‘Appreciation Party’ speech

Here is my speech for the Zak’s Appreciation Party. The party is part of the anniversary events taking place this month(February).

Hello, I’m Jamie (also known as “HeritageNightGuy.”) I do a series of events called “Heritage Night.” At Heritage Nights, I talk about the game’s history. I have covered such topics as “OHBot – a computer controlled avatar” and “the creation of authorized hacking zones”.

Heritage Night was started by another explorer for the same purpose as it’s used today.

I took over Heritage Night in 2013. At that time, it had been dead for a while. I got the idea when I mentioned OHBot in “Myst: The Comedy Text Adventure” and people did not know who he was. I then realized that I had seen things that others had not. Remembering a Heritage Night I had attended, I announced my first event. It was going to be called History Night and I was going to talk about my first experience in MOULa in 2010. I was contacted by Calum, the previous administrator and was told I could use the name and website Heritage Night.

I have done many events since then; some turned out better than others, with my best events involving authorized hacking.

From the beginning, I have tried to make my events unique. I did this by using authorized hacking to demonstrate things or by having unique special guests like OHB, the creator of the computer controlled avatar. Lastly, I have tried to have a unique perspective on things and tell stories.

Thanks for listening. More information on Heritage Night can be found here: https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/. You can also catch up on past events there. To find out when the next event is, check the events section of the forums. We will now begin the Q and A.

---

Chatlog:

