're loved by our mummies and dad, drink up me heartys, yo ho!"
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

Moiety Jean · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:42 pm Post subject:

Welcome, tk! Wonderful opening post.

(btw, Moiety Jean hearts your "Appearance" Uru video)
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tkwiggins · Explorer Joined: 30 Dec 2005 Posts: 23

Thanks guys for your good words and warm welcome!

Daedalus · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 12:05 am Post subject:

Oh how I remember those moments at work. Just waiting for work/class to end to link back to Relto.

Was it really that long ago?

Eleri · Great Tree Member Joined: 27 May 2004 Posts: 819

My experience with Live was very breif, and was 100% IC, seeing as I am most definately not a buff guy with a ponytail. I might even pull him out of storage if things start happening again. And his lovely wife might even join him, she was, I think, the only black woman in cavern.
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Professor Askew · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:19 pm Post subject:

Sing it, sister! Laughing

Personally, I don't get all the hullabaloo. I've never known so many fans of a game...who don't want to play it!! Shocked

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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

brian · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:38 pm Post subject:

Eleri · Great Tree Member Joined: 27 May 2004 Posts: 819

And then there are those who seem to be having *entirely* too much fun dusting off their IC personalities Wink

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