Myst-Uru Guilds IC and OOC Part-I

KI Image Photo #8

In Game Image Guild of Cartographers Public Hall

Update (2/2010): MOUL (Myst Online Uru Live) closed in 2008. It reopened in February 2010 as a free to play MMORPG named MOULagain. To play visit: Download MOULagain

Original Article: In recent posts on the MOUL forum the idea of ‘improving the guilds’ came up, again. In the forum there are great ideas and plans and not a few sour grapes from those having tried such changes in the past. But the basic understanding of Myst-Uru world guilds seems to be missing. To understand one viewpoint, mine, for why some of these efforts at change fail, read on.

Cyan’s creation of the guilds is spoken of often in the forums, as is their encouragement of the guilds. I think these statements often create confusion around the IC guilds (In Character or in Uru; In Cavern – both are a role playing concept) spoken of by IC characters and Cyan. Cyan has written about their plans for in-game guilds, which adds to the confusion. Plus, there are the historic guilds of the old D’ni culture adding more confusion. So, at least three types of guilds.

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The Guilds of Myst-Uru Part IV

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?

The Hall of Kings - Uru in Second Life

The Hall of King's - Uru in Second Life

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.

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The Guilds of Myst-Uru Part III

Seems like there is always someone talking/writing about the guilds controlling the game and fans. Whether or not one believes game fans and Myst Uru fans in particular can be controlled there comes the question of how might they be controlled and who would do the controlling?

Concert Hall in Aegura - Eder Gira Build SL

Concert Hall in Ae'gura - Eder Gira Build SL

The ‘who’ seems pretty simple and obvious to many Myst fans, the guilds. Normally it would be Cyan worlds, Inc. the game owner, but they are giving the game to fans and stepping back. Part I and II of this series list the different groups of guilds. So which one will rule them all? Oh, and who runs the guilds?

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The Guilds of Myst-Uru Part I

What is the story on the Myst-Uru guilds? Are they power hungry? Are they a force for good or evil? Will they be Myst-Uru’s salvation or destroy it? I personally think they will help and are the salvation. But I am also biased. What are others thinking and doing about Myst-Uru guilds?

This is a look at what I find and how I see it. This post will be a series of five posts.

The Guild… Which Guild is that?

Eder Tsogahl in Eder Gira Project - Myst Uru

Eder Tsogahl in Eder Gira Project - Myst Uru

In the Myst-Uru community there are more groups than just guilds. But, there are more guilds than just the guilds. I the groupings I see are; the community movers and shakers, guild leaders, various fans, various fan organizations, freelancers, bloggers, twitters and of course the guilds. The fans are the only real group. There are the Big Five guilds, which has nothing to do with membership numbers. Big has to do with recognition within the IC storyline. Then there are all the reformed guilds, new guilds, joke guilds and on and on.

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