(02/12 13:36:12)  JamieM(2.0): So any questionts?
(02/12 13:36:37)  Calum Traveler: not a question per say, but I’d just like to say, Jamie, I’m glad to see HN is still running after all these years.
(02/12 13:36:47)  JamieM(2.0): Thanks Calum :)
(02/12 13:36:50)  TrapperDave: Thanks to Jamie , he has done a lot of good !
(02/12 13:36:51)  JamieM(2.0): I’m  glad too :)
(02/12 13:36:59)  Hummingbird: Me too!
(02/12 13:37:03) Thumbs up from JamieM(2.0)
(02/12 13:37:26)  Kayara: When is heritage night usually held?
(02/12 13:37:30)  JamieM(2.0): I have some fun events planned for latter this years :)!
(02/12 13:37:50)  JamieM(2.0): Usually on a saturday at 12 Ki time.
(02/12 13:38:11)  TrapperDave: Not every week though ?
(02/12 13:38:24)  JamieM(2.0): They used to be ounce a month but I can’t allways think of a topic
(02/12 13:38:30)  Zeke365: what hood is it held in jamie?
(02/12 13:38:51)  Kayara: Shorah brandon and briglit
(02/12 13:38:57)  JamieM(2.0): Either ‘Heritage Night’ hood or ‘The Hood Of Iluusionts’ for magic events
(02/12 13:39:24)  JamieM(2.0): Wait I typed ot fast and spelt it wrong…
(02/12 13:39:42)  brandon20897: Shorah everyone
(02/12 13:39:42)  Obducted Joker: We speak typonese
(02/12 13:39:49)  Zeke365: lol
(02/12 13:39:50)  Institution TOOO: Shorah brandon
(02/12 13:39:54)  Hummingbird: lol
(02/12 13:39:55)  Omiahn: shorah :
(02/12 13:40:08)  JamieM(2.0): The Hood of Illusions is used for magic events
(02/12 13:40:27)  Emor D’ni Lap: copy that
(02/12 13:40:39)  JamieM(2.0): Acctually it was a fairly simple idea to use the hood to talk about why it was created. Since after it was created there was talk about useing it for evetns.
(02/12 13:41:03)  Emor D’ni Lap: now I’m confused
(02/12 13:42:12)  Calum Traveler: way back when HN first was designed, Carl Palmner wanted to use magic hoods for certain events,
(02/12 13:42:32)  Calum Traveler: but he never got a chance to work out the hows, and i never got a chance either
(02/12 13:42:36)  JamieM(2.0): Thanks Calum I was getting confused trying to explain it.
(02/12 13:42:36)  ~*Jayne*~ (I’m on the surface, be back in a minute):
(02/12 13:42:45)  Hummingbird: we could only do magic in a private setting.
(02/12 13:42:54)  JamieM(2.0): I basically took his idea and got it to work
(02/12 13:43:14)  Calum Traveler: *nods* if Carl were active, im sure he’d love that
(02/12 13:43:27) Calum Traveler wonders what the heck that guy’s up too these days…
(02/12 13:43:56) Error: Don’t know how to ‘/shurg’
(02/12 13:43:59) JamieM(2.0) shurgs
(02/12 13:44:11)  Zeke365: are there any other question about jamie and his event
(02/12 13:44:23) Kayara shakes her head
(02/12 13:44:42) TrapperDave laughs
(02/12 13:44:42)  JamieM(2.0): Sorry that was kind of short. I gave myself extra time incase I had problems putting pasteing
(02/12 13:44:48)  JamieM(2.0): (it happends often)
(02/12 13:45:20)  TrapperDave: brglit is entertaining :)
(02/12 13:45:25)  Institution TOOO: Lol
(02/12 13:45:32)  Zeke365: that and for question right jamie
(02/12 13:46:21)  JamieM(2.0): So I’m an IT guy that’s how I got the Hood Of Ilustionts stuff to work
(02/12 13:46:48)  Zeke365: well if no one has futher questions should we bring out our next guest
(02/12 13:46:57)  JamieM(2.0): I met a guy named Stone in the Fun House and he helps me out with hacks
(02/12 13:47:05) Hummingbird claps
(02/12 13:47:09)  JamieM(2.0): I think he used to help Zake as well
(02/12 13:47:11) Institution TOOO claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:13) TrapperDave claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:14) Calum Traveler claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:14) Karel claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:17) Davide claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:21) Minasunda claps her hands
(02/12 13:47:21) Error: Don’t know how to ‘/thumbsups’
(02/12 13:47:24) Thumbs up from JamieM(2.0)
(02/12 13:47:26)  Zeke365: jame it it zEke
(02/12 13:47:38)  JamieM(2.0): LOL so it is
(02/12 13:47:41)  JamieM(2.0): Sorry
(02/12 13:47:50) Omiahn claps her hands
(02/12 13:47:53) brandon20897 claps his hands
(02/12 13:47:58) From Calum Traveler: seriously, congrats on keeping things running. :)
(02/12 13:48:00) brglit claps her hands
(02/12 13:48:12)  JamieM(2.0): I guess I’m done here
(02/12 13:48:12) Wolfsbane claps his hands
(02/12 13:48:15)  Omiahn: thanks :)
(02/12 13:48:22) Institution TOOO thanks you
(02/12 13:48:23)  Zeke365: it fine I knew some e was not working could not remember who
(02/12 13:48:29) To Calum Traveler: Your welcome it’s been fun :)
(02/12 13:48:44) From Calum Traveler: ^u^

 

 

 

 

 

Heritage Night: The Great Zero

Hello. Today, I’m going to be talking about The Great Zero. To help with navigation, the D’ni placed markers (not to be confused with Ki markers) in their ages. The English translation of these markers is “Great Zeros”.

The Great Zero is a machine found in Ae’gura. Like the Great Zeros, it serves as a means to improve navigation. However, this machine would not be known as “The Great Zero” by the D’ni; they would call it “Rezeero”. We currently don’t know the translation of this word.

If you have your Ki correctly calibrated, you will see coordinates that are your location relative to Rezeero (The Great Zero.) Those blue lines that pass by every so often are used to help keep Rezeero calibrated.

When explorers first came to D’ni, Rezeero was uncalibrated. Calibration was done by individuals finding locations throughout the city. Groups of locations were put together in what we know as ‘Marker Missions’. Rezeero provided explorers with a number of marker missions to do and when all were completed, Rezeero powered on. Since it was powered on a while ago, we can’t see it in it’s off state, nor can we see it power on.

