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Online game rising from the dead
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The once-promising online multiplayer version of the hit "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst," "Uru Live" was in beta and had already attracted a passionate and vocal (if small) following when its plug was pulled on Feb. 9, 2004. Exactly who made the call to squelch it was never entirely clear, but both the game's publisher, Ubisoft, and its developer, Cyan Worlds, agreed that there weren't enough financial resources to keep it going.
But GameTap, Turner Broadcasting's game network, announced at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo that it's planning to relaunch "Uru Live" in conjunction with Cyan Worlds by the holidays. The Uru community is beside itself with excitement.
"My first reaction was, 'Woo hoo,'" said Stephen Crocker, an Uru fan who's eager to play "Uru Live." "Quite a few people thought I was mad for running around screaming, 'Yes!'
"I will be pushing my way to the front to make sure I get to beta test and sign up to the new 'Uru Live,'" he added.
"Uru Live" was the latest iteration in the "Myst" family of adventure games, spawned by one of the most successful and popular titles ever. Originally released in 1993, "Myst" became perhaps the best-selling PC game in the world prior to the release of Electronic Arts' "The Sims."
Many online games have crashed and burned, but the situation with Uru is unusual in that it was the "Uru Live" community that convinced GameTap the game was worth getting behind.
That's because the community has stayed alive and active in the two years since "Uru Live" died, mainly through an unsupported freeware program called "Until Uru" that Cyan made available to anyone who wanted to host versions of it on their own servers.
"One of the reasons we were so attracted to 'Uru Live' for GameTap is that it had this persistent group that kept it alive during the dark days of it not being a product," said Ricardo Sanchez, GameTap's vice president of content. "There's a community that would love to see it brought back."
Indeed, some fans were so insistent on continuing their "Uru Live" experience, even in the game's absence, that in the weeks and months following the shutdown of "Uru Live," groups of several hundred rabid fans set up small-scale versions of the game in two virtual worlds, There.com and "Second Life."
According to Celia Pearce, who wrote her media arts Ph.D. dissertation on the phenomenon for the SmartLab Centre, a research institution in London, about 300 so-called "Uru refugees" set up shop in "There," while at least 200 more began building a scale-model replica of "Uru Live" in "Second Life."
"What I found was that these players had already established a deep connection to the whole series of ('Myst' and 'Uru') games," Pearce said. "But they'd been playing the games pretty much in isolation (prior to 'Uru Live'). So when they came together online, they really bonded very rapidly and intensely. And when the game closed, people were just heartbroken."
Andrew Chernauskas, a college student from Erie, Pa., agreed. "It was a shock," he said. "I had these great ideas of what ('Uru Live') could be...But suddenly it was closed off, before it ever had a chance to show itself. I first found out when two of my friends who played 'Uru' called me on the phone to tell me. It was a lot like gearing up all year long for a national cross-country meet, then tripping over the start line when you began."
It wasn't just the fans who felt the loss, either. To those involved in supporting the community, the closure of "Uru Live" was just as crushing.
"It's a wonderful and rare opportunity to go back to something that was a bit of a heartbreaker and have that come to life and do it again and do it better," said Ron Meiners, who was Ubisoft's "Uru Live" community manager at the time of the closure, but who currently works for neither Ubisoft nor Cyan. "So there's a lot of excitement about the chance to go back to a world that we thought was gone forever."
And for Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan Worlds, the chance to try again with "Uru Live" is an opportunity to finally let the game be publicly judged on its own merits.
"I'm not afraid to fail at things," Miller said. "The worst thing is where you get right up to the point where you start to learn and spend resources on (something) and you don't get a chance to succeed or fail. That's how we felt with 'Uru Live.'"
GameTap thinks the dynamics of its network can make a go of "Uru Live," particularly because the distribution infrastructure and marketing resources necessary to operate and promote a game are already in place.
"Making it a part of GameTap makes the size of the audience we need to make it successful a lot smaller than if Ubisoft had it standing on its own," said Blake Lewin, vice president of new product development and innovation at Turner Broadcasting. "With GameTap making 'Uru Live' available, the costs are a lot less...and we can have more of a niche audience and still have it be successful."
It's still months before the game goes live, but those involved in the community are already rushing to forums to discuss the relaunch. And they're treating the game's new lease on life as a gift to be savored.
"It's almost like Christmas, this unlooked for, really, really wonderful development," Meiners said. "I can't tell you how good it felt when I heard that this would be happening. It was just heartbreaking when it closed down, and so to undo that is just wonderful."
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31 comments
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What's so cool is that you are playing an adventure game with other induviduals grouping together online. Plus the graphics and art in an adventure game usually are the best especially comping from Cyan with its real standard look.
