Greetings and Shorah, fellow journeymen (and women)!

Some of you may remember me, some of you may not. I appeared years ago full of vim and vigor in an attempt to create an URU AGE built by common consensus (Genesis) and spoke to many of you. However, after my internet failed, after moving house, after a lot of changes, I returned to find URU shut down, more or less, with no hope for real age creation.
But I returned just recently, stumbling back into the cavern to find that URU lives YET AGAIN! After years and years it has come back to life, and, it seems, is free to those that have never bought URU before.
It is good to know that such a solid community of people can support and carry on such a project and such a game.
But, the question is, where do we go from here?

The forums are a puzzle in their own right, and the caverns seem quiet and desolate. There are whispers of UCC and of new ages, but these I have yet to see or visit. I hear talk of a "Hood of Illusions" where hackers can ply their skills, and the "Funhouse" where glitches and strange creations roam free, much like a sandbox in Second Life. I have found a list of ages to visit, and have found some talk of a markergames list for a may-long event...
And while these are all curious and fun, the question does remain: Where do we go from here?

I feel like a fish washed up on a beach of garbled information, hacker jargon, and half formed curiosities, and I have played Myst games (and URU) for YEARS so I cannot imagine what it must be like for a completely new player to try to join in. Are the Guilds still active? Are ages still being written? Are there still meetings and events?
Does Cyan and their team still have any affect on the flow of the game? (Is there still a story to follow?)
I would love to see the Cavern live again, and I would love to drag my friends with me to see it all, but right now all I can see is strangeness and echoes. I want to help URU live again so please help me to understand what it is we are doing and what it is that must be done!

Thank you
Shevek

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CHAMBER 0 (demo)

Wow long time no see. Internet failer, moving house it all make sense why my e-mails never got a reply. Nice to see you back Shevek.

Where do we go from here...more patience. I have had a bit of a break from Uru for a while myself so I have just started to catch up with the new OS developements. Time will tell to see what can be done but it looks like in the long term Cyan wants to include Fan content in MOULa. When this will happen is anyones guess.

GOW and OpenUru are good places to read up on what is happening. It is a long slog but well worth the read IMHO.

Giulds yes some are still going strong, Gow for one. GoMa has had some set backs but I am hoping they will come back even stronger. GoMe are still there but not as many working members as I would like to see. GoG well I have no idea what is happening with them.

CURRENT SITUATION IN BRIEF:

MOULa - up, recieved an update recently that may or may not have had an effect on a few things. New, fan made, MOULa content looks like it's just around the corner, and in our concept of time, not Cyan's.

Fan shards - No shards based on MOULa currently up.

Guilds - Can't speak for the GoM, GoG or GoC, but the GoW is pretty active at the moment. The GoMa is currently in the situation of waking up after a long winter.

Cyan - Okay, hopefully. A new iOS game just got hinted at.

Open Source: Lots of code-based development over at the Guild of Writers. OpenUru are working on their infrastructure so as to make everyones OS lives a lot better in the coming months.

Age development: Actually somewhat quiet, as it stands. I'm not aware of any serious age development at the moment other than my own work.

IN GENERAL: Cautious optimism, with patches of fan content here and there and occasional drama.

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I am a member of Team OSCAR. I make content for MOULa. Help OSCAR here: http://forums.openuru.org/viewforum.php?f=103

Quote:

...all I can see is strangeness and echoes.

In my opinion, that is a fairly good description of what Uru has been for the past year or so. But strange in a good way, and the echoes combine with the whispers to make an atmosphere of subdued mystery.

As for the story, Yeesha is still gone, we have no idea what the Bahro are doing, and the DRC seems to be ignoring us. I have speculated that they were all dead and the bad bahro are winning, but then Dr. Watson made a post a few months ago on the DRC forum so they must just be giving us the cold shoulder. (All of that is my IC character's interpretation anyway. My poor avatar has a sensitive nature.)

New content ought to be showing up soon. It is also my hope that Cyan will continue the story at some point. Surely they won't leave it hanging, but I guess they're still a little short of resources. Or else the story involves a long absence, it's hard to say. We're still "finding a way and making a home" and all of that.

As for why the cavern is so desolate, I haven't been able to figure that out. I realize that some people get bored with no new content and others get wrapped up in imitations, but of all the Myst fans in the entire world it's odd that the main part of the community is made up of a relative few. I feel like it's my own little world, with a few friends, rather than the crowning achievement of what was once an international phenomena and a part of gaming history.

I'm not convinced that it's really all that desolate. There are quiet times and peak times - depending on your time zone. The best time to come to Ae'gura ("The City") is usually around anytime between 2 and 5 PM (EST). That's when it's the busiest, what I like to refer to as "The D'ni Rush Hour."

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Second Life: TOOO Fall

Well hello again my good Szark!!
Again, I am sorry for not getting back to you, but after all that happened.... ah well, time to get a move on, eh?
Well let's see, I do see that there are some things still up and around and after posting this I did have a nice chat with some charming fellow explorers, but the fact remains that it is still quite a slog to get up to date at all, and I for one couldn't recommend this game right now to my friends because there is just too much hanging in the air, too much uncertainty.
I know a fair few that would love to explore the caverns and ages, and even more who would love to create things (the number of people who have shown me around their MineCraft castles is a perfect example) and, I am sure, would love to create some beautiful ages....but that, I fear, remains to be seen.

For now, however, I want to be able to get back in touch with people, see how the guilds are doing, and see what the community as a whole is up to.
But first! *Dons goggles* Time to explore the Cavern once more!

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CHAMBER 0 (demo)

Empty, deserted... sort of but, there is an MMOG phenomena that makes virtual worlds appear more deserted than they are.

As an example, in SL there may be 50k concurrent users online, on average. But wondering around in world you may explore for hours and never meet anyone. The same is true in other VW's too. It is an available space verses population thing that makes for low population density.

I suppose we could use Who's On to collect player concurrency data and figure out the actual numbers.

Some better way for new players to connect before they make friends in the community would probably help player retention.

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Guild of Cartographers

Well, in Uru there are quite a few Ages and Bevins - er - Neighborhoods. I guess people could be hanging out there. There are probably a lot of private neighborhoods that I don't even know about. But there is only one Ae'guera, and you would think more people would visit. Maybe it just isn't as popular of a section of Uru as I would have thought. Come to think of it, I have quite a few friends who hardly go into the City at all.

It would be interesting to know how many people log in during the week.

cedward1 wrote:

Well, in Uru there are quite a few Ages and Bevins - er - Neighborhoods. I guess people could be hanging out there. There are probably a lot of private neighborhoods that I don't even know about. But there is only one Ae'guera, and you would think more people would visit. Maybe it just isn't as popular of a section of Uru as I would have thought. Come to think of it, I have quite a few friends who hardly go into the City at all.

It would be interesting to know how many people log in during the week.

Well, actually, there's also the 'hood-based versions of Ae'guera, so it's entirely possible that people are just not using the public version.

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