Remix, Organisation and Myst: first thoughts
[I had started on a post earlier, but between paragraphs I did a little surfing and found something that changes part of what I was writing about. I'm actually a little bothered that this post has taken me more than an hour to bang out. I'm not writing for a magazine here.]
Several years ago, Natalie introduced me to what was then a new game, Myst. A year or so later, the game became popular with some other people I knew and I played it again. A few years later, a massively multiplayer online game was announced based on the setting and backstory of the game (as revealed through the games and a couple of novels). This was called a number of things, but was released as Uru. The original live version, Uru Live, never got out of beta and was canceled. I missed joining the beta. But a version of the game was made available for the fan base to explore and stay together. We were rewarded a little over a year ago by an renewal of the game via GameTap. But that, too, canceled. Since then, I've tried a couple of other games, but haven't found anything that was as compelling as the original Myst games and all the things I expected to see in the Myst Online: Uru Live story. Too bad that even Myst Online didn't live up to my expectations for an online game.
Last week, Cyan announced that they were going to release Myst Online as an open source project. This would include the server, client and tools. I assume this also means that at least some of the content of the game will be released or at least available. This is the one thing that changed the direction of what I was thinking.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed something new to read. One of the books I picked up was Lawrence Lessig's Remix. Lessig's presentation of what he calls Read-Write versus Read-Only culture and a sharing economy versus a commercial economy started to get me thinking about MMO in general.
After starting to read the Lessig, I checked out one of the guest bloggers at Boing Boing, Clay Shirky and was drawn to the title of his book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. And there have been a couple of conversations some people at work.
I started to realize that some of my positions on MMO were changing and that I felt myself circling around an argument as to why MMO in general seem to suffer (or at least the issues I have with them). I should note that this post is currently into its 4th day of being written, and I have not yet finished either Lessig's or Shirky's book, so I may not be into the meat of their respective argument. I have also not been following the overall conversation occurring at the Myst Online forums, any other forums or any of the blogs from the Myst community about this topic. I am expecting that some of what I am writing has already been said by others. And I'm expecting that other have and will say it better.
Lessig's statements about RO-professionally produced culture and how it compares to RW-culture produced by amateur participants in the market are what made the Shirky catch my attention (to the point where I ran out the night I first saw it and got it from the library).
This is the point where I realize that everything I was originally going to post is changed by Myst transitioning into an open source project.
Without getting into quoting, this changes everything.
Under the model of MMO that I would recognize, the game setting and environment are under the control and direction of a single commercial entity. What happens when that entity bails out and releases the server, client and tools to the amateurs who were attracted to the setting for one feature or another?
At least one other person has divided gaming communities into three categories. I'll call these three categories Story, System and Social.
Socials are the easiest group to define. They participate in an MMO because of other people participating. For them, the ‘game" is really just a 3D chatroom with occasionally interesting diversions from their chat. These groups tend to follow each other around, and are pretty much in the same groups with the same relationships in every setting they participate. I've seen this group complain about people trying to do IC things away from officially organized IC events.
System people are in the game to do something that is provided by the system. Level grinding, PvP combat, farming and harvesting of resources and crafting are the things these participants spend their time doing. I'd say that the phrase "Play the game, not the story" is their motto.
Both the above groups tend to "stalk to story," either looking for the distraction, or because stalking the story creates a target rich environment for combat. Player driven parties are also fodder for the same reasons.
The last group is the one I strive to participate in. This group tries to follow the story, not as a stalker looking for distraction, but as an active participant hoping to discover the secrets of the story, setting or something else, but from within the setting of the story.
I would love a setting that allows me to position myself as an minor character in a book, occasionally having the opportunity to interact with the story in a way that justifies its existence. I'm playing because I'm trying to escape. And I don't want to passively participate.
The fear I have is that with Myst going open source, there are already groups within the community that have said that the only content that was important were new Ages. Story is not, currently, all that important.
I'm still waiting to see how this game is not going to devolve to Second Life.
This isn't to say there is anything wrong with Second Life. I was looking for an escape with a story.
At this point, I'm waiting for the cold war that I get the feeling more or less permeates the Myst community to turn into an all out shooting war between groups with different takes on what Open Source Myst Online (OSMO, per Chogon) will be when it is finally released.
I have a feeling that I am going to write more on this, but right now I feel the need to catch up on what others are saying.
Good night & Good Luck
