Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Myst Online cannot die. It has been struck down and risen again on endless occasions. And now, it seems it is ascending to some kind of internet immortality by becoming an open source project. Cyan’s “Rand” explains: “Today we are announcing that the sources for the MOULA client engine and development tools (CyanWorlds.com Engine) will be made available as open source. At the same time, MOSS which is a MOULA server replacement (written by a’moaca’ and cjkelly) will also be released. Both open source projects will be hosted on OpenUru.org.”

So that’s an open source thing that happened.

Myst-MMO, Uru Live, is to go fully open source. The MMO has had a troubled existence, managing the impressive feat of being axed twice, and yet still existing. Having been published by Ubisoft, then picked up by Gametap, Eurogamer report that the third attempt to revive it, developer Cyan World’s Myst Online Restoration Experiment (MORE), has also gone titsup. Their response is a rather exciting one – they’re turning the game over to the public.

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There’s a document on my desktop that is entitled “Myst Online Adventures” and it contains a few lines about my first few steps in the famously underwhelming MMO. I was going to go back and do a bit of investigative playtesting for RPS japes, but sadly that document’s completion would be useless for anything other than historical record: Myst Online will close in 59 days time. Sniff.

This forum post has the details.

Many of you have made good friends while playing Myst Online, so here is the bittersweet part. Although Myst Online: Uru Live will be completely shut down in the near future, the game servers will remain live for the next 60 days. During that time, both newcomers and existing players can continue to experience the amazing world of Myst Online, explore the game’s many Ages, and interact with other players in the game and on the MystOnline.com website and forums. After 60 days, the title will be removed from the GameTap service, though MystOnline.com will remain live and active for fans to continue to share their passion for this important game franchise.