Myst Online: URU Live Forums

Re: How should new content be released?

Cully Barger — Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:53 am

Author: Cully Barger

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:53 am

Seems like a lot of this answer depends on what avenues get set up for content distribution. (I'm assuming the question had to do with release of fan-created content, not Cyan material).
From what I've read, there's some conjecture that Cyan will set up separate dedicated servers for fan content, some think Cyan will have a Nexus-style linker to content on fan servers (which also could imply some level of Cyan control), and some think that there will just be a UU-style bunch of fan servers out there for players to log on to.

IF the last option becomes reality, I doubt anyone will have any say in release timing. It's possible, but my guess is that competition would take over, rather than cooperation.

Under the first two options, I can only say some of the things I'd like to see if I were an Agebuilder:
I'd like to make sure the timing of my Age's release did not conflict with the same date on which 10 other Age creators wanted to release their work.
I'd like to know, if someone else's Age had a similar concept or content, that our Ages would not be released on top of one another.
I'd like to have the choice whether to build up its release as an IC event, or just point players toward it.
And, if it was to be an IC event, I'd want to make sure the IC storyline integrated and did not conflict with current cavern events, including the projected IC storylines others had planned.

All this would mean that there'd have to be some means of coordinating with other like-minded Agebuilders who were about to release their work.
And that means of coordination/communication would have to be open only to those with ready-to-release content, so that an element of surprise could be maintained, since I'd also guess most agebuilders wouldn't like to have discussions of their IC or Age storylines scooped by eavesdroppers?

Re: How should new content be released?

Karkadann — Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:41 am

Author: Karkadann

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 2:41 am

I'll havta agree with the ones who said more or less "just release it and let us find it for ourselves". Their will always be at-least a few who go searching for anything new after a Temporary Server shutdown/update, and if their is anything new word gets around fast in Cavern and on Forum.

Just like the Nike shoe commercial sez "Just Do It"

Re: How should new content be released?

kaelisebonrai — Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:49 am

Author: kaelisebonrai

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:49 am

VoiZod, this includes Fan Ages, and, as far as I'm concerned, for Fan Ages, its the author's choice of when it gets released.

Re: How should new content be released?

VoiZod — Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:03 pm

Author: VoiZod

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:03 pm

Content should be released the way it ORIGNALY was designed to be released.

That means anything could happen at any time!

Re: How should new content be released?

Anna Catherine — Thu Jul 01, 2010 4:10 am

Author: Anna Catherine

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 4:10 am

I voted "depends on the content."

If it's something huge, like a system for fan Ages to be included (or even a new Cyan-made Age in the pie-in-the-sky distant future,) it would be good to build it up for awhile before it actually happens. Something that major would stand up to the hype and discussion that an early-ish announcement would generate.

If it's something relatively minor, like a new t-shirt or a bug fix, it could just be added with little fanfare. People would discover it and post on the forums and talk about it in game, so the news would spread, but it wouldn't seem like making a big deal out of nothing.

And... you know, anything in between. Basically, they need to balance how much they hype things with how hype-worthy they are, and they need to remember that people will lose interest if they are promised something is imminent and then they have to wait endlessly for it. A balance between building it up appropriately and dragging it out. The hype should serve the content, not be used as an attempt to mask a lack of content, because that rarely works and just ends up frustrating the user.

One thing I do hope they do is something that another game I play, Guild Wars, does. Whenever there's an update to the game, no matter how small, a brief explanation is posted in an accessible list on the main webpage. So if you're curious what you just downloaded, you can go check and see. Sometimes they're mysterious about the description if it's supposed to be a surprise, but if it's something basic, you'll look on the list and see "bug fix" and won't run around for hours trying to figure out what has changed. I'd really like to see Uru do something equivalent. Not to replace advance announcements for major things, but to compliment them.

I also think content gaps are going to be a lot less of an issue in this version because fans will eventually be able to add things too; there will be a fairly steady stream of stuff no matter how much (if at all) Cyan is working on the game. There will be a lot less pressure on Cyan's content releases when something to do versus nothing new doesn't rely solely on them.

Re: How should new content be released?

matthornb — Thu Jul 01, 2010 3:13 am

Author: matthornb

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 3:13 am

I think when something is going to happen, there should be hints dropped every so often that it is going to happen, and that it is being worked on, but no clarity on when, exactly, it'll actually appear.

