Whilyam wrote:I get the impression that Rand isn't kept "in the know" by the rest of the company and that part of the company keeps coming up with these stupid policies. There's just such a disconnect between Cyan Worlds' stance on "hacking" and the feeling I got from when Rand first saw hacks used in MOULa.
I'm not sure if that's the case. There's a rather revealing interview with Rand in the back of the Prima Guide for Myst V. It's from 2005 and might even be considered outdated, but In response to this question, he states:
Myst V Prima Guide wrote:Q: Do you have a level of interaction with the fans that the fans don't know about? Do you "ghost" on the forums and message boards? I know that there are still Uru Live servers running; do you ever pop in there?
Rand: I haven't lately, just because of how busy we've been here with [Myst] V, although I've a close relationship here with people at the company that do that stuff on a regular basis, so I get regular updates from them. "What's going on now? What's the buzz? What are people talking about? What are they having problems with? What are they postulating? What are they thinking?" I usually get that from those guys, from Ryan Warzecha or RAWA, those guys who are really in touch with the fans, who in fact, in Ryan's case, came from being one of the fans to work here. And I do ghost on occasion, just to follow some threads through, but it's a lot easier and more efficient to get highlights from someone else, in most cases.
Ryan obviously isn't there anymore, but RAWA is, and I've always had the impression that he has an accurate read on the pulse of the fanbase. I can't imagine that Rand is totally in the dark about the instability in the community or how it might affect Cyan Worlds' future. It's just too big to miss. Or maybe I'm only saying that because I've been watching it happen for 5 years...
Another interesting thing in the interview is this:
Myst V Prima Guide wrote:Q: There's a really strong family element to Cyan. You just talked about having your kids around and working with your brother Robyn, and now you're still working with your brother Ryan. And there's been a really strong family connection in the games. Can you comment on that a little bit?
Rand: Oddly enough, and I'm not sure how, I think companies are shaped by the people at the top of the company...
[sic]
And I hope that happens here. We're a living. Bottom line is, we're a living for a lot of people. And regardless of what you think of the product and what we're doing, people are supporting families as they're doing this. And that's probably one of the reasons we're not the best business company as well. We do whatever we can to maintain that, to keep people here and not mess with that. It feels like there's family stuff going on. It sounds a little corny, to say that you're a family, but there are things that come from us actually starting this as a family with a couple of brothers that I hope dribble down, where we feel obligations that are much beyond business. Business is not business here, and I hate that saying. It's not. There are much better and deeper things here than business.
(Bolding is mine)
The highlighted phrases really point to some key issues here. Rand said it himself; Cyan isn't the most business-smart company. And whether Rand realizes or not, it's probably also the reason they haven't had a major success come out of
their studio since Riven. (Remember that Myst III and IV were developed by outside companies while Cyan was working on Uru Live, which ultimately failed.) And while it's great that they have so much company loyalty to their employees, I suspect that on some level, this attitude has interfered with logical business practices. On so many levels, the fans have helped breathed life back into the company, most notably with the enthusiastic response to D'mala, which kicked opened the door to their contract with Turner for MO:UL to be hosted on Gametap. Yet there has been increasing incoherency in how Cyan interacts with their fans. Given the general zaniness that the Uru community has always exhibited, this has been a disastrous combination.
I'm not suggesting that Cyan take stupid or insane risks in order to please their fans, who ultimately still are only a percentage of their actual customers.
There really is a silent majority that does not post on the forums, and often the insanity that takes place in the online community is not a true reflection of their actual client base, especially since their main project is now another game that has nothing to do with Myst.
But that does not invalidate the importance that Myst and Uru fans have played in Cyan's growth and development. Logic would dictate that though Uru or Myst is no longer their main project, it would still be important for them to maintain the best possible relationship with those fans. Yet they have displayed almost total incompetence in that regard, time and time again. A company's stance on things like UCC or hacking are usually pretty clear-cut: they either allow it or they don't, and if they do allow it, there are clearly defined limitations and policies that shape how the company responds to things like 'hacking'. Cyan's responses and Rand's responses (which so often seem incongruous) have been utterly confusing from the start.
If I had a conversation with Rand tomorrow, I would say something like this:
"I'd recommend that you just cease offering support for Uru's future altogether. Your company's policies on the matter have alienated some of the community's most critical elements, and the game itself is clearly just a pet project for you guys. Save your company's resources and your employees' time, and just withdrawal approval or support. If donations no longer maintain the upkeep of the MO:ULa server, then bring it offline. Too much ground has been lost for Uru to really have any future other than as another outdated game with a small following. Disband any sort of official recognition for all of the Guilds and declare that any hacking of your products will be pursued with legal action. Take away the UCC tools. I promise you, all of this nonsense will end tomorrow if you did that today."
Grim? Blunt? Sad? Yeah. But it'd at least save everybody a lot of time. We wouldn't have another five years like the last five. Clearly Actions like those recommended above would at least be clear and reduce all confusion. Is that what everybody really wants? I think neither we nor Cyan can have our cake and eat it, too.
There's got to be a decisive response from Cyan one way or the other or this stupidity will continue.
...and I'm back in explorers group though I didn't find anything interesting enough since a whole month on MOULa forum worth posting a comment.
