Untìl Uru
The Adventure Continues Online

Uru was built for people - a place for people to meet, grow and wonder.
The deep city came alive with the sounds of life - and then it was silent again.
But the life of Uru is in the people. It will not awaken again until Uru has people again

...Untìl Uru has people again.

This is not Uru, or Uru Live. It's only a breath, a spirit of what Uru was. It's a heartbeat until Uru can slowly grow again.

...Untìl Uru can slowly grow again.

- Untìl Uru website (Message to the community from Victor Laxman)

Website: Untìl Uru

Page Contents

The Program
The Game Structure
The Experience
The Memories

Untìl Uru runs with:

Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru: The Complete Chronicles

Untìl Uru: The Program

When Uru Live was shut down, the entire Myst community had its heart torn in half. Everyone had waited three, maybe even four years to finally experience Uru; to finally experience a Myst game online, exploring in the world with other people. And they did. For just a few buggy months. Then it was "put to sleep".

As this is a story from my own perspective, I must add at this point, that I never played Uru Live. I was never one of the "gathered" - and frankly at the time, I didn't "feel the calling". I would never have known what I was missing out on. So if you are reading this, thinking as so many have done, "what is the fun of going online just to discuss life and walk around 3D worlds together? I already have MSN!", you are not alone. But read on, and maybe you will start to understand just how special Uru Live is.

On August 5, 2004, life returned to the cavern. Although the release was not officially supported by Cyan, strapped to a giant gnarly disclaimer, and repeatedly stressed as "not being Uru Live," we all knew that Live had returned to us. The program itself was nearly identical to the one used when Live ended. Therefore, the biggest drawback was that it didn't run The Path of the Shell expansion at all. (Although further "unofficial" work is being done on this, outside of Cyan, as we speak). To summarise the differences:

• Uru Live: Would have had regular updates to the world, including the addition of new Ages. Would have been hosted on Cyan-run servers. Would have charged a monthly fee.
• Untìl Uru: No updates (except by the server admins). Hosted on community-run servers (several community members and sites are hosting UU out of the goodness of their hearts!). One-time admin fee to Cyan ($6 US), no monthly fees.

So if all you wanted was the multiplayer aspect, UU is actually a bonus over Uru Live. Keep in mind that UU has much new content over the original Ages Beyond Myst (it just doesn't have any content updates). The UU content is very similar to that of the first single-player expansion, To D'ni. Also, additional content was released (at this stage, only in single player form) as a buyable expansion, The Path of the Shell.

Untìl Uru: The Game Structure

Rather than playing an avatar from your hard drive, as in the single player Uru, avatars are stored on one of the servers, or "shards". As said above, shards are player or community-run servers upon which all the characters are stored, and all the games are played. When you sign up, you are given a single authorisation key and account name/password for all shards, and then must create separate avatars for each shard you wish to play on.

Once in the game, most of it will be similar to Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, particularly, Relto and the game's Ages are relatively unchanged. Players of the To D'ni expansion will have played through the areas of Ae'gura, Bevin and the Nexus. While Ae'gura is largely the same, 'Bevin' is now known simply as 'The 'hood' (short for neighborhood), and there are dozens of them.

'Hoods are the "clans" or meeting places in UU. You can make your own 'hoods, join others, or just visit others. The 'hood itself is a wide-open public area where most of the chatting goes on.

The 'hood comes alive with explorers in Untìl Uru

Ae'gura, or 'The City' is the largest area in all of Uru. What makes it special is that it is a public area. While most of the Ages are private (everyone has their own copy or 'instance' of that Age), Ae'gura is public, so that anyone in the city at a given time can see everyone else in the city. Sadly, it is often quite underused, since the 'hoods are often a more convenient meeting place. However, I've been told that on most days at certain times (such as late afternoon in the US), the city can be packed with 15 to 25 people on the larger shards (such as Tapestry and Guild of Greeters).

Finally, two special devices you get to use are the KI (pronounced "kee") and the Nexus. These allow you to chat with friends and nearby avatars, send text and images ("KIMail", as it is affectionately known), move around the city and 'hoods using a network of Linking Books, and invite and accept invitations to visit other players' private Ages.

For more information on using some of these features, see Guides.
Particularly, new players may wish to check out Getting Started in Untìl Uru.

Untìl Uru: The Experience

This site is about the experience of Untìl Uru. UU is an amazing place - not so much for the game content itself, but for the community and the people that make it up (of course, all possible due to the game being there). When Cyan first designed Uru, they knew they had this wonderful community, which is why they were able to design a community-based game.