So now Stone will change the eggroom’s private rooms into teleporters that will take you to a hackable (magical) version of The Great Zero and we will hack it to turn on.

Here is what we saw in the hood:

People asked what powers The Great Zero, I don’t know but I have now asked:

http://mystonline.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28471&p=424087#p424087

 

OHBot and the Bomb(second telling)

Hello. Today I’m going to be talking about OHB (or Orange Hair Boy) and his robots.

Soon after MOULa opened, I found a hood named “The Guild of Robots”. Interested, I went in. There were two people in the hood. One of them called himself “OHB”; the other, “OHBot”. OHBot was a robot (computer controlled avatar) created by OHB, who had a striking resemblance to his creator. OHBot was in very early stages of development. Most of the things I said to him, he did not understand and said something like: “I don’t know what you said; I’ll let OHB know, so he can fix the problem.” With my usual bad spelling, I got this more than other people. OHB was monitoring my conversation (to help improve OHBot) and kept telling me how to correctly spell things so that OHBot would understand. If I only knew, at that point, that OHBot would be become a big thing! I left and continued my duties around cavern.

As time passed, OHBot became a lot more advanced. You could ask him many things and he had many responses. For example, you could ask him “OHBot, what it your favorite color?” and he would say “Orange”. If you threw something at him, he would “set his phasers to 100% and destroy the object” or “duck out of the way faster than you can see”. There was a lot of silly stuff like that, but also a lot of useful stuff as well. He could tell you the weather, calculate a puzzle answer, play ‘20 questions’ and translate phrases into different languages.

OHB added the translation function for fun. He did not realize how useful it would be. When they were added, people were Ki mailing their buddies, who did not speak that much English and were telling them to “get into the Guild of Robots now!” The only problem was that you had to be in the same room as OHBot for him to do the translation and it had to be public, so the chat was covered in translations. This led to OHB creating a translation program BabelBot. It will run alongside MOULa and provide translations (using Google translate). The only downside is you need to run MOULa in a window. After Bablebot OHB made a project called GULP to translate several Myst projects.(including MOULa and Riven)

Now back to robots, it’s time to talk about ‘the bomb’! On July 10th, 2010, a man who the Ki identified as ‘BOMB’ appeared in the city. He was a robot that was created by OHB’s unnamed arch-nemesis. He had the appearance of an older man. When talked to he would speak out loud, his material being a bunch of funny lines from the video game Starship Titanic. If left alone he would start counting down bet never reach zero.(instead he would panic and restart from 1000). OHB’s arch nemesis had captured OHB and was holding him in the nemesis’s Relto. OHB did not have his Relto book, but he did have his Ki (oddly). On the forums, AgeExplorer wrote about what was going on, including the Ki mail he received from OHB. It was a coded message to deactivate the bomb. Explorers had to figure out how to decode it. The cavern was packed the whole time and most explorers could not get in to see what was going on. Fortunately, explorers managed to crack the code and save the day! OHB was saved as well. Later this disarmed BOMB (who thought he was still armed) was in the arch’s hood for those to see, who had missed the event.

 

So what happened to the robots? Sadly OHB has moved onto other things, however thanks to events like this his legacy lives on.

 

And now the man himself OHB, who will be telling his side of the story and then answering any questions you, may have for him.

OHB’s story and FAQ:

