Myst Online Episodes

Myst Online Episodes are episodic content and story releases for Myst Online: Uru Live.

History

A common criticism of Myst Online after it was released was that in-game appearances of Cyan-controlled characters (such as members of the DRC) were infrequent and unannounced, so that in order to interact with the official characters, explorers would have to happen to be logged in when they happened to appear. As Cyan continued to develop the game while understaffed, these appearances became less frequent.

On May 4, 2007, Greydragon posted an announcement from Cyan stating that they were going to release content in episodes, so that players would be able to plan on when to log in more often.

On August 21, 2007, it was announced that episodes were going to be grouped into seasons.

Structure

Episodes begin at a publicly announced date and continue for approximately a week. The majority of content (new Ages, puzzles, etc.) is released during the episode week. The official characters primarily make appearances during episodes, furthering the story line of game and interacting with explorers.

Outside of the episode week, the game continues to be available as normal. However, Cyan will be focusing on preparing for the next episode. It is unknown whether any official characters will make an appearances in these interim periods.

The announcement for Deception hinted at a larger, seasonal structure, claiming that the episode "ties in with a season finale".

Some content (such as the monthly sparkle) will become available outside of an episode.

Numbering

The numbering for the episodes begins at five. Scars is referred to as the fifth episode, even though there haven't been any episodes before, and there (likely) won't be prequels.

The discrepancy is due to the fact that Scars coincided with Live version 5, the fifth major release since the launch of Myst Online: Uru Live. While a source of confusion, it allows for the major version and episode number to be consistent in the future.

Season 1 (2007)

Episodes

Days	Title	New Content	Summary
May 19-24	Scars	Minkata	Premiere: Two characters die. An impending conflict with the Bahro emerges.
June 23-27	A New Light	The Watcher's Pub, Er'cana	Cate is elected to take Engberg's place. Sharper leaves for Noloben.
July 30-August 3	Familiar Voices	Jalak, Kirel	War rumors and DRC power struggles continue. Someone familiar returns.
September 8-12	Deception	Guild pubs, Phil's Relto	Phil Henderson spreads information about the bahro. A DRC member returns.
November 1-6	Exodus	Ahnonay, K'veer Island, Myst Island	Finale: The meaning of "Destruction is coming. Find a way. Make a home." is revisited. Cate conflicts with original restorers. The Bahro civil war goes on.

Season 2

Initially, the future of Season 2 was uncertain. As the modern Guilds were introduced in Season 1, Cyan indicated that there would possibly be a focus on fan-created content. On October 31, 2007, an article about Myst Online appeared on GameTap's website, which also discussed a second season:

We've been kicking around a lot of plans for season two, like ramping up the guilds and player created content," says Ryan [Miller]. "It won't be like say, Second Life, where players can just create anything. There will be some quality assurance involved.

— Jared Rea (GameTap), article on GameTap.com

Even after the finale of Season 1, Cyan was still in talks with GameTap on Season 2.

On February 4, 2008, Greydragon posted an announcement from Ricardo Sanchez of GameTap that said that GameTap was discontinuing Myst Online, thus ending speculation on Season 2.