I am curious to know, how do you think new content, such as bahro stones, ages from Cyan, fan-ages, KI upgrades, etc. should be released?

Do you want to know when content is coming in advanced? Or do you want to always be surprised as to when new content comes out? Will it depend upon what is being released?

My personal thoughts are that new content such as ages, stones, etc should never be told in advance. However, things like upgrades to the KI interface and such that affect the gameplay I'd like to know about a week or more in advance.

What about you all? What do you think?

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KI#46415

I agree with you, Jamey. Being surprised by new content when going to the Cavern is great... but for things like changes in the interface, KI etc. I think that some warning would be useful, maybe even via a KI message from Laxman or whoever... otherwise people (especially newcomers) might get even more confused than they are now.

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Simone - KI#1001138
Please avoid drinking the lake water.

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.

From a perspective of keeping people in the cavern, never being told when non-gameplay related content would probably be the best method in my opinion.

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KI#46415

Firstly, I'm not all that bothered how we get it, as long as we do get it.

That said, if it was a bugfix, it would be nice to have a mention in the forums a day or so beforehand, but if its a bit of content, maybe a few DRC guys could show up and make a bit of an issue of it, especially if its a Relto page hidden somewhere. Just a little show of things to raise people's interest a bit and get them to come in here.

I'd like the content creators to have control over that. For example, what if I wanted to have a surprise release? I do agree that game upgrades should have either advance notice or a regular time (first of the month, for example) when they are added.

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-Whilyam

I put down "Depends"

As with MOUL on GT, many times people were made aware that something was new simply after logging on and seeing it being discussed in Hood Chat. This can cause Spoilers to happen. It would be nice to know something was new, but then find out before logging on, so you can log on with an Alt Avie that doesn't belong to a crowded Hood let's say, if you didn't want to get spoiled. Then again it can also ruin the surprise that something new is there.

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."

So to me when it comes to Ages, I think a monthly release would be good, but not always announced when (of course you'd have to have the Ages to release on a monthly basis too, heh).

Other things (IE: new clothing, notes, maps, journals) could be released much more often (the adding of these things to either the City or existing Ages is child's play for many of us that have worked with Age Creation, and would require a very minimum addition, such as a single prp file in some cases. The creation of them also is very easy for many of us. Having whomever decides what get's added is the can of worms I don't want to open right now, however, those of us that have Max and Cyan's Plugin could add any of these small things RIGHT NOW to MOUL:a). However I think the release of these smaller things should be done so on a totally surprise basis, no announcement. That way people would log in just to go looking for them.

IMHO anyways.

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My Tutorials

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.

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"I visited Esher's lab and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."
VidRoth -- KI#50637

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.

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Cosmic Osmo for iOS is a must!

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.

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.

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Caution: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear.

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.

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MOUL KI# 10281985
MOULa KI# 1492059

Fear is the mind-killer

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.

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Nalates - GoC - 418 - MOULagain: Nal KI#00 083 543, Nalates 111451 - Second Life: Nalates Urriah
Guild of Cartographers

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.

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MOULAgain KI: 024104

Chloe Rhodes

DIRT: Uru Live

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.

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.

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We keep moving forward,
openning up new doors and doing new things,
Because we're curious... and curiosity keeps
leading us down new paths

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Keep moving forward