Being an analytical sort, and not being hopeful just to be hopeful - let me see what I can say about it.
- If you think about it - why would Cyan not do this? Admittedly, Rand Miller seemed to be wafflling a bit in the last interview (my opinion) but let's think about this. The announcement was published all over the internet, including places such as massively, and gamasutra. If you look at the history of Uru - from a financial perspective it's always been a bad thing. But - they love their world, and this is way to get their world out, and their name out there. I can't see a downside to this.
- This can be done if Cyan does well, or it does very badly. Let's say Cyan is still struggling, or maybe Myst for the iPhone sold really well, and they are getting money. Let's say that for either of those reasons, the company can't devote much in the way of resources to open source. But - remember Chogon told us that there are some people who are not working at Cyan anymore who want to help out with the open source release of Uru. That's good. You have people who can do it, and it's not dependent on the state of Cyan as a company. Either iMyst turns out great or not so great - you can still do this.
- It leaves a lasting legacy. I think this is the most important factor. Let's think about this. Does Cyan want to be known as the company that blew all their money on an MMO that didn't make it, twice (said charitably, could be more). Wouldn't it be better to be able to say this - Uru didn't make money (financial reasons, ahead of its time, all kinds of other reasons, pick one), but Uru was so well loved that Cyan worked with fans to put it out into the world. And, after Cyan did that - look what happened? This wasn't just a failed game - it was something that tapped an unmet need in MMO land. It was something that players just could not let go. Cyan was onto something, and they will be remembered for that. The success of Cyan was not a one time fluke.
- User generated content is hot. Rzyom did it but the popular one going on now is City of Heroes. People really, really want to be able to have some input into their MMO worlds.
See - there are reasons to think this will happen!
_________________ mszv, amarez in Uru, other online games, never use mszv anymore, would like to change it Blog - http://www.amarez.com, Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/amareze
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