Chat log

—-
03/12 14:31:30)  OHB: it’s ok. i’ll type i guess.
(03/12 14:31:52)  OHB: so, as Jamie mentioned, it all started with OHBot…and he was born out of sheer boredom.
(03/12 14:32:17)  OHB: I’ve always been one to play with things and try things out. I guess I was just the right guy in the right place with the right knowhow.
(03/12 14:32:39)  OHB: From OHBot, everything took a somewhat logical path of progression from one project to another.
(03/12 14:33:25)  OHB: And while I completely enjoyed doing things like OHBot and the BOMB, etc., it became pretty clear to me that my role wasn’t to lead the revolution.
(03/12 14:34:03)  OHB: Rather, it was just to inspire it. I helped form the Grey Hats and worked with Cyan to get those things (like the Fun House and Guild of Illusions) officially sanctioned.
(03/12 14:34:48)  OHB: There are plenty of other people with more skills than I…and I was happy for them to be able to use the new space to further their own efforts to bring URU into the next century.
(03/12 14:35:12)  OHB: Today, I’m not very active in the cavern…I have other things that I’m working on.
(03/12 14:35:21)  OHB: But, I keep in touch with the community in my own ways.
(03/12 14:35:51)  OHB: I still maintain GULP – the project for translating URU/Riven/etc into other languages in the hope that one day we’ll be able to share what we have with everyone.
(03/12 14:36:10)  OHB: And I’m on this year’s Mysterium committee…so come on out to Salt Lake City this year! :)
(03/12 14:36:39)  OHB: that’s really all I’ve got. I’m happy to answer any questions that anyone has.
(03/12 14:36:58)  HeritageNightGuy: I’ve got a question?
(03/12 14:37:03)  OHB: sure thing
(03/12 14:37:06) Christian Walther has a question
(03/12 14:37:16)  HeritageNightGuy: What inspired you to make the bomb?
(03/12 14:37:40)  OHB: I was always curious what I could make OHBot do…what his limitations would be.
(03/12 14:37:56)  OHB: OHBot was a little different than the bots we’re used to today, like Mimi Bot who I see on my buddy list.
(03/12 14:38:21)  OHB: OHBot didn’t directly interact with the game or the servers. OHBot was basically a robotic player…pressing keys on the keyboard like you and I do.
(03/12 14:38:30)  OHB: Walking using the keyboard and mouse like we do.
(03/12 14:38:40)  OHB: So I experimented with lots of things.
(03/12 14:38:54)  OHB: I tried to see if I could get OHBot to go on his own pellet runs, for example.
(03/12 14:39:08)  OHB: Quite complicated for a blind and dumb computer program lol
(03/12 14:39:15)  OHB: It wasn’t a huge success.
(03/12 14:39:40)  OHB: In the same vein, I experimented with OHBot’s access to use the microphone
(03/12 14:39:55)  fredinsel: Hello Folks, hallo Leute
(03/12 14:39:56)  OHB: I made it so he could play music
(03/12 14:40:10)  mTX17: abend fred :)
(03/12 14:40:16)  OHB: And, in reverse, I made it so OHBot could record audio as well to MP3 files.
(03/12 14:40:31)  OHB: But I thought it would be cool to interact with a robot in some way with voice.
(03/12 14:40:47)  OHB: After some thought, I remembered the game Starship Titanic.
(03/12 14:41:00)  OHB: It had lots of awesome robot characters…each was fully voiced.
(03/12 14:41:26)  OHB: …and I already had all of the extracted audio. So, it was a pretty easy jump from there to making the BOMB.
(03/12 14:41:43)  OHB: Originally, I thought about making a robot bartender using the voice of BarBot from Starship Titanic.
(03/12 14:41:44)  HeritageNightGuy: There is a BOMB in the game
(03/12 14:41:53)  OHB: He would have lived in the Kahlo pub.
(03/12 14:42:17)  OHB: But, I settled on the BOMB character (yes, it’s a character in the game) because he didn’t do much and he would be easy to program.
(03/12 14:42:41)  OHB: From there, I made an event for fun, and the rest is history :)
(03/12 14:42:54)  HeritageNightGuy: Thanks for the explaination
(03/12 14:42:56)  OHB: does that answer your question, Jamie?
(03/12 14:43:10)  HeritageNightGuy: Yes thank you
(03/12 14:43:17)  OHB: CW, you had a question?
