Myst Online: Uru Live gets Cancelled

[BlackKnight]

Hi Everybody,

 

I have some news that some of you have probably not been looking forward to. GameTap has decided to discontinue the operation of Myst Online: Uru Live.

 

The decision was a very difficult one and was made for business reasons rather than due to any issues regarding the design and vision of the amazing world that Cyan Worlds and Rand Miller have brought to us. Despite the great Myst Online experience coming to a close, Cyan is still a very valued partner of GameTap, we are on excellent terms, and we look forward to continuing our relationship in the future.

 

Many of you have made good friends while playing Myst Online, so here is the bittersweet part. Although Myst Online: Uru Live will be completely shut down in the near future, the game servers will remain live for the next 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 website and forums. After 60 days, the title will be removed from the GameTap service, though MystOnline.com will remain live and active for fans to continue to share their passion for this important game franchise.

 

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.

 

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.

 

So thanks again for supporting us as we launched this truly unique game. GameTap is still committed to exploring new genres of gameplay and encouraging bold visions. If you haven't already tried Season 2 of Sam & Max, give it a try, it is as anarchic as one could hope. And I can tell you from first hand experience that the upcoming Grimm is novel and exciting experiment as well.

 

Ricardo Sanchez

VP of Content and Creative Director for GameTap

To anyone that has been exploring the cavern of D'ni and its handful of Ages, consider this your official 60-day eviction notice. Personally I am crushed, but with the game's declining popularity and the stark lack of content available this MMORPG was bound to go bust sooner or later. I'd like to hold a grudge against Gametap for this except I honestly can't blame them.

 

 

Source; Gametap.

[Skythe]

Dammit, I didn't know there was a Myst online game.

[Sybarite Paladin AxL]

As a person who's never played any Myst games, but would like to start, will I be missing out stuff when this game goes under?

[BlackKnight]

As a person who's never played any Myst games, but would like to start, will I be missing out stuff when this game goes under?

 

Not exactly. Although Uru itself retconned everything (claiming to be set in real life, whereas Myst games were just games), I just consider the Myst titles 1-5 as your canon, with Uru an kind of side-story experiment with the ability to play with other people; not that big a deal...

 

...and also keep in mind 90% of the content of 'Myst Online: Uru Live' was made available a long time ago in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and its expansions Uru: To D'ni and Uru: The Path of the Shell, just in a single player form. The 10% they added when it went online seems rushed, unpolished and pointless. There are a few 'museum Ages' where you are inside an observation sphere and can't do anything but look outside the window, a palate swap of an existing Age, and a few, now empty, places like Myst Island and K'veer mansion from the original game. No biggies. The funny part is before they decided they were going to revive the online part, most of the worthwhile content in the pipeline was reworked and packaged as Myst V: End of Ages.

 

If you want to get into Myst I say play Myst, then Riven, read the Book of Atrus novel (if you can be bothered), then play the original offline version Uru, and then finally go to Myst V: End of Ages. Myst 3 and 4 are wastes of time IMHO- the franchise name was outsourced for those games and you can really tell by just looking at them.