Moving

Just like my IC Blog took the leap into wordpressosity, so does this blog. Please update any bookmarks or links here.

Returning

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/txt/archive/?postID=6114#more

Welcome to the rebirth of the greatest game! Remember how you feel now and carry this on to make Uru the best it can be. I have faith we can do this. We have the power, technology, time, and energy and the final hurdle has been crossed. The floodgates are open. Let the waters come!

Spore Set One: Creature Creator Trial

First off, I saw concepts of Spore back around 2004 or so and kept an eye on it because I loved the concept. That concept, at its core, being a "massively single-player game" as the game's creator Will Wright puts it. A game where the game is single player, but the content is all fan-made.

I downloaded the free trial version of the creature creator (one tool in the Spore toolbox that literally spans galaxies) this morning. Ten minutes after installing it, I can't wait for the game. The trial has a quarter of the creature parts used in construction, but you find yourself straining to find limits even so. You can see my exploits (and pull them into your own Creature Creator) by going here. Simply open the Creator and go to the Load Creature area. The click and drag the creature from the website into the Spore program. The creature's there. It's that easy.

Now, here comes the kicker, and the reason why (if the issue is ever put up to global vote) I will elect Will Wright to be named to replace God: Every creature takes up 25 kilobytes of space. Let me repeat that. 25kb of space to describe nearly any species you can imagine. You could fit three species on an old floppy disk. You can fit several thousand on a modern USB flash stick. The data is held in a 25kb thumbnail image of your creature stored locally in your My Documents folder.

I'll be having more posts on the game later.

Cyan's Future

Debates have raged throughout the community about Cyan and Gametap and the rights to Uru. Questions of the cost of buying the rights back, the time it might take to do so, and the rumors that Gametap is Satan, have swirled around the forums since Uru’s third death was announced and the prospect of a Cyan-owned server was first brought up by Greydragon (then Community Manager). The core of the matter is this: Gametap owns the rights to distribute Uru content for at most two more years and Cyan owns the rights to make said content. So Cyan has three options: 1. Buy the rights back for an unknown amount of money, 2. Wait two years for the rights to expire, or 3. Work out a deal where Gametap keeps the rights, but allows Cyan to operate a server of its own and allow user generated content.

I suggest to Cyan that they take option two. For the simple reason that it will lead to a stronger Cyan when the rights are released back to them. Why should they pay money they likely don’t have to buy back the rights when they can move for two years to new ideas and new games to make money? I think Cyan would be helped by making new games, a new Myst-like, mold-breaking, genre-making game. Even a kids game. Appeal to the parents who would like a more stimulating learning experience for their children than the Cartoon Network and the few children’s shows remaining on television. It won’t get most Uru fans (aside from those with kids), but it might just revitalize Cyan and put it in a powerful position when the rights default back to them in 2010.

The Dream Factor

I fully realized something recently that makes the Myst series different for its rivals and made Uru in many ways different as well. Simply put, it's Cyan's talent of making dream worlds. Both believable and un-believable. Those worlds that actually felt like they must exist somewhere. It's not just weirdness, as most Myst copy-cats were/are (for example the games currently on Gametap from Dreamcatcher). It's the weirdness that looks and feels as though it's possible through the story.

We all have weird dreams. Dreams where we either see impossible things (talking mattresses, flying fish, winning an election), or dreams where things don't operate as they should (a loved one reacts differently than we expect, nothing works properly, etc.). Not that these dreams have to be bad (as the examples all have). Even in a dream where you sit with someone you love on a hill, there's a state of mind where you stop asking "why?". You don't ask "why is this mattress talking to me?" or "why won't Lassie come when I call her?" or "how did we get on this hill?".

That feeling-- not quite suspension of disbelief but willful belief-- is what, I think, Cyan captured in its old games and the old Uru and what it wasn't able to in the new Uru. When you linked into Myst in the original game, you didn't ask how this place was made, or why such an odd collection of items would be placed on a small island. You were drawn in from the start by something I at least can't identify. Perhaps by the pure mystery itself. The mystery brought up in Atrus' introduction. Or when in Riven, you didn't have a problem with the fact that something unknown kept the ocean from flooding the mine cart (though you found out later), or that there was a telescope looking at a portal in the ground, or that the trees and grass were as they were on Jungle island, or about the submarine car. They were all just odd, but you never cared. You didn't say "why did they put that in there?" and, instead of leading you to feel the game was just strange without a basis in anything, it felt as though the world was strange, yes, but it felt like that time in a dream where it doesn't matter.

It's what missed in Myst III and, to an extent, Myst IV. Why are there tusks in J'nanin? There just are. They were written in by Atrus to store the books to the lesson ages, but it's not as powerful a concept as the reasons behind the construction of the domes in Riven or the "places of protection" in Myst. Neither were Saveedro's drawings. Neither do you see a compelling explanation for the construction in Spire. But it's not even that, it's the fact that those questions arise that shows a lack of forethought in design. The ages were constructed to fulfill a game purpose instead of being the byproduct of a solid story and history.

Similar feelings arise in me with regards to the original Uru. Teledahn is a fantastic place, a weird place, but you feel it all fits. Kadish is bizarre, but works based on the back-story and the design. The problem that I see a bit more now is that the new ages (Delin, the Pods, Minkata, etc.) lacked that feeling. Minkata got very close, though.

I think the design, the genesis of this dream factor was through the concept and design of Robyn Miller and later Richard Vander Wende along with Josh Staub. With the essential concept being developed by Miller/Vander Wende and given a discernible style by Staub. If Cyan can get its ducks in a row and make another good game, rebuild the team, etc. that might be possible again. Until then, however, I think that power could rest with the fans now. No, not everyone will be able to do that, but we can learn and grow. By ourselves or via collaboration we can move to a point where we can create Cyan-quality work. Look at D'eux and Eh'ko or his remote age viewer. Those are small-scale visualizations of what's possible. It'll take a lot of time and effort and talent, but it's possible.

Scuffles

Yes, I know I haven't said anything about Uru's closure yet. Been rather busy.

I saw this thread this morning and have to agree with Marten. The situation was overblown by both sides and now another person is driven away for no good reason. SwiftHawk should have told Nanouk about whatever rule there was (I see none anywhere on the site) back when he posted this thread asking how to do so on the site. Nanouk should not have thrown out the word racist. From there, SwiftHawk has been very disrespectful to Nanouk over a single private comment in the heat of the moment. It is wrong to mock Nanouk as a girl and brand him as "riff-raff" that needed to be kept "on the run". Wrong to disregard that Nanouk could be feeling hurt, wrong to make up new rules on the spot a week after having no problems with Nanouk and being friendly and helpful. Nanouk is the liaison (or was) for the Guild of Messengers and, from the little time I've talked to him in Uru, a good person. I understand SwiftHawk works hard, maybe it's time for a break. Obviously he's not a bad person either. He was helpful and kind to Nanouk only a week before. The only reason for the change I can think of is that one or both are stressed out. There's nothing wrong with that. There IS something wrong with this kind of mean-spirited demonization. To be clear, there is also something clearly wrong with calling someone a rascist and posting non-Myst related copyrighted material on a gallery on a Myst site. However the second problem there could and should have been dealt with a week ago if it really was a problem.

Death

Tomorrow I will have more. For now, it is late and Uru has fallen a second time. We must now work to help it up once more.