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| Obduction Backer |
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2006 5:34 am
Posts: 769
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Hey all,
I think that most of us are in favor of fan-make ages, including Cyan, so I suspect that we will see this sometime in the not-so-near-but-not-so-distant future.
Personally, this is by far the most exciting development in Uru's future (not to reduce the importance of official ages or the storyline, which the game could not survive without). I used to create levels for Quake and Quake 2 way back in the day (way back), and I remember how much fun that was. I didn't even like playing Quake all that much. With Uru, which I adore, I imagine that it will be incredibly satisfying to create ages, not to mention to visit the endlessly creative ages that will spring forth from the minds of rest of the community!
Some people have speculated about where the links to these ages will be. The library seems a good place, because contextually, a library is where everything goes, from Shakespeare to junky self-help manuals.
But, clearly there will need to be a nexus-like interface, because there will simply be so many ages to access, which won't reasonably fit on any set of shelves (much less rows of pedestals!).
But here's the point of my post. I was browsing Alcug's fabulous how-to wikiand I thought how fun it would be to make my own apartment in Uru. I have a great view of downtown from my window, and I'm 20-odd stories up, so I can just take a photo and place it on a background outside the window... Anyway, that's not actually the point. I realized at that point that if I were to try to maintain any kind of story continuity with the Myst mythos, than my apartment age (and any other real-world locale that others devise) couldn't be linked to from the cavern, because they're both on Earth/D'ni (and none of this quantum mechanics stuff, with "earth-like" ages to explain it away. It shouldn't need explaining).
Of course, many fan-made ages (perhaps a majority) are not likely to follow any conventions of the Myst universe, but I think that a "Writer's nexus" is in order. A completely separate age, like the main Nexus, that is used to link to fan-ages. Perhaps linked to from the Library?
Additionally, it would be nice to have some kind of area, sort of like a hood, perhaps as part of the same age as the writer's nexus, that would serve as a portal to that part of the game, with info, places to hold meetings, and perhaps in-game links to download the authoring software (maybe in the form of a art supply kiosk!)
I think no matter what the implementation, I'd like to also have actual linking books in my own Relto of just the ages I write.
Other options include:
~Simply a section in the current nexus for fan-made ages. Simple and easier to implement.
~A nexus or shelf section in each hood, which links only to ages written by that's hood's members. This is so that the sheer number of ages doesn't overwhelm the casual explorer, and so ages can be grouped by topic or however the "writers" want. The potential downside is that writers would have to jockey to get visitors to their hood's ages. In other words, competition.
~Maybe only have the books in the writer's Relto (on the opposing shelf, maybe?). This might be a bit annoying/inconvenient, but it would mean Cyan could keep more control over the system, and the public areas wouldn't get overwhelmed with non-official links.
~Other: Suggest your own implementation (I hope I've included enough options in the poll, but I'm sure there are other great ideas out there).
Of course, I'd invite Cyan to provide some insight as to what direction they're currently thinking on this matter. Maybe they hadn't considered it yet, maybe they have a few ideas, but nothing final, or maybe they have a whole system mapped out (but won't/shouldn't tell us yet, of course  ).
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