I'm afraid I have had multiple threads closed in their forums in the past, yes. But I've noticed that even there the air was getting stale, possibly due to moderators losing interest and not deleting threads quickly enough these days. Maybe that's what prompted them to bring back the game, who knows.
I'm aware of the number of employees Cyan currently has, but it's as you say - bad communication. If they can't do it with 7 people they could have said so back in 2008.
I've been there every time as well. I love the game, as in, I like the content - the puzzles and scenery and whatnot. I don't mind playing it again every couple of years, even. But, while it's fun seeing other people around and discussing things directly - as well as solving the puzzles that require multiplayer coordination - there really isn't much incentive to play it online, and the trickle of content that was being released every month doesn't in any way justify a subscription.
Also, the whole live actors thing was increasingly made the focus of the experience and that's really stupid - it should have been at most a bonus. And whenever the actors made their appearances Ages would get immediately full and extremely laggy and lots of people would be left out. Voice chat never worked right for me, probably because if you don't live in the US (or anywhere else with very low latency to the american servers) and have at least 10mbps of bandwidth, it simply isn't usable.
And I kind of agree with you about cliques, even.
However, I have to say you are wrong about two things - I don't think Uru should try to be anything like a generic MMORPG, and gameplay shouldn't be focused on making you feel important; And most importantly, you are seriously underestimating the diehard fan community (of which I am no member).
Sure, they may make cliques, but they are *seriously* commited to this game. Every time it resurfaces, there they are again doing wonders to keep things moving. These people are adult nerds, not twelve year olds who like to shoot monsters. There are many skilled programmers and artists among them, and even while the game is *not* running there are always extras being developed, parts being modified, new fan-made Ages being designed, even bugs being fixed...
What baffles me is that these people also defend Cyan to a degree that reminds me of Appleheads - And I don't understand why. Cyan may have created great MYST games, but they clearly do not have any business sense. They have always lacked skilled members in key areas of the development process, and they have lied to their fans many times - even if they apologize and explain later, and even if they have good reasons, lies are lies, and these fans, who are better than in *any* other online community I've ever seen, are treated like crap, repeatedly left waiting for years, and they still lash out at anyone who insults their beloved company... I'm not sure why they enjoy this punishment so much.
So that's where I stand on this subject. Cyan has always been reluctant and slow to open up to fan participation, other than when exploiting them as unpaid beta-testers and quality control. Had they done this when they should - several years ago - or even last week, I believe things would be running five times better now, and new content would be showing up as we speak. And these people would be doing this *gladly*. But after promising to open-source the project for a year, Cyan throws a bone at us by setting up a game server and promising that they're so short-handed they're not going to fix *anything*, change *anything* or even show up at all, and what is unsaid but implied is that they are not going to release the code any time soon either. If they truly gave a damn, they'd work on this even if in their off-hours, don't *we* all do that? I mean, for other open-source projects? Don't their exceedingly loyal fans do that? They are not being paid for their efforts, so why do they gobble up Cyan's bullshit?
Sorry for the rant, but I've never been able to post this anywhere else - All of Cyan's forums are highly censored by the most fanatic members of the community and anything that diverges even slightly from the everybody's-always-happy-about-everything mood is quickly deleted. This is no troll - it's what I genuinely feel, and I'm rather sad that things are the way they are.
It has ABM, PotS, more Relto pages to collect, all the Great Zero marker missions, a new Age for multiplayer games, two garden ages to be solved in groups, and two new normal ages/puzzles to solve, as well as all the extra little areas and collectibles. But then it died so there is nothing else beyond that (until they open source it).
Actually, that would be 90:10 (1/10), according to Sturgeon's Law.
But because not everyone is a PHP developer, us good developers are unfortunately fewer than the amount of santas and easter bunnies needed to cover the entire world in their respective days...
It wouldn't be so popular in first place if it was worthless.
I wonder how much CO2 would be released into the atmosphere by the cars and computers of all the extra coders necessary to develop in C++ a website that could otherwise be developed in PHP, in the same period of time and with all other things equal.
This is the same tired argument that can be used against *any* interpreted language. I love C++ - it's my favorite programming language - but I always use PHP for website development and I'll go on using it unless I'm forced not to.
I agree we still have a long way to go, but remember the one old version of IE is the one bundled with the most widely used operating system in the world (by far) and all its users have to do in order to use that version is not upgrading or installing anything else, whereas changing to Firefox (in the said operating system) requires them to actively do something about it.
The way I see it, people who do upgrade their browser are more likely to upgrade to Firefox (or another browser) than a newer version of IE, which is interesting.
Laziness is the greatest virtue of all. It is mother of all inventions. Those who claim that it is a sin, are those who want to strive backwards into the middle ages.
I wonder about that. From my experience, lazy people do not invent anything. Do you mean the existence of laziness causes (non-lazy) people to invent? If so, I can see your point, but I think those people would be productive anyway. Truly enterprising and creative people invent because they can.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm afraid I have had multiple threads closed in their forums in the past, yes. But I've noticed that even there the air was getting stale, possibly due to moderators losing interest and not deleting threads quickly enough these days. Maybe that's what prompted them to bring back the game, who knows.
