Myst Online - Interview @ RPG Vault

RPG Vault catches up with GameTap's Rand Miller to update readers on Myst Online and GameTap's revival of the title:

Jonric: Given it's not a "normal" online world, how would you introduce Myst Online: Uru Live? What is the basic concept? How is it related to Uru Online: Ages Beyond Myst?

Rand Miller: Myst Online doesn't necessarily fit into any orthodox MMOG category, if there is such a thing. There is no leveling, no killing, no dying, no inventory, no health meter. But bear with me - the idea behind Myst Online is that we think people are curious about what's around the next corner. And rather than limit their ability to get around that corner with combat and dying, we will just keep adding new corners to explore. Repeat after me - content, content, content.
Myst Online is the online incarnation of Uru that was cancelled before ever launching three years ago. But this time it's launched, alive, and full of more than a few surprises.

More information.

"Sorry, GameTap is not available in your country"

When will people like this enter the 21st century?

The first two W's stand for World Wide.

I know it is a marketing thing. They want someone in Asia to do all the work and just cut them a check at the end of the day. And they will make segregated servers so people can have a happy, cuddly gaming experience without "foreigners" to frighten them. It is all so silly.

its just my humble guess, but I believe if they could take your money they would

—-

its kind of a shock that they've managed to actually get this going. Uru bombed because it was a MMOG released as SP I understand. I'm still stuck in Riven.

Gametap's Rand Miller? He's the lead designer at Cyan Worlds, the company that made and now maintains the game.

Reyla: Gametap as a whole is only for Americans, but Uru is available in at least Europe as well, and quite a few other countries too, IIRC. The reason Gametap otherwise only allows American customers is that getting worldwide permission for subscription based distribution of games could be difficult, since many games have several publishers who own the rights to distribute the games in their specific territories.

Lucky Day: Yeah, pretty much. Ubisoft forced Cyan Worlds to make a single player campaign out of their Uru Live content, and then simply pulled the plug on the online part before it even launched. Apparently they spent more money on advertisement for the game than it would cost to run the servers for a year.

Myst is a little out of my scope - it's neither an RPG nor a "real" MMORPG. I thought he was from Gametap based on this quote: "[…] which entered live service on GameTap a week and a half ago, by questioning one of its principals, Rand Miller".

I thought Cyan was defunct and that Miller must have therefore moved over to Gametap. Does Cyan still exist as an entity?

Very much so. Gametap is simply acting as a distributor. The preamble even says: "Cyan Worlds principal and franchise co-creator Rand Miller on the recently launched massively multiplayer title". At least now when I look.

Cyan Worlds was about to close their doors, and forewarned their employees that they were going to lose their jobs, but with then the deal with Gametap came along. I believe one of Gametap's founders was once an employee at Cyan.

Edit: There's also the second to last question:

Jonric: Would you care to tell our readers a bit about your company and the team associated with this project?

Rand Miller: We are developers, Cyan Worlds. We're located in Spokane, WA. I am CEO of the company and work closely with the design team here. We've got a core group of employees who have worked here for as much as 14 years, on the entire series of Myst games.