When a writer has story in their head it has an energy and wants to be told. As long as Rand is this side of the grass there is a chance he will find a way to tell the story.

MQO is paying the bills. But, I doubt it providing a complete outlet for Cyan/Rand creativity. It may be some time but there is a chance the story will eventually be written.

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

Nalates wrote:

When a writer has story in their head it has an energy and wants to be told. As long as Rand is this side of the grass there is a chance he will find a way to tell the story.

MQO is paying the bills. But, I doubt it providing a complete outlet for Cyan/Rand creativity. It may be some time but there is a chance the story will eventually be written.

Optimism! Now there's something I haven't seen in a while. I whole-heartedly agree with Nalates, but remember that Rand isn't the only one that's telling the story; all of Cyan Worlds deserves credit for Uru.

If I may throw in my two cents:
I've stayed quiet on this issue (and, well, quiet in general), but I think that one of the best parts of MOUL going open-source is that Cyan can move on to other things.

Now, before you start stoning me for such blasphemy, think about it: Cyan has been working on the Myst/D'ni universe for over a decade now. That's a long time for one story-universe, huge as it is. I love the Cavern and the Ages as much as the next fan, but what I really want to see Cyan do is get back into doing what they do best: making unique, clever games for unique, clever people. That's why we all fell in love with Myst in the first place, right?

Over in the thread about the Headspin demo, I found something that Chogon said:

Chogon wrote:

Brice, Brice, Brice, Brice <shaking head>
You should know that nothin' *ever* dies around here.

--Chogon

I love Uru, and I love this community, but above that, I love Cyan Worlds. For challenging players to think, and to explore! For always keeping us wondering what's behind the next door! They put everything they had into Uru, and it truly is something unique- that's one of the reasons this community is so strong. But beyond a gesture of gratitude to the fans for sticking with Uru, I think that Cyan's strongest reason for open source is so that they can move on. Chogon's words even show a desire to move on. And in the long run, this is not only best for them as a company, but best for us as players, too. In moving on, they can put their time into new outlets for their amazing creativity. Good for them, and good for us.

All of that said, I still think that Cyan will find a way to tell this story. Even if it means completely handing over the reigns to the fans. Consider what they did with Myst III and IV: as I understand it, they drew up an outline for the story, and let the developers fill in the blanks. I think that, with the right kind of controls built in by Cyan, this could work for Uru too.

_________________
Many Urus have come and gone, yet the Cavern remains... and so do we.
KI #: 01951307

We know Cyan plans to finish their story. I think the best they could do right now is to talk with the Grey Hats and allow them to continue bits of the story. While the people at Cyan might be reluctant to do it for various reasons, like they were before with the hacking that's been going on, maybe experimenting with this for a bit and see if it works would be a good idea. After all, The Fun House was a successful experiment so far

That would give Cyan time to work on their projects that could bring in money. Like Frictional Games, Cyan is a relatively unknown game company these days. However, unlike Cyan, Frictional continued to create their fourth game, a new fourth game, Amnesia, while they were not in the best financial situation. Turns out this game was so good that they are now a very stable company, can work on their next game, pay the bills and have some cash to spare. Maybe a new adventure game from Cyan wouldn't be so bad. It doesn't need to be Myst, it needs to be LIKE Myst -- immersive, exciting and for intelligent people. But for 2011

dragossh wrote:

We know Cyan plans to finish their story. I think the best they could do right now is to talk with the Grey Hats and allow them to continue bits of the story. While the people at Cyan might be reluctant to do it for various reasons, like they were before with the hacking that's been going on, maybe experimenting with this for a bit and see if it works would be a good idea. After all, The Fun House was a successful experiment so far

That would give Cyan time to work on their projects that could bring in money. Like Frictional Games, Cyan is a relatively unknown game company these days. However, unlike Cyan, Frictional continued to create their fourth game, a new fourth game, Amnesia, while they were not in the best financial situation. Turns out this game was so good that they are now a very stable company, can work on their next game, pay the bills and have some cash to spare. Maybe a new adventure game from Cyan wouldn't be so bad. It doesn't need to be Myst, it needs to be LIKE Myst -- immersive, exciting and for intelligent people. But for 2011

Well said, well said! That's exactly what I think Cyan should do (although I'm not opposed to more games like Stoneship as well).

_________________
Many Urus have come and gone, yet the Cavern remains... and so do we.
KI #: 01951307

dragossh wrote:

We know Cyan plans to finish their story. I think the best they could do right now is to talk with the Grey Hats and allow them to continue bits of the story. While the people at Cyan might be reluctant to do it for various reasons, like they were before with the hacking that's been going on, maybe experimenting with this for a bit and see if it works would be a good idea. After all, The Fun House was a successful experiment so far

Successful, yes - if origami is what you're looking for. But to date, the Fun House/Hood of Illusions experiment is devoid of story, which is not to say that makes it a failure because it was never intended to have anything to do with continuing the story. Which is also the way I see the Grey Beards - having nothing to do with continuing "the" story, but having everything to do with enabling more stories.

Personally, I will be much happier if I never see another Bahro as long as Uru lives (but that's a subject for another day). And I don't think Cyan is capable of giving up control of their story, nor have I seen anything to convince me that handing over control of the DRC, etc., to the rabble would be anything other than a disaster. Instead, I see such huge potential in the structure of the D'ni universe, in that there are so many possibilities for great stories on the other side of a linking book.

But we'll never get there until Cyan lets us get beyond the Fun House. It's entertaining for the moment, but there are only so many origami tricks that will keep you busy.