The Great Tree

[Ashtar]

Grey Dragon was in the GoG hood this evening with a very important message to all explorers. It is imperative that we try to get as many people on D'mala within the next couple of weeks as we possibly can. The future of Uru Live depends on it. So if you have friends that you know from the prologue but has not been on D'mala yet, please, send them an invite. I will be contacting a few people I knew this evening, and if everyone participates, we will be able to make a difference.

This should be the number one issue of discussion for the meeting this Saturday.

BTW, GD also mentioned a signed copy of Myst V for whomever sends out the most invites. He didn't mention who it would be signed by, but the one I offered for the GT Music video prize was signed by almost everyone, including Rand

Here is a link to the chat log, or what we were able to obtain for the time WelderGeek and I was there:

http://www.greattreeshard.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1278#1278

Ashtar
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Uru Live KI #: 69208

[Rils]

holy moly, is there an official announcement related to this? or at least a chatlog? That's a pretty sweet offer!

~Rils
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[Durin Mephit]

I am definitely going to invite everyone I can... talking to them politely and working to build interest before throwing an e-mail at them, of course.

One gotcha: It is getting nearly impossible to purchase URU: Ages Beyond MYST or URU: Complete Chronicles anywhere online. I can't find them at EBGames.com, Gamestop.com or CDUniverse.com. I've found Path of the Shell at some of those sites, but of course that is useless as it isn't a standalone game. In the process of pushing this project, we need to know where people can buy the original game or the Complete Chronicles. Cyan's website points to Amazon.com... which is only selling copies from unknown 3rd parties now.

It looks like copies of Complete Chronicles can be had for $13.12 from http://www.videogamerworld.com/ or for $17.50 from http://www.nuLime.com/ .
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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[Cycreim]

Pretty much everyone from the DRC to the Cyanists have been saying that there needs to be a lot more people down in the cavern than there are currently.

But you know I don't think we need a meeting to organize that. We should certainly bring it up, right at the start of the meeting or whenever it's most convenient to do so, but I'd like to keep this meeting mostly IC.

I mean, we've got some good plot threads going here, and if we play our cards right, that should help attract a lot of old Prologue players who think "nothing is going on" since it's just UU. Cyan's got something going, and even with a lack of content we still might be able to eke out some new stuff that would be very interesting for old Prologue players, even if it's just expanded knowledge of, say, Teledahn.

EDIT: We can totally work in the funding thing and make it IC, since the DRC need funding too. And the fact that the DRC have made a complete about-face on their feelings toward more explorers in the cavern should make for some interesting options.
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KI: 34353

[Ashtar]

Oh, I agree Cycreim and I don't want to distract from the IC part of the meeting. But look at it this way. If D'mala fails, then you can forget anymore IC fun in the future except with another MMORPG. So I think what GreyDragon mentioned should at least be discussed.

Ashtar
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Uru Live KI #: 69208

[Cycreim]

Oh yeah for sure. I'm not saying it's not a priority!

The meeting is meant to discuss the future of The Great Tree, after all, and without Uru Live, where does that put us, exactly?

I mean here's what I'm thinking we have to keep in mind:

1) Getting old players interested as well as keeping new players active is just a simple matter of branching out and putting our machinations in the open. Well, okay, it's not a simple matter, and it may require a bit of playing along from Cyan, but if we can get these broiling plot threads I've started seeing everywhere and turn one of them into something exciting for everyone, then by all means we should figure out how.

2) Getting new players is going to be significantly harder. Simple contentless answers won't satisfy people who have no idea what an Age even is. Have you ever tried explaining it? It's hard to define! It's hard getting people to play a game for its potential, rather than what it actually is. What are ways in which we can make Uru's complexity and uniqueness apparent to people who may have overlooked it as "just another Myst game"?
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KI: 34353

[Durin Mephit]

OOC: I think somebody needs to talk to Cyan about the difficulty of people even finding a copy of the game before we talk about trying to make it interesting. Otherwise, you're just describing an impressive piece of vaporware to your intended converts.

Complicating matters, Cyan has no Until Uru patch for Uru 1.2. You can patch Uru 1.0, and you patch Complete Chronicles, but not 1.2. Direct2Drive offers a downloadable version of Uru for people in North America, here: http://www.direct2drive.com/19/product/Buy-URU:-Ages-Beyond-MYST-Download
But from discussions on UruObsession I've learned that the Direct2Drive version is 1.2 and therefore cannot be used for Until Uru.

So, two things:

(1) There's a limited number of copies of Uru on bargain shelves sitting across America (or even around the world). We'll have better luck if we identify people who would try Until Uru and work to distribute those boxes to those people, rather than letting bored parents buy it for their disinterested twitch 8-year-old who'll sit it on a shelf and go back to playing Warcraft.