I don't like the idea of release dates being announced in advance for the reasons you all have stated. It makes the traffic in the cavern really high on that one day, then really low at all other times.

But we also need to consider that if there are no hints dropped, no hopes that something will happen soon, then traffic deteriorates under those conditions as well.

We need to be continually thinking something will happen, but never knowing when it'll happen until suddenly, out of nowhere, it happens.

That is exactly what Cyan Worlds is doing.

Rand Miller and RAWA have pretty much stated that integrating fan content is a high priority. We have had a couple of Rand visits in MO:ULa, at seemingly random times.

We got the 3ds max plugins as a download. Announced at the time of release, with no release date announced in the days leading up to it, but an announcement that it would happen at some point.

There's also been a fair amount of buzz around Subterranean Restorations' Bevin lately - a Bevin with cleared-out pedestals where new books could be placed, even a new Nexus book. Also, we've been at Cavcon 4 for a long time, and Rand has stated that he's being a bit cautious about bumping up to Cavcon 5, which suggests that the condition of funding is near Cavcon 5 already, or at some position where it's ambiguous as to how it should be classified.

All of this is a systematically meted out series of hints leading towards opening of a system for integration of the first fan ages into MO:ULa. But note that we haven't been given any firm date on when this will actually happen. It could be months from now. Could be just a few days. We have no clear answer. I think Cyan Worlds likes it that way.

Re: How should new content be released?

goofy — Thu May 13, 2010 9:07 pm

Author: goofy

Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:07 pm

I agree to allow the age creator control of when an age is seen (released). If you think about it it just makes since to allow the age creator to either do a IC thing or not.

Just imagine going down to the cavern and hearing someone talking about an age they found or wrote a link to. I'm sure most would be curious about that conversation.

Re: How should new content be released?

darkgriffin — Fri May 07, 2010 8:12 pm

Author: darkgriffin

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 8:12 pm

No schedules at all works best, in my opinion.

Then it's much more like if the cavern were real, you may discover the age/addon/ki feature first yourself, or you could "discover" it by being told through your friends months later. Just like in RL, a part of the IC story would be HOW everyone found the new age. It would be different for everyone, and sure, much more exciting to be someone who has been there first. But it would be just as cool, to hear of things 2nd hand, or have a friend show you the age book they discovered.

That's what draws me to Uru in the first place. The fact that we, the collective players, can discover new things and share those discoveries with others. Then after the discovery, we are left wondering what the Cavern Life will bring us next, where it will show up, and if we will be the lucky ones to find it first. This leads to lots of discoveries, discussions, and comparisons, as well as fun parties on the ages we have discovered already.

If everyone had a list saying "New age at this date", no one would bother with the stuff in between. It would make me really sad not to have that feeling of "I wonder if today I will discover something new I haven't seen before". That feeling is one of the core things that makes Uru Live so special, in my opinion.

Re: How should new content be released?

ChloeRhodes — Thu May 06, 2010 1:21 am

Author: ChloeRhodes

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 1:21 am

As an age creator, I myself have been building my ages for MOULa with the anticipation that I (as the storyteller for my stuff) will be able to release age's for consumption at my leisure. What I'd like to see be put in place is for Cyan to allow minimal control to age creator's for story purposes. Meaning that we send our stuff to cyan (the age and it's associated files) and Cyan puts it on their dataserver to serve to players. The player downloads the new patch, but doesn't get the age right away and instead the book is put into it's nexus or wherever fan ages will go, by the creator of the age when his/her storyline calls for it. Kind of like the DRC opening age's up IC. Only with fan age's it's at the discretion of the creator of the age.

This is also true for story related elements outside of the full age. Dorehn for instance has a number of pieces that are complete but not accessible. (they're blocked off by barriers) using Cyan's model of taking down the barriers to new places should also be at the discretion of the age creator.

If you have multiple age creators all creating content at once, in this same manner, you will quickly get that "new age/area" every month, as well as that persistent world that's always changing. Thus keeping people in the cavern and getting new ones will not be so hard with this model. There would be no reason for episodes or planned releases unless it's Interface change's that are announced ahead of time.

Re: How should new content be released?

