Myst Online is back

Remember Cyan World’s Myst? Remember how it almost pushed through only it sort of fell just before launch? Well, with the inception of GameTap an online subscription based game service with classic titles and current episodic gaming content, Uru‘s been given new life.

IGN managed to get an interview with Rand Miller, it’s a bit lengthy, but what’s nice is that it mostly talks about the connections between Myst Online, and it’s legacy.

Here be the pertinent bits:

When asked about the connection between Myst Online and the established series, and how the new game will connect fans of the old game to the established history, Miller had this to say:

There are things that will resonate and things that are different. Uru is a spin-off from the Myst storyline. The family from the original storyline had a very definite beginning and end interacting with this amazing culture. What was always left open was what the culture was. What was that culture? How did they have books of such power? How did that affect them? Can I go there? In many ways, when we decided to do Uru, we were throwing back the curtain that kept things hidden for so long.

Let’s not do this in the past. Let’s not tell a story that’s already been told. Let’s make it now. This is what would happen if the story was absolutely true, an underground empire was there just as the story laid it out. Now you can get there and find that things are still alive and things are still happening. Instead of being portrayed as history, you’re part of what happens.

So just how will Uru bridge the gap between Adventure gaming and MMOs? Well, according to Miller, the very core of Uru is the idea of ownership. As you explore “Ages” and places, you become owner of an instance of that Age. Every time you use a book it appears on a bookshelf in a very personal space, and the state of things in there will be as you left them.

Of course this time, you can choose to invite people to go in with you and have a team of people explore these ages on a regular basis and share. Of course since you’re the “owner” you control access to them and you can explore them on your own if you like.

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

Remember Cyan World’s Myst? Remember how it almost pushed through only it sort of fell just before launch? Well, with the inception of GameTap an online subscription based game service with classic titles and current episodic gaming content, Uru‘s been given new life.

IGN managed to get an interview with Rand Miller, it’s a bit lengthy, but what’s nice is that it mostly talks about the connections between Myst Online, and it’s legacy.

Here be the pertinent bits:

When asked about the connection between Myst Online and the established series, and how the new game will connect fans of the old game to the established history, Miller had this to say:

There are things that will resonate and things that are different. Uru is a spin-off from the Myst storyline. The family from the original storyline had a very definite beginning and end interacting with this amazing culture. What was always left open was what the culture was. What was that culture? How did they have books of such power? How did that affect them? Can I go there? In many ways, when we decided to do Uru, we were throwing back the curtain that kept things hidden for so long.

Let’s not do this in the past. Let’s not tell a story that’s already been told. Let’s make it now. This is what would happen if the story was absolutely true, an underground empire was there just as the story laid it out. Now you can get there and find that things are still alive and things are still happening. Instead of being portrayed as history, you’re part of what happens.

So just how will Uru bridge the gap between Adventure gaming and MMOs? Well, according to Miller, the very core of Uru is the idea of ownership. As you explore “Ages” and places, you become owner of an instance of that Age. Every time you use a book it appears on a bookshelf in a very personal space and the state of things in there will be as you left them.

Of course this time, you can choose to invite people to go in with you and have a team of people explore these ages on a regular basis and share. Of course since you’re the “owner” you control access to them and you can explore them on your own if you like.

Beyond that, the devs did establish areas in the game that are meant for community minded things. Neighborhoods, cities, towns where you can run into strangers. It’s still an MMO but you can play it by your lonesome like old Myst if you want to.

So how’d they handle the story progression, given that the new Myst is an MMO? Here’s what he said:

We have story arcs that reach out for years from now. We’ve laid out grand story arcs and sub-story arcs that get down as small as a monthly start and finish. What we’ve also built into Uru is the ability for those things to change based on what individuals do and what groups do. They’ll actually affect where the story goes and where it branches…

It can be something as trivial as an example from the beta. Somebody from importance in the storyline crosses paths with you and you alone get a message from you. You can choose to bring the message to the people. You can choose to do what the person says or not. Your choices will control where our storyline goes.

It could be as grand as having everybody in the game take some part in lighting the cavern. The cavern is very dark and, rather than lighting it up and having it controlled, we’d like to say it’s lit by a mechanism. If you want it light, go do it. The story will change based on that because some things will change based on how much light there is in the cavern.

Sounds good doesn’t it?

Given Myst‘s emphasis on adventure, story, and puzzles, this isn’t your typical leveling MMO. However, they still have a built-in version of leveling wherein you are able to collect elements that prove how far you’ve gone. You can get treasures, rewards, clothing, and all those things that help make you feel like you’re progressing.

So what exactly happened back then that fouled-up their launch? Here’s Miller’s words:

So we partnered. Whenever you partner, there are risks. Companies’ directions change. We ran up against one of those. At one point there was a great partnership and then just prior to our launch, directions changed and things fell apart. Failure doesn’t crush us. It’s not getting a chance to fail that demoralizes you. If you’ve got a great idea and you get it out there and it doesn’t fly, you gain some insight from that and can move on. It helps a lot of people including yourself. But when you don’t even get a chance to launch, that’s tough, especially when you’re so close. 40,000 people signed up for beta and we’re ready to go and we don’t take a dime from anyone. That just hurts.

At least now, they managed to get hooked up with GameTap, and according to Miller they fit into GameTap’s plans nicely. They fill in both the MMO category and the episodic content category. It looks like there’s still a long future for Myst.

The essence of what we’re starting with in Uru is to provide what people like in Myst on an ongoing basis. Basically it’s a never-ending Myst.

Via IGN