Myst Online Goes Offline

[Andy Chalk]

Myst Online Goes Offline

Myst Online: Uru Live [http://www.gametap.com] will be shut down.

In a post on the official Cyan Worlds [http://www.gametap.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=13953&start=0&tstart=0]and Rand Miller have brought to us."

Sanchez added that the decision would not take effect for 60 days. "During that time, both newcomers and existing players can continue to experience the amazing world of Myst Online, explore the game's many Ages, and interact with other players in the game and on the MystOnline.com [http://www.mystonline.com/] website and forums." The MystOnline.com website will also remain active after the closer of the game servers.

Myst Online: Uru Live is the multiplayer version of the 2003 title Until Uru [http://uru.us.ubi.com/], which offered unofficial multiplayer support but no updates or new content. Cyan joined with GameTap in early 2006 to bring official support back in the form of Myst Online: Uru Live, which went live in February 2007.

"I know this is not the news fans of Myst Online wanted to hear. I want to thank all of you who have been extremely supportive of the game and made this grand experiment in an alternative MMO format so much fun. All of us at GameTap also want to thank you again for your tireless enthusiasm for the title," Sanchez wrote.

"There has been a clamor for information about the status of season 2 for some time, and the reason we haven't announced anything sooner is because we have literally been examining a wide variety of possibilities for maintaining the game, but in the end, we had to bring the exploration of the great cave to a close."


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[Andy Chalk]

I'd always wanted to try Uru Live, but never had the opportunity to do so because I was stuck with a dialup connection. I was finally able to get wireless access on Thursday - and now this. It's not as big a deal for me as it is for the dedicated players of the game, but it is disappointing. I haven't yet checked to see if GameTap is going to offer some kind of "free to play" wrap-up for the game, but if they do, I'm in.

 

[goestoeleven]

This is a tragedy. Maybe only to a few, but for the people that did play the game, Uru was a world of unparalleled community, detail, and imagination.

It's sad to see it go, without ever reaching its potential.

 

[Natsu_Blaze]

Wait. There was a Myst Online?

Actually I think that says everything.

Actually, it's a quote like this that says everything. Myst is an incredible game, and even though I didn't ever get a chance to play it, I've been dying to get into Live ever since I heard the first stories about Prologue being cancelled.

 

[Andy Chalk]

And while Uru Live is canceled, the latest entry in the lich-like Madden NFL franchise goes on to become yet another multi-million-selling title.

Despite the apparent bitterness, that's not actually a swipe at the teeming multitudes of fans of the EA Sports games. I just find it unfortunate that it seems so difficult to accommodate both ends of the gamer spectrum.

 

[Brian Name]

What a jip. I only signed up to it a few weeks ago. What annoys me is that they've been having server issues for ages now and obviously this is the reason they didn't bother fixing them. And all those people who were paying only to have their games buggered around by bad server issues won't get to see the next season they were hanging in for. Pure jip.

 

[p1ne]

This is one of those things that says more about gamers in general than it does about the company that's canceling its service.

 

[tragicomic]

I took the opportunity for a free visit to Myst online a month before the shutdown. I can't say I will miss it, even though I'm a fan of the Myst series - the framerate was slow even after downloading a gig via my rather fast DSL connection, and there were only a few areas to explore besides the single-player Uru content, none of which included any puzzles. To me it, it looked a lot like Uru - lots of 3D space, not much of a story. May have been a nice place to chat with friends. I've never liked the ide of joint puzzle-solving too much, but it would have been nice to try the experience - alas, maybe another time ;-/

 

[Andy Chalk]

I played Myst (the original) with a friend virtually from start to finish, and it was a fantastic experience. There was an immediate sharing of ideas, lots of back and forth discussion and an absolutely fantastic shared experience that made the whole Myst experience even better than I think it would've been solo. If Uru Live had been able to duplicate that experience, which I suspect was the goal, then it would've been a far greater loss - and perhaps would even have survived and prospered. As it is, having had that taste of "multiplayer Myst" and knowing what I would've wanted and expected from it, I probably would've been disappointed - so maybe missing out on it entirely is for the best.