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.

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.

_________________
The Narayani Collective: http://narayani.proboards.com/index.cgi

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

That means anything could happen at any time!

_________________
--=VoiZod=-- MO:UL is:
MOUL - KI - 07289007, MOULa - KI - 00815646,
UURU - KI - D'mala 00943458, TMP - KI 131549,
URU - KI - Atrus 03668735, Katran 00982487,
URUb - KI - 00356281

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.

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"

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Quote:

When you eliminate all other possibilities, what remains, no matter how improbable, must be the solution.
Sherlock Holmes

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?