Online games usually can be very repetative and therefore addictive, but lately they have been getting better.
game?
Again, another disconnect with "fans" demanding something from a
game company, the company going out on a limb to deliver it, and
the same "fans" not showing up/not buying the product.
dedicated fans set up Uru communities in *other online gams*.
That's just a small fraction of the real number of casual Uru fans
which was obviously in the thousands when Uru Live first closed.
Recently, when Cyan opened a semi-official shard as part of the
free Until Uru service, over a thousand people signed up.
I don't know if Uru will get anywhere even close to the numbers
of multiplayer games like World of Warcraft. But, from the sound
of it, Gametap and Cyan don't need it to. As long as a small but
dedicated fan base is there, they'll find a way to make it work.
To quote a familiar refrain from Rand Miller, we can be
"cautiously optimistic" about the success of this new Uru Live.
Seriously, the Myst community has a very solid core of hundreds of active and vocal members - many with web sites, blogs etc. Some of them have been around since Myst itself - that's staying power. And then there are the thousands that just lurk. Its a really, really crowded basement.
I'm a American citisen now then???
Actually my basement is located in Sweden and there are URU fans all over the globe so come out of your basement and join us instead.
And far from demanding anything from the game company, Cyan, the fans asked Cyan to allow them to set up private servers to host the game after the online trial closed before the game actually ever went live, and Cyan, in its wisdom, and with a few stipulations about copywrited material, made it possible. Cyan put a ton of visionary work into making a game way ahead of its time, beginning over 8 years ago now. They had a ton of money already sunk into the development of the game, and suddenly, the tap turned off before it started to flow. And of course, Cyan was left with a huge amount of expense and no realistic way to recover it. For a while, things looked, well, not even cautiously optimistic. All but two people were let go at one point. Cyan, to say the least, was already way out on the limb, and someone had pretty nearly sawed it off behind them.
Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Here we are, two years later, and the game company is asking the fans to help them bring this game back to a full, modern online game, with the help of Turner.
And guess what, the fans said yes. There has been a host of folk enroll to beta test, and before that, plenty of interest experssed by those same devoted fans about paying to play the very same game they are now playing, for free, to havemore people enjoy the game with them, and to have some new content.
That is just mutual support, not going out on a limb, caving to a fan demand. And that kind of mutual support is what folks do in families. But even if you don't like these kind of games, you would be welcome in the family.
When the game revives and, for the first time, truly goes live, give it a try. Come home. We'll greet you with open arms. Oh, and don't bother knocking, just come on in and join the celebration. We'll all be in the party room, down in the basement.
I do have a membership at <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.uruobsession.com" target="_newWindow">http://www.uruobsession.com</a> though - one Uru site of many - and one with nearly 11,000 members.
Oh how I dream we were all in one basement. With the amazing variety of talent in this community I'm sure something pretty amazing would happen.
Still, I suppose we'll let you go your way as we go ours. ;)
-Foo
Its a fantastic game.
My basement is not in Ohio but in France;
My basement is large enough and so we are many there (more than 10);
There are many many basements all around the world;
I can't stop the happy dance since i heard the return of Uru Live but i always thought it would come back and I have spent many hours in my basement these last 2 years waiting for that and hanging in Until Uru in the meantime.
Sorry Everyone I have to leave you cos i really miss my basement where i have a direct link to the cavern :D Go look into your basement everyone, I am sure you may find a linking book there :D
I am overjoyed that this game is being given another chance, and it should then prove to everyone that it has more fans than "10 guys in a basement in Ohio".
not stuffing my face with Buckeyes I am in the
basement along with everyone else visiting URU
caverns. We knew all along it would never die,
long live URU LIVE!!!
First, Ubisoft has NOTHING to do with Uru Live this time. It's all Turner, GameTap, and Cyan Worlds.
Most importantly, Uru Live will be available in its own space for international subscribers, separately from GameTap.
Get your facts straight.
Sorry to put sunshine on your rainy day.
I mean come on, just saying it does'nt make it true.
We have had information, that even though gametap is closed to US clients only. Uru Live will be International.
To close off the international client market would just be silly.
Also as far as I know UbiSoft are done with URU. Why hold on to something you killed, either eat it or let it rot! In my eyes they did the latter!
Apparently the fact that a significant number of the fans that wouldn't let go of this are outside the US was a major factor.
Gordon, in Scotland
Apparently the fact that a significant number of the fans that wouldn't let go of this are outside the US was a major factor.
Gordon, in Scotland
Look forward to meeting you all soon!
I now have a computer that has Windows 7. I would really like to play that original (?) Uru game if I knew how to get beyond the crash and if it would work on the new system.