(03/12 14:43:21)  Christian Walther: You just answered my question, thanks (about mentioning the ingenious way OHBot interacted with the game, compared to today’s bots who have it a lot easier)
(03/12 14:43:34)  HeritageNightGuy: We have time for a more quesioints and then the cavern tour is on
(03/12 14:43:59)  OHB: ah yeah. Today’s bots have it a lot easier, but it took some better technical guys than I to figure out how to do that.
(03/12 14:44:08)  spatialkay: how does a bot controlled by a keyboard differ from useravatars?
(03/12 14:44:16)  Christian Walther: and Cyan to release the source code.
(03/12 14:44:46)  OHB: well, we already had the source code for the necessary things before that :)
(03/12 14:44:55)  OHB: but Cyan releasing the code certainly helped in other areas.
(03/12 14:45:10)  OHB: spatialkay, in many ways there is no difference.
(03/12 14:45:26)  OHB: I always used to tell people, OHBot is an avatar like any other person.
(03/12 14:45:49)  OHB: While we use fingers to press keys and use the mouse, OHBot has virtual fingers that operate a virtual keyboard and mouse.
(03/12 14:45:58)  OHB: When OHBot went online I would watch him.
(03/12 14:46:43)  spatialkay: would he not require your intervention to act?
(03/12 14:46:50)  OHB: He went through the login dialog, picked the right avatar, went to Relto, used his Nexus book to get to his hood.
(03/12 14:46:54)  OHB: All just like we do.
(03/12 14:47:09)  OHB: once in a while he’d get stuck and I’d have to help but he was pretty good on his own.
(03/12 14:47:46)  RoJethhe: So more or less you programed Macors/Micros?
(03/12 14:47:48)  Christian Walther: Could he ever “see” (interpret the video output) or was it just the chatlog until the end?
(03/12 14:48:47)  OHB: Rojethhe, you could call it macros…but they were very smart macros with LOTS of custom code for the AI and a database full of information.
(03/12 14:48:56)  OHB: CW, I did experiment a little with “seeing”
(03/12 14:49:18)  OHB: In order to OHBot to go on a pellet run, he would have to locate the big blue button to open the oven, for example.
(03/12 14:49:51)  OHB: And, OHBot used VERY basic vision when linking. He’d wait for the screen to go dark, then for it to be not dark.
(03/12 14:49:58)  OHB: that’s how he’d know he had finished linking :)
(03/12 14:50:08)  HeritageNightGuy: That’s neat!
(03/12 14:50:21)  OHB: same thing when logging in.
(03/12 14:50:28)  OHB: he could “see” when the avatar selection screen appeared
(03/12 14:50:55)  OHB: any other questions?
(03/12 14:50:58)  Christian Walther: Interesting, thanks.
(03/12 14:51:03)  OHB: you’re welcome! :)
(03/12 14:51:42)  OHB: Alright well if there’s no more questions I’ll turn things back over to Jamie
(03/12 14:51:48)  OHB: Thank you for the invite!
(03/12 14:51:48) RoJethhe claps his hands
(03/12 14:51:52) Frobozz claps his hands
(03/12 14:51:53) mTX17 claps his hands
(03/12 14:51:54) Christian Walther claps his hands
(03/12 14:51:54)  HeritageNightGuy: No problem
(03/12 14:51:57) tkol17 claps his hands
(03/12 14:51:57) Boywhith claps his hands
(03/12 14:52:03) OHB bows
(03/12 14:52:07)  HeritageNightGuy: Thank you ver much ounce again to OHB!
(03/12 14:52:09) HeritageNightGuy bows
(03/12 14:52:18)  OHB: my pleasure
(03/12 14:52:36)  HeritageNightGuy: And that’s it for tonight’s Heritage Night! Thakn you very much for comeing
(03/12 14:52:44)  OHB: i’d join you for the cavern tour but as it happens, i’m in the middle of a date and my date has been gracious enough to wait for me to do this :)
(03/12 14:52:53)  OHB: bye everyone!
(03/12 14:52:55) Franklife claps his hands
(03/12 14:52:59) mTX17 waves goodbye
(03/12 14:53:01) mTX17 claps his hands
(03/12 14:53:02) tkol17 waves goodbye
(03/12 14:53:03)  Christian Walther: give a hug to your date
(03/12 14:53:04) ChristaM claps her hands
(03/12 14:53:13)  HeritageNightGuy: I’m not running the cavern tour and have some other stuff to do myself
(03/12 14:53:17)  spatialkay: and a big smooch too
(03/12 14:53:17)  HeritageNightGuy: See you later
(03/12 14:53:20)  OHB: oh…there will be hugs
(03/12 14:53:25)  OHB: …and smooches…
(03/12 14:53:27)  OHB: ;)