Nalates — Wed May 05, 2010 3:24 am

Author: Nalates

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 3:24 am

Jamey wrote:

Indeed I think never being told when new content is being released (other than gameplay elements and interfaces), will keep people in the Cavern. They will keep returning to see if anything new is there, and if they do not keep returning, there is the potential they could miss the chance when something happens.

andylegate wrote:

During MOUL on GT we had the Monthly Episodes. Knowing ahead of time that a new Age was going to be released at some time during the episodes produced a LOT of people logging on during that entire week. At first it was because we didn't know when the new Age would be released. After a few Episodes however, it seemed to always be released either at the very end or towards the end. I noticed that many times, not as many people would log on before hand due to this. When I asked some people about this, their reply was almost always the same: "I didn't really care too much about the story going on during the episode, it was something I could always keep track of on the forums. I just wanted to log on when the new Age showed up."

The similarity in the statements is that the attraction is new content. Do we really want to try and manipulate attendance and when people login by content announcement?

I wonder if we have any information on how many people actually get their information from Myst related forums?

It seems we have far more players signed up than reading the forums. I would think how and whether we announce new content on the forum would be a minor point. I also doubt we will ever have regular scheduled releases of content due to the nature of the community, could happen, I doubt it. I put the odds on episodes at something less than a one legged horse winning the Derby.

Once a fan has explored the Uru world, anything new is a big deal for discussion in world. Coming in and checking in with others for new things in Cavern is part of community building. I like it that way. I think that is a basic part of Uru style.

I'm w/Loshem on the existing areas. There is lots I would like to see opened up. But, that is unlikely any time soon.

Re: How should new content be released?

Loshem — Wed May 05, 2010 2:08 am

Author: Loshem

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 2:08 am

New Ages are great and all that but what I want is the planned expansions to existing Ages. Things like the Guild Hall and the City Proper or the rest of Teledahn or The Wall. The original idea was that every day there could be something new. Now we all know that's a pipe dream unless someone at Cyan hits the lottery or something but the idea of a persistent ever-changing world is what drew me and what keeps me here.

In real life you dont plan interactions.. they just happen and that's how it should be in terms of story events. I think the best idea for new Ages and the like would be the tentative dates and status that once was available on the DRC official website. Having that list updated makes the DRC feel like a real organization and not just characters in a story.

Re: How should new content be released?

Heaven — Wed May 05, 2010 1:21 am

Author: Heaven

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 1:21 am

The reason GT Uru went to episodic releases was because so many people complained about the fact that they were never able to be in the Cavern during celebrity appearances. Initially, episodic content was applauded, and appeased many players, but in the long run I felt it was disastrous.

I like surprise content, but they could also give us hints via the DRC Forums or the DRC Site.

Re: How should new content be released?

Christopher910 — Wed May 05, 2010 12:24 am

Author: Christopher910

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:24 am

I would like NO MORE EPISODES and NO MOFE SCHEDULE RELEASE OF AGES, CONTENTS, AND THINGS. I would like to be in suspense each time every explorers enter URU that will cause draw more people to play and keep people interesting in playing.

Re: How should new content be released?

Malfhok — Tue May 04, 2010 11:40 am

Author: Malfhok

Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 11:40 am

I'd like to be told in exactly the same sort of way we were told about MOULa... The DRC just starts talking and we all turn and wait breathlessly for the story to unfold. I never got to experience Uru before MOULa, and that little bitty taste of story has me hungry for more like it.

And that certainly gives Cyan the ability to let us know however much in advance they like. The DRC can say, "We'll have a new Age open in about a month." Or they can just have an event take place with no previous warning. Either way is good with me.

As far as fan created content, I would say that that would depend on how it gets out there.

Re: How should new content be released?

vidroth — Mon May 03, 2010 8:01 pm

Author: vidroth

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 8:01 pm

I have no concrete "do," but I have a concrete "don't": NO MORE EPISODES.

Nothing kills the social life of the cavern like telling people "for the next four weeks there will be nothing new." Man, it gets quiet fast down there.

So, by extension, I guess I don't like the idea of "lots of warning," either.

I think best is to blend it into the story. If the DRC is about to release something, they can make appearances and tell us. They can even schedule it, if they're that boring.

If Yeesha or the Bahro are going to release something, it should just happen, and spread by word of mouth. That, to me, is the coolest way to learn something new is open, to come down to the cavern expecting nothing, and find everyone excited.