It's after christmas now...
GameTap better get off their bloody asses and provide (legal) access for the 'internationals' now.

Some mysterious things happened at the meeting with the DRC in the City today:

http://www.drcsite.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1424

((Some videos etc of the event can be found on the URU Live official forums, but there's the chat text on those too, and some of it is OOC))

http://www.mystembassy.net/drcliaisons/?q=node/577

Nymphetamine - CoF

:sweat:

The son's name is Jeff, afaik, though .
Elias left the restoration of the city to the DRC, his own organistation.
He left the land that the city is under, to his son.

Explorers are drawn to the city of D'ni in a very 'close encounters of the third kind' kind of way.
Zandi the second is then there at the volcano and cleft, to tell these explorers there is a city and a Yeesha waiting for them.
In the old Prologue, all us explorers got an IC invitation from Zandi, but that is not why you went to D'ni, it just gave official access to those that had gathered at the cleft.

Yeesha more or less gives you a choice: my side, or 'theirs'. The theirs not being very clear, but was always taken by most to mean the DRC. Now, however, it's not so sure that the DRC are the other side Yeesha talks about.
She asks you to take her journey ('consider it a quest. No, a Request.'). Up to you if you want to do so or not, and even if you do, that doesn't necessarily mean you've chosen Yeesha's side, it just means that at least you were willing to hear her out, more or less.
So I guess most reasonable people would take her journey, and then make up their own mind afterwards.
If you don't take the journey you go straight into the city.

Cyan's idea was that people play explorers, and not just that, they play themselves. Only, as explorers of an ancient city, with some magic and sci-fi technology. Myst games are a sci-fi/fantasy mix.
It's, of course, not mandatory to play yourself, you can RP any other personality as well. However, you are an explorer. You're not a D'ni, you're not a DRC member or engineer. Impersonating either of those is impersonating a Cyan employee. It would be like saying you're a part of TSR, in Seed. You just don't do it, it's lame.
Not to mention according to Cyan's EULA, it's actually illegal as well.
But even apart from that, you shouldn't want to do this. The kind of people that usually do this, are the kind of people that cannot stand the idea of being someone that's just like everyone else. They feel that their char should stand out from the crowd, without them even putting in any effort: by the character's title and profession. That's fine, but if you want that, you're in the wrong game. In URU, you're one of many, and if you want to stand out, it will have to be in some other way: creativity, heavy political involvement, being the best at a lot of puzzles and always solving them first, being well-known for helping people out. All those are ways people can stand out and have stood out from the crowd in the past. There are probably other ways as well. (being a complete lunatic perhaps, or being well-known for being annoying ).

So, story starts on the 20th again, and I've thought of some things regarding neighbourhoods:

1- If I do create a neighbourhood, and want us all to recognise it, it will be named just 'Seeds'.

2- I might create a neighbourhood called something else entirely, because that would fit in with the RP better. In other words, I won't make a neighbourhood with a Seed-reminiscent name if the RP does not lead there. Even if it would be nice to have a place we'd all OOC-ly recognise.

3- It's not certain by any means that I even will create a neighbourhood. I might join another one, go without one for a while, or stay in my randomly assigned 'hood. Where ever events and RP take me.

So, I don't know about you guys, maybe one or all of you will create 'hoods?

Oh yes, and this is now the new official site for the game:

http://www.gametap.com/home/myst/index.html

You get assigned a neighbourhood, period.
Then after that, you can decide to switch 'hoods or create your own.
If I do make a 'hood it will probably be called just 'Seeds'
However, it may not at all make sense for me to make my own 'hood once I'm in game IC-ly.

I also quite like little useless RP props that your character can wear/carry or sit on, for instance.

There are benches in Eder Kemo in URU, that are interactive so that you can sit on them if you click them.
Same in WoW: tables and chairs in inns that you could go and sit at. WoW, though not exactly RP heaven, got a lot of things right in the props and clothing department.

As for a quest structure for fighting or crafting? I don't think you really need any of that stuff. Not as we usually see it, anyway.
In URU, an NPC would just request you to do something. There was no quest log, no nothing. You could just... go do it. Or not. Much more like RL. Someone asks you to do something, you don't have any kind of log, it's not like 'bring me x amount of this' or 'kill  and y for me' and then you get 'this set reward.'
Even if the quests are not repeatable, in that form they feel a bit silly.

You really don't need skill structures and economy either. That depends a bit on the game though. If there's no combat you don't need a combat system. These kinds of things, fighting, death, economy, skills, cosmetic feaures, they vary too much from game to game. I don't feel that they inherently have something to do with RP.
In Seed we had no combat system.
In URU we don't have any system, really. And no one misses them either, they're just not needed.

I like NPCs that have actors behind them, but you can do a lot with artificial NPCs too.

In my ideal MMO for RP, I'd want as many people to come check out the game as possible. But of course, I wouldn't want to be swarmed by OOCers. And I don't think perma-death or lack of graphics are the answer. You punish everyone with that, not just the targets.
I think GMs might do a good job. Not having many features in the game that are much fun to do when you're not RPing would help too.
Seed's gameplay frankly wasn't much fun if you didn't RP with people at the same time.
In URU, all that is left for you to do, if you don't follow the storyline and get involved, is solve all the puzzles and look at the ages once or twice. Not too exciting either, you can only do that once, really. Though of course, you could just use it as a chatbpx with graphics. But I doubt many would do that once they have to start paying for it.

Ok.
Big news: Open Beta will start on the 20th of December!

We just read that it should be accessible for all. USA and Canada people will go through GameTap, and GreyDragon will put up a link for international people (from certain countries, which are on a list).

I will link to a thread on the URU forums, look for posts by Randomos and GreyDragon, those will have the info in them. The first post has a lot, but is later on in the thread further explained, and added to.

http://www.mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4073