I´ve followed the discussions for some time, and the different views on the topic interest me.
I´ve also seen a growing amount of distress, anger and frustration in a lot of posts, and this worries me.
I´ve felt frustrated a lot of times during the last years (how many since 2004? really 7???
). First, Prologue, which I´ve participated in, got closed (out of reasons I still don´t understand, from the view of Ubisoft.) Then URU Live and it´s cancellation (another big disappointment, but at least the reasons were more understandable...).
You know, what kept me lurking around? What didn´t let me go? I could have gone, frustrated and angry, and let URU be URU, and never turn back. It´s just a game, after all, for heavens sake - so why did I NOT turn away?
It was, because there always was a little hope. Not much, but a little. No guarantees. No contracts.
Just a little hope, that URU someday MIGHT continue.
And it did, again and again: First Until URU (was it first?) - then URU Live (Gamtap), - then MOULa.
I agree, neither of this incarnations was perfect, or absolutely satisfying - but it DID continue, at last.
When Gametap closed URU Live, I thought "This is it". It was like a punch into the stomach.
But then, after months and months of nothingness (and I still kept lurking the forums, silly me
) I heard of people actually writing their own ages! I was fascinated and amazed.
When I heard, they - for the moment - were only for offline experience, it was a little (but only a little) disappointment - but the excitement of the ACTUAL POSSIBILTY thrilled me.
So - yes, KUDOS to everyone involved that this is possible to happen! And I really mean it!
And - this involves Cyan as well. I know, I know, they´ve made mistakes - the biggest mistake they made, in my opinion, is their lack of communication.
I think, it would have been BETTER, if they came each week into the forum, and put a short statement like "Nothing new yet, sorry - but we still didn´t change our plans", just to keep us updated - it would have been enough communication for me, as long as nothing happend.
But, oh well.
The other thing: I don´t like the fact, we can´t talk about some things regarding coding and fan ages in the official MOUL-forums - but I understand, why.
I think it was GreyDragon, who told us - more than once - that parts of URU were not open source per se, and not written by Cyan themselves. So, if I understand that correctly, part of URU (and I think MOUL as well) belong to other companies or foundations or whatever.
So, if Cyan said (and I honestly believe, they´d rather DO that): "Go on, write about hacking our games" - it is like their official position in this things. And law-wise, it CANT be their official position, because , assuming I understood this correctly, it ISNT legal to hack other companies NON-open-source stuff.
I also remember, that GreyDragon (I think it was him) wrote, that one guy, one ex-Cyan worker, had code to change (in his free time), before they could release the open source code. Seems, like this guy did not do this yet (at least this is the last bit of information I read about that.)
So - I think the situation is: Cyan wants to give us the open source code, but can´t do yet, because of legal issues - they fear being sued, which would be the death of Cyan, because I dont think, the company has enough money to survive a court case - especially, when they will lose it (because it is illegal to change other companies code without their permission, which those likely wont give.)
On the other hand, they cant talk to openly about it on their own forums - because the forums are public, and ANYONE can read them, including members of those other companies (or their lawyers.).
And they can´t allow us to talk about it, because of the same reasons: if Cyan SEEMS to encourage us officially(!) to break the law - they can get in BIIIIG trouble!
I don´t want to see Rand and his partners to loose all their money, just because we want our candy NOW, not when they are ready and prepared to to so.
I UNDERSTAND all the frustration, I´m frustrated too - but I WILL WAIT FOR URU, and if it takes all the time of the world. It CAME back more than once, actually.
I know, that a lot of people won´t wait, and I can understand that, but it also makes me sad, because we´ll lose a whole bunch of good guys, valuable members of the community (or should I better say, communities, because we are a quite diverse bunch
)
So - I´m NOT a "follower of blue", because I DO think they make mistakes - they are human beings, after all - but on the other side I don´t think, there is some kind of conspiracy to keep us all from playing URU OR writing our own ages.
And: there is a difference between a broken promise, a promise that can´t be hold, and a promise that will be fullfilled, but later than what we all would wish it to.
I´d like to add: I do NOT intend to attack, offend, or blame anyone having another opinion than mine, I just hope, that my opinion actually can CONTRIBUTE to settle the massive tensions we have at the moment in the community.
Everyone is angry, shouting at each other - many of them are right in some way, but there are also a lot of personal attacks, conspiracy theories and hurt personal feelings, which is understandable, because everyone is so angry, but I´d rather have us all talking to each other in a nice, respectful manner, especially, when our opinions differ.