Further Thoughts
February 9th, 2008 KiirelI’ve managed to keep myself distracted for a lot of this week thanks to large amounts of work (most of it involving turning into a CS TA for my floor since many of the real (paid) TAs don’t seem to help enough). Of course, there have been a few not so good things at school too, but thats another post. So lets get on with this one.
So now I’ve had some time for the news to settle, and I’ve figured out how I really feel about this. I think Alahmnat put it best in his response (copied into a spoiler tag bellow for potential posterity).
Honestly, not having the service is not the thing that I’m most worried about, its not being able to get the content that was released this past year. Granted, most of it was already available in the original off-line versions, but there are a good number of ages that were released that I would be sad to never see again. And I can guarantee you, I will be spending quite a bit of time before the cavern goes dark taking pictures, and many others will also be taking pictures and video.
But here’s the real kicker, and the main reason I am distraught about this turn of events. We all know that my intent is to become a game designer, but have I ever really explained what drove me in that direction? It was Cyan and Rand Miller. Sure, I have many influences, but the philosophy used at Cyan is exactly the sort of thing I believe in, and my goal has been to get to the point where I can design games to their caliber (or, perhaps, work for them some day). I was hit really hard when they closed after Myst 5 was released for exactly those reasons, and this doesn’t help things. Now Cyan isn’t necessarily going out of business just yet, and they definitely tried to put things in place after the last time to prevent that from happening; for instance, they now have a large QA department that they hire out to other developers which I would guess nets them a bit of cash.
But there is still the issue of what effect this will have at large. When URU was canceled the first time, there was a lot of chatter about how it showed that alternative online games were not financially viable. When it was relaunched, URU served as a slap in the face of all the nay-sayers from way back when, and it could have helped promote now blood in the online gaming market (and the gaming market in general). But now, being canceled twice will probably put a stop to most any chance for this sort of alternative, story based game… at least high budget ones. And that is what I am most worried about, because if the ability to get those games published goes away before I even get into a position to try to pitch games to publishers, then there is a bit of a problem.
I think I will let that stew with people for a bit. But I would like to point out a few small bits of potentially good news:
First, from the Spokesman Review (a paper local to Cyan, in Spokane):
Rand Miller, CEO of Cyan, said it was too early to say what the company’s next step would be.
“We are figuring out our employee situation and the possibility of running Uru servers ourselves,” Miller wrote in an e-mail.
Even before the decision by GameTap, Miller had been realistic that Uru might not survive a second season under the wing of Turner Broadcasting.
“I’m a bit pessimistic about it surviving,” Miller said. He noted that the game depended on a publisher giving it time to grow and develop its audience.
“It’s really hard to string it along with little bits and pieces.”
In the past two years Cyan also created a second business unit at its north Spokane offices. That group, numbering about 40 workers, provides quality control and testing for other game development companies.
The decision by GameTap doesn’t affect that group, Miller said.
Another Article from that paper:
Cyan CEO Rand Miller is uncertain what the options are. He said that he and others at Cyan are contemplating an assortment of options, including relaunching Uru on its own. That option would only work, he noted, if Cyan and GameTap – a division of Turner Broadcasting – can arrange for Miller and his team to regain rights to the online game.
While Cyan considers its options, Miller said the north Spokane company is looking for ways to spin out quick and casual online games, instead of the more detailed, labor-intensive projects it’s best known for.
…
“We would really like to try to do some games for the online casual market,” Miller said in a recent interview. Instead of shutting down the company and letting its 30 designers and graphic artists hunt for jobs elsewhere, Miller hopes to land a few deals soon to put them to work.
He’s already offered another new game to several publishers and is waiting to see what happens next, he said.That new online game, which Miller chose to not describe in detail, came out of a decision within the company last fall, just as Uru was ending its first season with GameTap. Miller said he knew then that Uru might not be renewed and he discussed options with the entire Cyan staff.
“We said, ‘We can just go dark and wait and see what happens. Or we can come up with a new game.’?”
And to wrap up, here’s an interview with a guy from Gametap…. who is spewing PR and BS to try to make them still look like good guys. Some highlights:
On the success side, I think we launched some really interesting content with Myst Online. I also think we found a pretty good formula for delivering MMO content episodically.
HA! HAHAHAHAHA! A good formula huh? “Ooo, I know! Let’s not give enough money to the developer to make enough content, and then let’s throw what we do get at the players in tiny snippets every 4-6 weeks…. but they still have to pay for that time when they aren’t getting anything new! GREAT! The consumers will love it!” Riiiight.
And going with that:
Well, we’d really like to thank all the fans of Myst Online who did join us for Season One. And we appreciate how understanding so many of them have been about the closure. We have had a lot of users thank us for giving them the chance to see what Rand had envisioned for the game and for taking the chance on a title like this in the first place.
I (and others have voiced this opinion) can’t imagine that many people would thank Gametap for this. I can understand their position from a business point of view, and I can’t fault them there, but I think this quote is a bit of a stretch. I mean, we most certainly did NOT get to see what Rand had envisioned for URU. It was not a living breathing world with things happening all the time and content and story pouring in. And the episodic format certainly moved it farther from the original intention than closer. Ironically, at least when URU was under Ubisoft, it looked much closer to the intention…
And with that I close, as I have to get ready to go to the This Old House party tonight.
-K