 

Heritage Night: Stories Of MOULa’s past.

Hello and welcome to another Heritage Night, the event where I talk about the game’s history. Since the anniversary of MOULa happened earlier this month, I thought it would be nice to hear the stories from explorers who have been here a while about their experiences in the game.

I will be up first. My name is Jamie Marchant and I have been an explorer since MOULa started in 2010. I had played URU offline, but was not interested in playing the paid-for Myst Online in 2007. I occasionally checked in on the site after it was cancelled. One time, I checked the site in 2010 and then realized the game was now free! It was very exciting, I downloaded it as soon as I had the chance. At the time, it was very hard to get into, due to everyone trying at once. I had to wait a week before I could get in.

It was fun to see all the new content not present in the offline game. I soon realized that what made MOULa special was: playing with other people.

I attended a number of memorable events; my favourites involved authorized hacking (restricted to certain areas) and computer controlled avatars (“bots”).

At one time, the bot OHBot was standing in his neighbourhood 24/7 and one could come by and visit him. Authorized hacking would also occur regularly. I loved this since I would visit the city to see if anything was up. If nothing was happening, I would check to see if there was any authorized hacking. If not, I could always ‘hang out’ with OHBot.

Sadly, this time is passed, but these and other events can now be remembered thanks to events like this one. Thank you for listening to my story, I have time now for a few questions.

Next up: Tai’lahr! Please welcome her to the stage!

Tai’lahr’s story:

“I’m not going to tell you the history of the cavern; Jamie and the Heritage Night group already do a good job of that. I’m just going to tell you about my experiences and how it felt back then.

I arrived in the cavern in late December 2006 – the day before The Great Scream (although I wasn’t present when it happened or even aware that it did for awhile). I explored on my own for awhile, but began meeting other explorers. At the end of January 2007, the DRC released Eder Delin and I spent many a late night helping with door runs there and making new friends.

In the first few months, there was a steady stream of new things for explorers to find. About once a week, something new would be discovered. Sometimes it was a linking book released by the DRC, a linking stone left somewhere by the bahro, a Relto page left somewhere by Yeesha or an article of clothing. And, in the first week of every month, explorers would run through the ages looking for a sparkling object to add to their calendar island.

One of the most exciting things to happen was in April when the pedestal and bahro stone to the city appeared in the hood book room and for awhile, our hood had a special visitor. Every time someone linked into the hood, a bahro would appear beside the pedestal. We took turns linking in while others posed with the bahro.

Also that month, my hood mates and I got to participate in the making of Marten’s video, “Talk” (http://alderem.noip.me/Uru/talk.html) which was very exciting for us. Later that month, I joined the Guild of Greeters. I did most of my greeting in the “A Beginner’s Bevin” neighborhood where the Restoration Engineers (ResEngs) would give Orientations.

Many of the explorers were proactive in those days. If they wanted something, they organized and took action. Sometimes, it was an event or action to get the DRC’s attention to get something they wanted and sometimes it was to accomplish something on their own. Like the “Day of Darkness” on May 1st when everyone wore black to protest the lack of communication from the DRC. Or, vidkid organizing the “24 Hour Great Zero Recalibration Revival” in April and the “Bevin Objection” on the Great Stairs in September.

Even the Memorial outside the Kahlo Pub which seemed to be because of Wheely & Rose dying there was actually something that Explorers had been suggesting for a long time.

When the DRC released the Er’cana linking book and encouraged explorers to help feed the lake algae by dropping pellets, there was much discussion among the explorers about pellet recipes and whether or not it was even the right thing to do. They persistently requested more information from the DRC to help them decide what to do. JWPlatt went to great lengths to convince the DRC to provide explorers with the Lake Point Data which they eventually did.