I was chatting on the Ubi.com forums long before playing UU, so for me and most others, the community started there, or on the many other Myst forums around the web. Thus a large number of us knew each other when the game started up. There were those who had played Uru Live, and were able to quickly show the rest of us how to get started. Many of us were new, but soon got the hang of it, and got used to the occasional crashing and bugs.

UU is really an amazing program in that the old axiom almost applies: "My program doesn't have bugs. They are simply undocumented features!" For UU definitely has many new bugs not present in the single-player game. But when playing with a friend or two, the fun begins, as people try new things, and suggest ways of getting around them.
(Most infamous of all: In Teledahn there is a bit where you ride a bucket up a rail and are supposed to be dropped off at the top, but in UU you often keep going round and round! Several of us tried for hours on numerous occasions to help each other get dropped out by keeping the power going and playing with the settings...)

But even if you don't know anyone from the forums, you're bound to make many new friends. You can link to the hood of your choosing, so just walk into a conversation and people will always accept you. Soon, you will be off in other peoples' Reltos, having parties and solving puzzles in the Ages Beyond Myst Ages together.

Your KI has the functionality of MSN Messenger or other online messenger programs built into it, so soon you will have a buddy list and be able to chat with them anytime they are online, no matter where they are in the game.

I have spoken to and heard of many people who use Uru to escape the pressures of real life. Unlike myself, these people sometimes are disadvantaged - for example, some have a disability which means they cannot move their legs. Uru gives them the ability to run and jump in a fully-realised world, but at the same time not become isolated from people. On the contrary, Uru is a fully social environment. This is also great for people who face hardships in their life - Uru allows them to escape to a new world for a brief time, once again keeping up that social interaction.

Although the ability to explore all of the Ages Beyond Myst awaits you, people spend most of their time in the 'hoods: chatting, having fun, running around, and playing some 'heek (a D'ni game, pictured in the gallery). It is made all the more real by the inclusion of voice chat which allows you to speak to people within a limited range. This feature makes it seem like you're really speaking to people - when you chat, your avatar's hands move expressively and people can see and react to this. In addition, we also have a full set of emotes, allowing us to "/wave", "/clap", "/sit", "/dance", "/cry", "/sneeze" and many more. (Sri's Relto site has a great KI Reference which provides a fairly comprehensive list).

The experience of social interaction in Uru is quite unlike in real life. When in real life could you just walk around the streets and say hello to a random person? Everyone in Uru will say hello back. The reason is, they are here for the sole purpose of social interaction, like you. Everyone in Uru shares a common interest in the game; in puzzles, in exploring, in chatting.

When the city is full of people, it is also full of life. You may see a group of people trying to "tent-climb", or others roaming around looking for markers (some of the in-game "quests"). Cavern races have also become more popular with the upcoming advent of the D'Olympics (a large competition being organised by dedicated fan-members).

One of the greatest things about our community is the way "newbies" are accepted. Whereas in other, more competitive games, a newbie is laughed at, Uru people always take the time to help them out. Obviously, this is the nature of the game - the whole point is to help others solve puzzles. This generous nature of people extends into the general atmosphere of the place. Although we hide in a dark cavern, this is the brightest "chatroom" you will ever visit - where everyone feels safe and welcome.

In a recent radio interview, Rand Miller spoke about the fans in a heartwarming way:

I think we have the best fans around. Partially because the nature of the entertainment we make is... I don't want to call it "cerebral" but there's this great balance between exploring and thought and imagination in what we do, and so it attracts a crowd that has those same kind of attributes, and they're just wonderful. So when we meet them, its always pleasant...

Thats the core that keeps us going. If we didn't have that, I don't know what we'd... this would truly just be a job.

Untìl Uru is the reason Uru was made: not so much for the puzzles and the Ages, but for the community. "Uru was built for people - a place for people to meet, grow and wonder." Laxman's statement is truer now than ever before. Although we don't have new Ages every month, and Rand Miller's dream may never be fully realised, at least one thing he wanted has come true: The cavern is full of life again. And so it shall be...

...Untìl Uru can slowly grow again.

Untìl Uru: The Memories
(Screenshot Gallery)

Whenever you meet me in the cavern, you can bet I'm snapping pics for my gallery! Here are some of my favourite Uru moments. In many of the larger groups, I have no way of recording all of your names, but explorers in smaller groups are always credited.

Unfortunately there are too many people for me to ask your permission. I hope its OK if I put your pictures and names up here! And sorry if I give anyone the wrong name! (Let me know). By the way, "EMS" is me, Eat_My_Shortz, and I appear in almost every shot (due to the third-person view).

For better organisation, I have split the gallery into several pages:

Page #1
Page #2

Page written with the help of Toria