It has been some time since I wrote about Myst or Uru. These were the first virtual worlds in which I played. Myst Online: Uru Live was my first Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). When it closed in early 2008 I became one of the D’ni Refugees living in Second Life®.
Myst Inspired Devokan Tao
From time to time one hears of the Myst community in Second Life or OpenSim worlds and their affect on and contributions to these worlds. Hamlet at NWN wrote: Myst & Uru Roleplay Regions Leave Second Life to Be Beautifully Reborn on OpenSim Grid. That is a bit of an overstatement. It is probably more accurate to say some regions closed and moved to other grids, but the people are still in SL. Now they are also playing in other grids too.
Another recent bit of coverage for the Myst Community came from the article: Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits a Myst and Uru inspired world: Devokan Trust on OSGrid. There is a nice collection of pictures with this article.
A more recent piece by Virtual Christine just appeared: HYLEE BEKKER`S OS GRID!! TOP OPENSIM ARTIST GIVES US HER MUST SEE LIST!!!TODAY WE DE-MYST-IFY DEVOKAN TAO!!!! This is a surprising piece of writing. The virtual worlds of Myst are extremely detailed and have a huge back story. There is a language, technology, guilds, kings, and thousands of years of history. The Myst community has built one of the most extensive fan created support systems around. There are language sites and a number of historical archives, like the D’niPedia Information Archive. Myst Lore is another popular archive.
Few people find these sites muck less take the time to read them and learn about the D’ni people (the story’s race of people that built the civilization). Virtual Christine did and it makes the article an interesting read. For those unfamiliar with the Myst worlds it is an intriguing introduction.
The stories I mention above are about the Myst inspired creations fans have made in OpenSim grids and SL. I think all of it is in OSGrid. Several of the articles have information on how to get to the areas.
Oh… and Myst Online: Uru Live, the original inspiration, is back online and free to play.
Nalates, Thank you for the nice compliment! I I like a challenge, and I really enjoyed untangling at least ateensy tiny bit of Mysts very complex culture. The positive feedback means alot, because I was REALLY worried I would get something wrong and offend a group of people who could hack me into oblivion without breaking sweat. The Myst world is fascinating, and in my next life, I will seriously get into it. The Myst community should really consider doing the occasional synopsis and begginners guides for us tourists! They are a seriously cool genre, and if folks could just get a handle at the start, there would be tons of interest! Thanks again, Christine
You are very welcome. You did a good job. Even old timers in the community don’t know it all. There is just too much to know.
There is a dark hat hacking faction in the community. But, it is a small number of people. Most are toward the white hat side of the spectrum. The politics of those dynamics is too complex to get into, but a new person missing a detail or even having a significant misunderstanding of D’ni culture is unlikely to set them off.
A synopsis… for a Myst fan that is like asking a person to eat just one Lays chip. There is just too much fans want to say. They tend to write books and encyclopedias. Your article is as a good a synopsis as I’ve seen.
Open Source work is proceeding. Fans are running servers. Some user made ages are online in private servers. I think some of the best user made areas currently online are in Second Life and OSGrid. The real Uru and the SL/OS builds inspired by Myst are difficult to compare and explain to people. One will never mistake one for the other when walking through the ages. But, screen shot from SL/OS often fool those playing in the real Uru.
Myst is a beautiful and inspiring game. Its avoidance of in-game violence made it a favorite for parents and children to play together. Myst has inspired a number of games and an art style.
Getting started in the game and figuring out the start is like starting in Second Life. People do flounder around. There are long debates and arguments about how the game should be changed to handle the start. I expect to see some of the private servers change the game start. But, we are held up by content licensing issues the creators, Cyan Worlds, have yet to resolve. In areas like Devokan Trust’s regions several people are experimenting with how to start people off.
I have 9 regions, currently off-line. I am looking forward to some new tools that may allow me to better control my visitors experience in my regions. Then we can experiment with new introductions in SL/OS regions. If we find ways that work, they may be adopted into fan servers and ultimately the Cyan servers.
Hi Natales, thanks for the reassuring me I am not worth bothering with! What a relief ! Okay, now you have me seriously wanting to take a look at the “Real Uru” and the SL ages. I will also check back into Devokan Tao to see what they have come up with to start people off.This is fun. Thanks for the input! Christine
…not worth bothering with! — not what a meant… :p
hehehehehe:)