Guild of Writers

Hmm, I'm sorry to say, Drizzle has drawn a little unwanted attention. Although, none of this should really come as a suprise, I thought I should bring it the attention of everyone here.

Chogon wrote:Hi all,

Just to make clear Cyan Worlds' stance:

Cyan Worlds has *not* given any permission for the Drizzle program to the creator(s) of Drizzle or anyone using it or any derivative work of Drizzle. Also, we have not given permission to any shards that uses Drizzle derived data.
And we have not given any form of sanction to any shard outside of Cyan Worlds' control.

Thanks,
Chogon

Original post here.

Even tho' i don't participate in either; that sure seems like a 'spoiler' to me. Perhaps a required response in order to cover their A$$ets.

It could be, the fact that he used the phrase "does not have out permission" and not "don't do this." I suspect Cyan is becoming aware of the fact that the community is wearing out and some are looking to other means to fill the void.

Big Fat Disclamer

Anything I say in this thread is my own personal opinion and should not be taken as legal advice. While I'm perfectly capable of figuring out the original Myst without a walkthrough, I can't for the life of me figure out the legal system. I keep looking for the illusive third option.

I posted my comment here http://forum.guildofwriters.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3439

I think it was to reassure Creative Kingdoms and to warn Uru fans that any meddling with Magiquest Online material will not be tolerated.

Well, a few things come to mind:

1) UAM does have permission from Cyan, so he's not being fully honest (which is typical of the new Cyan in my experience.)

2) More importantly, it doesn't matter if Cyan gives their permission for Drizzle or not; it *is* legal. (Note: this is not legal advice :P)

3) As you say, it is probably more about covering their behinds. They no doubt like that it keeps people interested, but they fear losing control.

4) They might suspect that the Magiquest Online game they just publicly announced, may be supported in the near future as well. Perhaps even for weeks now in the next version ;)

(P.S. to Cyan: when you introduce new encryption it is just good for a little laugh (I remember realising how clueless they were with the XTEA->Rijndael shift for Myst5), but the "secure download queue" slows down startup a *ton*, and is something you should really be embarrassed about. The only way you will fully restrict people is when they no longer care enough about it to try, and you have been dangerously close to that for a long time.)

I don't think there's a reason to say bad things about Cyan Worlds here. I love Drizzle, but it's reasonable why Cyan Worlds didn't approve it yet (it's hackish), and it's reasonable why they released this statement (more and more people come by asking in the MOUL forums about drizzle stuff, clearly thinking it's something out of Cyan Worlds. As for the the fact MOUL forums are not the place to talk about it, as I said: drizzle is hack-ish, so it's not surprising).

I hope that Drizzle will get accepted by Cyan Worlds soon. But until than, it's their right to keep their hands clear of it, and it's not because they are mean or ignorant, but because, as I said, drizzle (however good it is) smells like a hack, and it's something Cyan Worlds want to keep away from their hands for now (soon to change, I hope).

It's been said many times before, but it bears repeating, most of what goes on here is hacking. And were not likely to see Cyan approval before Uru is released to open source.

Frankly, I'm just glad he clarified Cyan's position on shards above all.

In my eyes this clarifies what we already suspected: Cyan does not approve any of our hacks, but it accepts them as without people hacking the game, what would be the point in releasing the engine - with nobody knowing and bothering about how to work with it? Some have to keep the game alive to prevent people from leaving, and some have to keep the knowledge alive to be able to continue using it. I doubt Cyan will be able to write a full-blown documentation for their engine if and when they release it, so the knowledge which has been and is still being gathered is invaluable (with "hacks" I mean not only Drizzle and the Offline KI but also fan ages and other tools, like libPlasma).

This saddens me. Cyan has shown just how much it cares about keeping Uru alive: That is, it does not care.

Cyan can shove its "we do not approve" up its proverbial arse, for all I care. To be honest, Drizzle does not need their "sanction" or "permission". As ddb174 says, its legal, and that's that.