Like a famous battery-operated bunny, the legacy of Myst Online keeps on going and going. Cyan World’s creation has been handed from one IP owner to the next, surviving one shutdown after another. Myst Online began life as a planned multiplayer component of the 2003 game, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The component never shipped with the game but was intended to be added again at a later date. Cyan Worlds canceled official development of the multiplayer game, which hardcore fans sustained until GameTap resurrected the game in 2007. Cyan Worlds regained ownership of the title last year and relaunched the game as a free-to-play online game.
However, Myst Online’s best ace may have just been played when Cyan Worlds announced that Myst Online will be going open source. The developer seems to be counting on the same dedication from its most committed users to keep the online game alive years ago, except this time they’re hoping these users will innovate and evolve the game.
Cyan Worlds announced that the sources for the MOULA client engine, a MOULA server replacement and development tools (CyanWorlds.com Engine) will be made available on OpenURU.org.
“The goal of the open source CyanWorlds.com Engine and the MOSS server is to provide a “playground” where new writers can learn their craft, and new maintainers can inspect it, and new cartographers can map it. The Cyan Worlds MOULA servers will continue to provide a (relatively) safe environment for the D’ni faithful to mingle and share,” the company stated on its official forum announcement.
The company expects a growth curve, in which there will be sharp disagreements between developers, but the company hopes that the shared goal of rebuilding the online world will be more important than the differences that divide them.
[Source: Tom's Hardware]
