Part III is about fans being in control of the Myst-Uru open source version of Myst Online. It will be difficult for anyone person or group to control it. But, is that a good thing? I’m for freedom and many choices and lots of competition. Having lots of Uru worlds to choose from sounds good to me. But it may be disaster for Myst Uru and cause its ultimate demise. How can that be?
If there were but one Uru run by a neutral third party which all fans could enjoy, we would likely have enough financial support for it run indefinitely. It would also assure players in game to keep the place from looking deserted.
But Myst Uru is not just about players in game. It is about fan created content, some fan programming server and client changes and someone designing and building content. Strong central control kills creativity and Myst Uru has failed twice from lack of content. While a central control would appear to solve many problems it creates others.
Somewhere in the process we need the fans running things but the organization of central control. Some consider a democracy the way to go. Everyone gets a fair vote, which has obviously worked so well for much of the world (I am being ironic). Then there is the idea of individual responsibility where each person handles things for their self, which sounds like utter chaos. But republics where individuals are in charge and form teams of equals, is where things seem to work best.
In action we see movers and shakers come together with others and begin project teams. Eder D’Uru Project in SL is one such. People have parts of the project, land. They came together and planned the project and found ways to fund it. They came together with a charitable organization to mutually help each other and are building the Eder D’Uru Project. A Minkata representation just opened. For those that have been to the original Minkata in Myst Online, it is a pretty good resemblance. They have added sort of soccer goals for use with the soccer ball. Not all the challenges of MInkata have been handled and built into the recreation. It is still in process.
So now there is a Myst Uru representation along with other aspects of SL life, stores, homes, bumper cars, and stargates. There is so much to make it more MMO player fun. There are too the new guilds and a structure for the residents to decide what and how to build in this cavern.
So, we are full circle. The fans have now become the controlling guilds they were afraid would control the fans…
So, once again, is it the guilds or the fans that are in control and how do you answer this question now?
See Part V – Taking Control