My Online Gaming Life

I've been involved with an online game .. or the remains thereof .. for nearly 2 years. It's been this wonderful, beautiful .. frustrating at times .. world of Uru. Part of the Myst series .. it was to be an online adventure that unfortunately was never given a chance to realize the potential that lay within the rich story that we'd been given through the previous games and the book series.

Through some bit of grace .. Cyan decided to release a version of it that was hosted on private shards. Called "Until Uru" .. it was a promise by Cyan to bring back Uru Live if at all possible .. something I have always believed was just that. It was my first online game experience and I was in awe of actually meeting people in that cavern that I'd gotten glimpses of in my "Uru : Ages Beyond Myst" game .. and to be able to experience it with a dialup connection .. when I had read that it was not allowed during Live .. well .. very cool .. :D

My daughter also joined .. and .. by all that we can tell .. we had a great ingame experience .. mostly ;) . Playing as anyone with highspeed did .. with no more lag or glitches then those with highspeed, either. So, for nearly 2 years now .. despite a few dodgy interavvie interactions :D lol .. we actually have had a great time and have met so many people from all over the world .. some have actually become friends in the realest sense of the word, too.

A few months back Cyan, with "cautious optimism" as the watchwords of the hour .. began posting on the dormant DRC forum .. and .. with whispers of a possible backer for resurrecting Live .. opened their own Until Uru shard .. calling it D'mala. Shocked and thrilled .. probably describes everyones reaction .. and in rushed madly to sign into the D'mala shard .. the numbers completely catching Cyan off guard, so they said. People from Cyan and the possible backers dropped on by to visit and chat .. asking us to support D'mala in this crucial period of cautious optimism. Good golly did we !! Most major events have been moved to D'mala .. such as the Ladies Garden Club .. and .. as a result .. most of the other shards now sit deserted. New players were welcomed into (only) the D'mala shard through an invite system and they came in HUGE numbers .. certainly a positive showing for any potential backer !!

The backing came through .. Uru Live is reborn .. and ALL of us were happy to help bring this about. :)

Thing is .. now that the official announcement has been made .. along comes the news that .. there is virtually NO support for the dialup players. Which is something of a HUGE disappointment. Oh .. we're told that we won't be discouraged from attempting to play .. we'll just have to be more "patient" with the longer downloads for updates and such. Which, really, I wouldn't mind. I play "There" .. and routinely get updates on launch that are in excess of 40 Megs .. takes a few hours and we're ingame. We each .. my daughter and I .. have just recently set our computers to download over 24 hours to get a Blender texture file and a game demo .. each over 220 Megs. So .. to not play a day is not such a great big deal.

Thing is .. there's no support for those of us who just could not .. or would not .. want to tie up our phone line for nearly 2 weeks .. yes .. 2!! weeks .. for the initial Uru Live download of 3 Gigs. That is just so frustrating and a wee bit demoralizing. It's sort of like being told "um .. thanks for the help you gave us .. now would you kindly move on ...". Heck .. we supported this venture .. a LOT of dialup players did .. to be dismissed so out of hand .. feels wrong.

Lots of posting on the new UruLive forum .. most people seem of the similar mind about it too .. the broadband players .. a good number who've posted .. sort of have the .. "oh well .. too bad for you all .. but at least WE'RE in" attitude about it. Some even suggesting we should "just get broadband" .. as if it were that easy !! I don't use dialup because I just love the quaintness of the old ways you know .. lol .. Many of us live in areas where it is not an available option. Mine stops 2 km down the road .. both cable and phone highspeed .. I've been on the "waiting list" with my phone company for 2 and a half years .. still nothing.

One even posted that, in his view, the dailup users online experience was irrelevant. Speaking for all dialup players .. I think NOT .. thank you very much. OUR incavern presence also contributed to this rebirth of Uru Live .. I would dearly hope that Cyan .. in respecting and understanding us fans .. who have NO alternative to dialup .. would at least show some sort of support for us now, in return for the support that we showed them. We've been here .. showing support .. and there are a lot of us too .. to just shut us out for want of an install disk .. makes me want to cry in frustration. :(

Looks like games like There and Guild Wars .. heck .. even Matrix Online .. will still be getting some Uru refugees. I'll go to There Online .. I'll have fun .. I always do .. but still .. it won't be the Uru Live that I waited for .. and hoped for .. and worked toward ..... :(