(2) It would help immensely if we can convince Cyan to invest the resources to provide an Until Uru patch for 1.2.
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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[Daedalus]

Even if such a task was put into action ("recruiting" explorers), I would estimate less than 100 extra UUers... if that.

[Professor Askew]

Agreed. This is an odd turn of events. I don't know what possible outcome could come from a recruitment drive. It's not like we could promise a thousand new members....anything, really. In the meantime, after showing them around and introducing them to everyone, what then?

I suppose there's something to be said for taking absolute newbies around exploring the Ages and following Yeesha's Journey. I would have liked that opportunity myself back in the day.

Still, I find this a very thin thread of hope. Emphasis on thin not hope. What do the investors want? They must know they're looking into a project that doesn't really exist until they get it up and running. Why do they need to see a larger population? I think the numbers are quite large considering what is available to Explorers at this time. I would say to them what I said to the first investors: You believe in Uru or you don't. Make a decision. Invest your money. And don't expect quick returns. It ain't gonna happen. But, I do believe the investors could see a return in the long run if Uru was given a chance to even approach its full potential.
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Professor Daniel Askew - Securing our reality from the machinations of the Station Masters.

[Rils]

I'm the eternal optimist, but also a realist. I sincerely hope that something awesome comes of this, but face it - it's the long term dedication of the fans that has kept this alive. If I just dropped my sister into the Cavern and said "go nuts", it would last about 17 minutes. 9 of which would be spent in the blackness between Ages, another 6 frozen in place.

It's a terrible catch-22: We can't get new folks unless there is something cool and new and exciting, but there won't BE cool and new and exciting unless we get more folks! As the devoted faithful, we need to devise a way out of that loop. Unfortunately, I have little to offer in the way of ideas, I'm not a marketing genius... sorry!

~Rils
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[Cycreim]

Rand posted on the D'ni Guild forums, saying such:

[Durin Mephit]

I swear you are all looking at the wrong problem.

Let's categorize people into three groups:
EDIT: Four, sir!

(1) People who never played Uru before
(2) People who played Uru (from early on) and have moved on
(3) People who played Uru later and never saw Live, maybe never even heard of it
(4) The devoted such as ourselves, who have stayed

To a category (1) person, the content that Uru already has is new. You don't need to add more content to get them involved. (Solving lag issues as Rils observed... well, that may indeed be a relevant problem.) You only need new content to draw back category (2) and (3) people. Category (2) aren't likely to come back unless Live really comes back. Category (3) might be interested to see what Uru is like online, but I do agree that their interest is likely to be fickle at best without a promise of growth.

So we really need to focus on the (1) category, and that is where the shortage of the game becomes the real problem. I know Rand says "At Amazon for as little as $4" but if you take a look at the list of sellers it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence... it's all companies I've never heard of. Based on the ratings, I'd probably go with CDI though.

BTW: Relevant discussion at Uru Obsession:
Poll: How to get new life into the Cavern?
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
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[Cycreim]

Generating interest WITHIN the Cavern isn't necessarily an activity emtpy of calories.

Take a look at what Hogarth was saying on the UO forums:

[Durin Mephit]

Cyc: Yes

I just wanted folks to know I've thrown up a very quick website that can be used to promote the game. There should be ample bandwidth for downloads of movies from the site. (I'm sure my friend who runs the site will inform me if it becomes a problem.) If anyone cares to mirror this material, rewrite what I've said, extend upon it, make it better... please feel free.

Until Uru Revival Resource: http://marten.treeweasel.com/UntilUru/
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Durin Mephit * Member of Guild of Messengers - Unless otherwise stated, opinions are mine only and not Guild endorsed.
rel.to | Marten KI: 59474 | Durin M KI: 11883768

[Cycreim]

That's GREAT, Marten, and well summed up. The only thing I'm not sure about is the comparison to Second Life. I mean the alternative is calling Uru a multiplayer social puzzle game, but it's hard calling Uru a "multiplayer social puzzle game" because, well, Puzzle Pirates is that. And Uru is a LOT more than just Puzzle Pirates. It's a story-based MMO set in a uniquely designed world where players' actions have direct and dynamic effects on the world around them. That's much bigger than Puzzle Pirates.

I don't want to make the "but" sound bigger than the fact that it's awesome though.

I've been thinking of drawing up a few short comics to post to places like Deviantart, your page would be a good place to link people to.

EDIT: Finished a short comic about Kadish Tolesa. Gotta get a reply from Cyan's legal department to see if I can distribute it and make more.
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KI: 34353