Uru back from the dead as open source
This is cool, and a step we can hope more operators of sunset games might take.
So, Cyan has decided to give make MystOnline available to the fans by releasing the source code for the servers, client and tools for MystOnline as an open source project. We will also host a data server with the data for MystOnline. MORE is still possible but only with the help from fans.
This is a bit scary for Cyan because this is an area that we have never gone before, to let a product freely roam in the wild. But we’ve poured so much into UruLive, and it has touched so many, that we could not just let it whither and die. We still have hopes that someday we will be able to provide new content for UruLive and/or work on the next UruLive.
TXT: Cyan makes it official: “Myst” now in the hands of its fans.
I will be curious to see what impact this has on the exiled communities that have set up Uru groups in various other online worlds.
7 Responses to “Uru back from the dead as open source”
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Same reaction than Rano : I was not aware that there even was a Myst MMO until I saw this article[…].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst_Online:_Uru_Live
I’m very excited about the announcement. I’ve seen lots of great creations in the community so far. Opening things up will only increase the enjoyment of builders and explorers. The trick will be organizing it so that everyone can participate but we don’t have too much splintering (keeping most people working on one main shard instead of several competitive shards).
The community has brought Uru into Second Life, There, and other realms with much zeal and talent. Having an official place and tools to build onto Uru itself is a great move. I would predict that many of the exiled communities will rejoin Uru, as it’s benefits of realizing the dream of Uru outweigh the improvements of other games.
What an awesome precedent. While I don’t really expect big companies like Sony to follow suit if/when their MMORPG products are no longer worth maintaining, I hope smaller companies do this if their MMORPGs flame out one day. Free access to the codebase would drive innovation a lot faster than reinventing the wheel or licensing everything every time.
I read “Uru back from the dead as open corpse”
I’m glad it’s not the case.
This is good news it will be interesting to see how it progresses. I enjoyed the Myst RPG games and the first two companion novels. However, by the time I realized there was an online game released I was neck deep in WOW and URU was already in trouble.
I hope they’ll also put the content under an open license. It could do wonders for open source game design / coding, where content is always the hardest thing to obtain. Also, I read up on the game a little bit – it looks beautiful, and letting it die and succumb to eventual bit rot is probably a genuine loss.