How fast 15 years pass

FreddyD · **Joined:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:16 am **Posts:** 22

Remembering January 2004. Being in Prologue courtesy of the "clerical error." Joyously fighting the lag in the City. Endlessly trying to jump the DRC's barricades with so many other explorers. Completely immersed in it all.

And thinking it would never end.

...At its peak, Uru Prologue hosted 10,000 players. The following February [2004], with only a few days warning, publisher Ubisoft and developer Cyan announced that Uru Prologue would be closing and that the full public release, Uru Live, was being cancelled. Players gathering in-world for the server shutdown is remembered by players as "Black Monday" -- or "Black Tuesday," depending on which time zone players were in at the time of the closure.

Players in the study described their reaction to this announcement and its aftermath as "post traumatic stress," many using those precise terms, and most of them were surprised by the strength of their emotional response.

-- Crawford, Gary, Victoria K. Gosling and Ben Light, 2011. Gamers: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games. p. 166.

Jimbo · **Posted:** Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:20 am

Yes, times fly, doesn’t it.
I never made it to prologue. When Uru was launched by Ubisoft I was confident that it would only be a matter of weeks before the Mac version would come along. However, as many of us know, that didn’t happen. So after a few months of waiting I ended up buying a PC, and a very fancy 128 K modem.
I played the game through I and felt ready to joining the online part of the game. But sadly, at that time the online part had been shut down.
Then my memory is blurry. I know I was on different shards. I met Supergram, who was rehearsing an upcoming Sct. Pat Day March. I joined the rehearsal, but was soon left hopelessly behind because of lag.
Then came the D’Mala Shard. That was a great and fun time, It taught me to go about, interact with other “onliners”, and handle that totally new concept it was to be online in an internet community.

During D’Mala Gametap showed interrest in Uru. After a year, as I recall, D’Mala was shut down, and Gametap took over.
It was like starting all over again. The city was, as FreddyD mentions, full of DRC barricades we tried to jump over in order to get to closed areas of the city, and some of us really did succeed. The secret to this was by way of the “superjump” which you could provoke at different places in the game. Tokotah Roof was a good place:)
It was also during that time Watashi, Peni, Branman and I formed the Uru Cavern Skydivers.

But sadly, all good things come to an end.
Eventually Gametap backed out, and that was the end of an incredible online game experience, with a fantastic mythology, and even a developing storyline. A game way ahead of its time.

Luckily we can still visit the cavern, and I do that from time to time.
Thank you all uru gamers.
Thank you CYAN for the last 15 years of Uru and the last 25 years of the Myst saga.

FreddyD · **Joined:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:16 am **Posts:** 22

15 years ago today...

Uru Live fans and friends,

Thank you so much for your continued support of the worlds that are Myst and Uru. It has truly been wonderful immersing ourselves along with you in the ongoing adventure, following your comments - good and bad - as you explored Uru Live.

I have some good news and some bad news.

First, the bad news...

Uru Live is being put to bed.

Even with all of the time, money, resources, code, people, sweat, and heart that were poured into Uru Live, we needed a certain number of subscribers to pay the bills. We didn't get there. Uru Live is innovative and unique; its online universe is one of the most beautiful and complex ever built, anywhere. The idea of ongoing content was dramatic and forward-looking, but it required a substantial continuing effort to sustain. We were just not able to sign up the number of subscribers (even for free) necessary to pay for that effort.

Now for the good news...

The soul of Uru Live will live larger.

The soul of Uru Live came in two parts: the community and the content. Both will live on. Nothing can kill the community - it has a life of its own. The Call and the Gathering of the community will continue. And the content - what can I say? We have it, large amounts of it, ready to expand the world of Uru. In the past weeks we've been hard at work packaging that content in a different, more inclusive form - expansion packs - the first of which will be available in a month or two. Even better, the first expansion pack, To D'ni, is free. And there's more good news on inclusivity. I'm pleased to officially announce that the Mac version of Uru is finally under way.

It would be easy to focus on the negative aspects of this announcement. But we've grieved our loss, and with clearer minds we see things in a different light. The fact is that the continuing Uru adventure is amazing. The story and places it reaches are spectacular. And in the long run, we want as many people as possible to experience and explore these new worlds. The closing of Uru Live actually gives us the opportunity to open these expanding worlds to a larger audience, including those people without broadband. Only a small portion of the people who played Uru ever made it to D'ni in Uru Live. Now everyone can get to D'ni - and beyond.

Again, perhaps the ending has not yet been written.

Shorah,

Rand and the Cyan Worlds Team

How fast 15 years pass

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