I Musta' Missed The 'Big Bang' O_o

I was extremely excited about Uru going truly 'LIVE' on the 15th of this month - February.

I've never made any secret .. on any forum .. about how much I just love the entire 'history' of 'Myst' .. not only of Atrus and his family .. but of the entire D'ni world .. even into the 'pre-earth' era of Garternay .. which particularly catches my attention for some reason .. maybe because so little is known about it. It's engaging and intriguing and I've always wanted to learn .. to experience .. more of it. Not to mention the mystery .. to me anyway .. of where the rest of them are. I mean .. they existed in that cavern how many thousands of years .. and there was roughly 1 million of them in there? That makes NO sense when you measure that against the enormous population of Terahnee that grew to over 200 million .. in the same time span. It suggests that there could be many .. many more of the cavern D'ni out "there" someplace .. just waiting for us to stumble upon them. Groups who had been out of contact with the cavern people for so long they had forgotten it even existed .. or had left because they no longer wanted to live the simple unadorned life in a stone cavern .. or .. or .. or .. so many possibilities. I would love our ultimate mission .. our final act in our long and loyal friendship with Atrus .. to be to bring these "lost" groups together .. it'd just be kind of a cool thing to reunite the Ronay after so long. :)

We had already been told what to expect content-wise .. no new great and wonderful ages .. but the addition of a second, smaller age .. called Eder Tsogahl .. which is a beautiful 'sister' age to Delin. It contains the same puzzle as Delin .. and is the means to get the second 'half donut' that rotates above the well on our Relto island. So .. certainly .. no over inflated sense of expectation in that regard.

HOWEVER .. I WAS expecting the kick off of .. in some super cool .. grab your attention and hold onto it kind of way .. THE storyline. The very storyline .. as so intriguingly intimated by Yeesha .. in that very attention grabbing opening sequence that we get to see when we begin our journey. I still get chills when I hear that ominous turn in the opening !! :D

And other people had posted their belief that there would most likely be something super to kick off the 'new' Uru Live .. like the storyline and maybe even a t-shirt logo to commemorate the 'event' of the Live kickoff .. which would have been rather a nice touch. :) So .. I haven't been the only one with a sense of expectation that SOMETHING was going to happen on the official opening day.

There has been .. nothing .. nothing of note at all.

For all the fan hype .. for all the expectation .. for all the 'hints' of an 'arcing story' .. Myst Online : Uru Live .. has begun with the merest of whispers .. and a second tiny age .. much like the other.

Oh yes .. and we got a second 'sparklie' from Kadish .. but that was at the first of the month .. so .. doesn't really count.

We've been told to shape the story by our actions .. O_o

Right before Live kicked off .. there was a 'sit-in' to get back the DRC forums .. which had been killed (rightfully .. in my opinion .. for a number of reasons) by the IC character of 'Cate' .. when the new .. and very nice looking .. DRC site came back up. The sit-in was a 'mess' shall we say .. accomplishing nothing but irking the IC character. But .. the DRC forums DID go back up .. and .. considering that the 'trolls' who live under *that* bridge had migrated over to the MOUL forums .. and were raising the ruckus that only they are capable of .. I say 'Thank God, Cate' or whoever .. because one forum like that is MORE than enough. O_o

Then .. we get yet one more .. peaceful .. sit-in .. that elicited a 'visitation' of Yeesha in the hood .. greatly exciting those involved with that .. yet .. truthfully .. only being a reaction on Cyans part to, perhaps, illustrate their statements that 'we the people' can 'make' things happen ingame

Within a couple of days .. a few people started posting their feelings on the MOUL forum .. and .. as per the usual forum reactions .. got roundly dissed for daring to say .. 'hey .. what gives?'

Lots of good posts expressing confusion .. and disappointment .. in the underwhelming opening of Uru Live. And .. I'm right there with those opinions .. I just know better than to post on any of those forums .. :D

Someone I've known across the forums for a few years now .. Zardoz .. and God luv 'im, he's one of the funniest, most intelligent, level thinking, well 'written' people in the Uru fan arena .. made the best post on the DRC forums .. of ALL places .. summing up .. in a beautifully presented example of what we get .. as opposed to what people were expecting .. storywise .. with the opening of Live.

It is EXACTLY what I had been expecting .. not that actual story, of course .. but that KIND of story. One that grabbed my attention .. engaged my senses .. and my puzzle solving abilities .. made me WANT to be online to catch the buzz .. and work with it .. seeing it all unfold .. I'm STILL looking for that.

Instead .. we've been given 2 mini-ages .. and a couple of sparklies .. with absolutely NO reason for any of them .. nothing to connect them to what has been .. no whispers of what might be .. no new notebook found lying about in either of the new places .. or even entries in existing books .. little to anchor any of the new things ingame. Just 'here ya go' .. drop them and watch the feeding frenzy as lots of people log in for the first time in a week .. having found out about the new thing on a forum someplace .. hunt it down .. use it up .. and then go back to 'lurk' mode. I did that very thing when I read there was snow in Delin .. and so had just about every other person I ran into online that evening.

Which BEGS an answer to the question ....

What kind of 'gaming experience' is THAT anyway ?? O_o

Frankly .. being the 'cause' of some 'effect' .. isn't exactly what I had in mind when I read the words 'arcing storyline' .. O_o

It's been just over a week now .. and STILL nothing storyline at all. And my disappointment .. as well as an 'unease' .. has begun to grow.

Most of us are acting like my fish. They swim happily in their tank .. content to be in that space busily doing nothing .. but going NUTS for about 1 minute when some crumbs of fish food hit the water and disperse .. only to go back to happily swimming about doing 'nothing' once the food is gone. They have NO idea where it comes from .. or what it means .. they just devour the tiny tidbit and go back to quietly swimming about .. their entire lives spent doing nothing but react to food bits.

This is NOT what I expected Live to be .. this online 'fishbowl' that Uru Live seems to be .. I wanted riveting .. involving .. 'arcing' storyline. Something that made me go 'Whoaaa .. how intriguing .. and .. what's next .. ?? O_O

And I expected it to begin the first day Live flung it's arms open to us.

It's still early days yet .. I'm willing to give them some more time to pull this off. Goodness knows .. I've waited this long .. :)

In the mean time .. I'm off to play Guild Wars. I finally gave in and bought it .. after trying it out using one of my daughters buddy passes .. and .. though very light on the 'engaging puzzle' side .. it DOES have a pretty good story with it .. that at least gives you the feeling of being a part of what's happening. You DO get to play a 'hero' .. helping to defend and protect the various Tyrian people from great trials by forces bent on their enslavement or destruction .. traveling an extensive map area throughout the story. And .. killing beasties aside .. LOL :D .. I'm REALLY enjoying it .. who knew ?? O_o

Besides .. it beats doing nothing while I'm swimming in the fishbowl .. waiting for the next tidbit of food to fall in so that I can devour it .. ;)