Myst Online: Uru Live

From MYSTlore

Myst Online: Uru Live (usually shortened to just Uru Live) is the Cyan Worlds-developed, GameTap-sponsored second attempt at launching an massive multiplayer online (MMO) version of Uru.

Between Summer 2006 and November 27, it had been in invite-only beta testing, dubbed Nuru. That beta test can roughly be compared to Ubiru, a test that took place between January and August 2003. On November 8, Ryan Warzecha announced^[1] that "a major amount of invites" would be sent on the 9th.

On November 28th, the Nuru beta test was succeeded by Uru Live Preview, which, while still invite-only, lacks an NDA; it can be discussed openly and publicly. On December 12th, open beta launched and, based on the schedule, makes up the final stage of pre-release testing.

Myst Online: Uru Live launched on February 15th, 2007.

While the GameTap service itself was limited to the US and Canada, Uru Live was available in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States. Expansion to further countries was planned.

Uru Live features many of the same aspects as the previous Ubisoft-published project of the same name, Uru Live; MYSTlore uses year suffixes "(2003)" and "(2006)" to distinguish between the two.

On April 10, 2008 ^{(Leenovoo 21, 9663)}, Myst Online was officially shut down and removed from GameTap.

[edit] Intro

Main article: Uru Live Intro

[edit] Plans

[edit] For GameTap-supported countries (USA, Canada)

Non-free plans require a credit card, or for someone else (with a credit card) to buy you a GameTap gift card.

• A perpetual visitor account can be obtained for free. All beta accounts that hadn't previously been converted into a subscription or merged into another (subscription) account were turned into visitor accounts. While visitors have limited access, the additional process isn't lost, but merely unavailable, and can at any time be retrieved back by buying a subscription plan.
• A limited-time offer is to subscribe for 99 cents for the first month. Afterwards, this will automatically become a regular subscription. Presumably, this plan will disappear as soon as Uru Live has gained momentum.
• The "normal" path is to subscribe for $9.99 per month. As typical for North American pricing, this does not include taxes. Discounts can be had by pre-purchasing multiple months; at one time, an entire year could be bought at 50% off.

[edit] For Uru Live-only countries (Australia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom)

Non-free plans require a credit card.

• A perpetual visitor account can be obtained for free. All beta accounts that hadn't previously been converted into a subscription or merged into another (subscription) account were turned into visitor accounts. While visitors have limited access, the additional process isn't lost, but merely unavailable, and can at any time be retrieved back by buying a subscription plan.
• A limited-time offer is to subscribe for 99 cents for the first month. Afterwards, this will automatically become a regular subscription. Presumably, this plan will disappear as soon as Uru Live has gained momentum.
• The "normal" path is to subscribe for $12.95 per month. This does include taxes and, for EU countries, customs, and therefore amounts to roughly the same as the $9.99 cited above; the difference is negligible. There are, however, no multi-month discount options.

[edit] Any other country

No plan is available. You cannot buy a subscription, nor play free as a visitor. Rather, GameTap will try to expand the amount of countries over time.

[edit] Technical differences

The physics engine has been changed from Havok to Ageia's PhysX, which also features an optional hardware extension card for additional acceleration, though it is unknown if, and to what extent, Uru Live will benefit from such hardware. Havok's then-lack of Mac compatibility (which is no longer the case) was one of the main reasons for the move. By contrast, End of Ages uses the ODE open-source physics engine, which is apparently too limited for the complexity Uru Live requires.

Changes to the Plasma graphics and networking engine are apparently major enough to prompt a new version, "205" (right between Uru's original "20" and End of Ages's "21"), and to make old data incompatible.

[edit] Windows 2000 compatibility

On October 18, 2006, Cyan employee lbell upset a lot of fans by announcing Windows 2000 support has been dropped during the beta cycle, so a Windows 2000-supporting version of the product will never actually become public. Whether this dropped support is to be taken literally (i.e., it works, but you won't receive official support), or is actually enforced to the point where the application won't run at all is currently unclear.

As of version 2.6, Uru Live's physics engine, PhysX, refuses to install on Windows 2000; support for it had been removed a lot earlier, but it would previously still work despite that. It is speculated that this change prompted Cyan's decision.

While Microsoft moved Windows 2000 to extended support on June 30, 2005, it is still very widely used, including among Myst fans. There is a sufficient number of fans with machines running Windows 2000 capable of also running Uru Live, yet unwilling or unable to upgrade. Reasons for inability include essential hardware or software that works on Windows 2000, but not on newer systems (such as Windows XP in its Home, Media Center or Professional editions, or the upcoming Windows Vista) as well as an expensive process of migration, both in time and money. A grassroots campaign to raise sufficient funds towards XP volume licensing and provide fan-to-fan support for that migration has been suggested.

Uru Live Forums user "Linux" has posted step-by-step instructions to work around this, but regardless, this is completely unsupported on Cyan's part.

[edit] Mac OS X on Intel compatibility

On March 22nd, 2007, Cyan informed existing Uru Live testers and customers, of the Mac client's availability. TransGaming Inc. had been working to develop a Mac OS X on Intel version of Uru Live. This port leverages their Cider technology, a specialized, self-contained version of WINE ^(Wikipedia).

Even without the Mac version, users of Intel Macs can also participate by dual-booting into Windows through Apple's Boot Camp ^(Wikipedia). The main benefit of the Mac version, in addition to not requiring a Windows license, is therefore in not having to reboot back and forth.

[edit] New Ages

While originally Myst Online only provided contents from Uru Prime and To D'ni (and later Path of the Shell), over the first season, several never-before-seen ages were released:

• Eder Delin
• Eder Tsogal
• Negilahn, Dereno, Payiferen, and Tetsonot (different locations on the same age)
• Minkata
• Jalak Dador
• Guild Pubs

[edit] Cancellation

On February 4, 2008 ^{(Leevosahn 27, 9663)}, greydragon posted an announcement from Ricardo Sanchez of GameTap that said that GameTap was discontinuing Myst Online.

On April 10, 2008 ^{(Leenovoo 21, 9663)}, hundreds of fans gathered in the game to await the cancellation with friends and fellow players. Several ResEngs as well as greydragon visited with explorers in A Beginner's Bevin. At 12:01am Eastern Standard Time, Rand Miller's avatar logged into the game, and Myst Online was shut down. It was removed from the games in GameTap's library, being replaced by Uru: Complete Chronicles the next day.

[edit] MORE

On the 29th of June, Cyan reacquired the license for Myst Online: Uru Live, though GameTap will receive a cut if Cyan makes significant profits.

A largely explorer-based Uru will launch as Myst Online Restoration Experiment, or MORE.

[edit] Online resources

• Official web site
  • Forums

References