I'm aware of the number of employees Cyan currently has, but it's as you say - bad communication. If they can't do it with 7 people they could have said so back in 2008.
What about Bryan Adams?
I've been there every time as well. I love the game, as in, I like the content - the puzzles and scenery and whatnot. I don't mind playing it again every couple of years, even. But, while it's fun seeing other people around and discussing things directly - as well as solving the puzzles that require multiplayer coordination - there really isn't much incentive to play it online, and the trickle of content that was being released every month doesn't in any way justify a subscription.
Also, the whole live actors thing was increasingly made the focus of the experience and that's really stupid - it should have been at most a bonus. And whenever the actors made their appearances Ages would get immediately full and extremely laggy and lots of people would be left out. Voice chat never worked right for me, probably because if you don't live in the US (or anywhere else with very low latency to the american servers) and have at least 10mbps of bandwidth, it simply isn't usable.
And I kind of agree with you about cliques, even.
However, I have to say you are wrong about two things - I don't think Uru should try to be anything like a generic MMORPG, and gameplay shouldn't be focused on making you feel important; And most importantly, you are seriously underestimating the diehard fan community (of which I am no member).
Sure, they may make cliques, but they are *seriously* commited to this game. Every time it resurfaces, there they are again doing wonders to keep things moving. These people are adult nerds, not twelve year olds who like to shoot monsters. There are many skilled programmers and artists among them, and even while the game is *not* running there are always extras being developed, parts being modified, new fan-made Ages being designed, even bugs being fixed...
What baffles me is that these people also defend Cyan to a degree that reminds me of Appleheads - And I don't understand why. Cyan may have created great MYST games, but they clearly do not have any business sense. They have always lacked skilled members in key areas of the development process, and they have lied to their fans many times - even if they apologize and explain later, and even if they have good reasons, lies are lies, and these fans, who are better than in *any* other online community I've ever seen, are treated like crap, repeatedly left waiting for years, and they still lash out at anyone who insults their beloved company... I'm not sure why they enjoy this punishment so much.
So that's where I stand on this subject. Cyan has always been reluctant and slow to open up to fan participation, other than when exploiting them as unpaid beta-testers and quality control. Had they done this when they should - several years ago - or even last week, I believe things would be running five times better now, and new content would be showing up as we speak. And these people would be doing this *gladly*. But after promising to open-source the project for a year, Cyan throws a bone at us by setting up a game server and promising that they're so short-handed they're not going to fix *anything*, change *anything* or even show up at all, and what is unsaid but implied is that they are not going to release the code any time soon either. If they truly gave a damn, they'd work on this even if in their off-hours, don't *we* all do that? I mean, for other open-source projects? Don't their exceedingly loyal fans do that? They are not being paid for their efforts, so why do they gobble up Cyan's bullshit?
Sorry for the rant, but I've never been able to post this anywhere else - All of Cyan's forums are highly censored by the most fanatic members of the community and anything that diverges even slightly from the everybody's-always-happy-about-everything mood is quickly deleted. This is no troll - it's what I genuinely feel, and I'm rather sad that things are the way they are.
It has ABM, PotS, more Relto pages to collect, all the Great Zero marker missions, a new Age for multiplayer games, two garden ages to be solved in groups, and two new normal ages/puzzles to solve, as well as all the extra little areas and collectibles. But then it died so there is nothing else beyond that (until they open source it).
It's sad when someone posting the truth needs to do so as an anonymous coward.
Maybe we no longer need them?
Interesting how the CNN article is better, yet linked to in the bottom only...
Under the Berne Convention and all other copyright treaties, local copyright laws apply in every country.
Well, not in Somalia or Papua New Guinea....
Actually, that would be 90:10 (1/10), according to Sturgeon's Law. But because not everyone is a PHP developer, us good developers are unfortunately fewer than the amount of santas and easter bunnies needed to cover the entire world in their respective days...
It wouldn't be so popular in first place if it was worthless. I wonder how much CO2 would be released into the atmosphere by the cars and computers of all the extra coders necessary to develop in C++ a website that could otherwise be developed in PHP, in the same period of time and with all other things equal. This is the same tired argument that can be used against *any* interpreted language. I love C++ - it's my favorite programming language - but I always use PHP for website development and I'll go on using it unless I'm forced not to.
box is now called bakabt. animesuki is only a meta-index, but look into scarywater or nyaatorrents. I hope that helps with your survival ;)
Probably a January 1st.
I agree we still have a long way to go, but remember the one old version of IE is the one bundled with the most widely used operating system in the world (by far) and all its users have to do in order to use that version is not upgrading or installing anything else, whereas changing to Firefox (in the said operating system) requires them to actively do something about it. The way I see it, people who do upgrade their browser are more likely to upgrade to Firefox (or another browser) than a newer version of IE, which is interesting.
Laziness is the greatest virtue of all. It is mother of all inventions. Those who claim that it is a sin, are those who want to strive backwards into the middle ages.
I wonder about that. From my experience, lazy people do not invent anything. Do you mean the existence of laziness causes (non-lazy) people to invent? If so, I can see your point, but I think those people would be productive anyway. Truly enterprising and creative people invent because they can.