Ordinary explorers could find themselves in extraordinary situations – like when Rils went on an expedition to Negilahn with DRC member Douglas Sharper. Or, when Yeesha appeared to a group in a neighborhood or when a bahro would appear to explorers. Back then, it wasn’t an illusion created by bots; it was real and it was a rare event that was treasured by the explorers who experienced it.

It was an exciting time to be an explorer in the D’ni cavern.

I was fortunate to be present for many DRC member visits, but the one that’s most important to me was when Dr. Watson told us the future of the cavern was up to us; that the guilds and explorers would have to work together writing, maintaining, mapping, and exploring new Ages. Explorers took that message to heart and are still working together to bring new ages to the cavern.

”

—

End of Tai’lahr’s story.

Chat log(Q&A):

(02/27 14:23:07) HeritageNightGuy: Note question will appear on the Heratige Night blog
(02/27 14:23:10) skuavi II: we can explore more new ages?
(02/27 14:23:15) skuavi II: on april?
(02/27 14:23:27) HeritageNightGuy: I don’t know anything about that, sorry.
(02/27 14:23:52) Tai’lahr: You can currently explore new ages on other shards, yes. Hopefully, some of them will find their way here to MOULA.
(02/27 14:23:53) HeritageNightGuy: I MAY do an event in the future where I update people on current events. Stay tuned
(02/27 14:24:20) rarified: I’m trying to orient myself in the historical calendar. I was a little shy in the beginning so I don’t remember much group involvement.
(02/27 14:24:37) rarified: Do you remember what time frame the light meter was removed?
(02/27 14:24:46) skuavi II: i see a pic about.., the people say is tokotah alley in the past
(02/27 14:24:55) skuavi II: the pic called reano.jpg
(02/27 14:25:02) Tai’lahr: Not too long after it was installed.
(02/27 14:25:05) rarified: I remember it being present the first few visits I did, and then it was removed.
(02/27 14:25:07) skuavi II: you can search it in images google
(02/27 14:25:20) skuavi II: the pics looks amazing
(02/27 14:25:29) Tai’lahr: Yes, it wasn’t working the way Laxman had hoped.
(02/27 14:25:43) skuavi II: ah ok :)
(02/27 14:25:45) Tai’lahr: We’re having two conversations right now, aren’t we? ‘ _
(02/27 14:25:57) rarified: Ummm, yup
(02/27 14:26:02) skuavi II: and katha island
(02/27 14:26:13) Tai’lahr: Okay, any other questions for me?
(02/27 14:26:37) rarified: Question for Jamie, maybe related to you Tai
(02/27 14:26:46) HeritageNightGuy: Got for it!
(02/27 14:26:55) Tai’lahr: Okay.
(02/27 14:27:18) rarified: I try (without having been there) to have much of a draw to events with Bots and Magic Shows.
(02/27 14:27:34) Tai’lahr: Try to understand?
(02/27 14:27:44) rarified: It’s spectacular as a technical feat, but it seems to diminish the IC experience for me.
(02/27 14:28:06) rarified: Do you find that to be the case personally? Or is the gathering of a group the attraction?
(02/27 14:28:21) Tai’lahr: I kinda feel the same way, but I support the people who put them on and who attend because it keeps the cavern active.
(02/27 14:29:00) rarified: What about you Jamie? You said you came in just as the Bots were being developed?
(02/27 14:29:46) skuavi II: friends in the game know my great fascination with this game
(02/27 14:30:01) HeritageNightGuy: Hmm….
(02/27 14:30:38) HeritageNightGuy: I think hacks are none-cannonical but there are a fun none the less.
(02/27 14:31:06) HeritageNightGuy: I don’t think I could every see I saw any of the hack in a stirct IC talk expect fro in parseing or as a really wird dream
(02/27 14:31:21) skuavi II: I always ask how things are new ages to explore and discover new old machines d.ni
(02/27 14:31:23) rarified: Yah, I would try to steer clear of the Purity of D’ni society mindset.
(02/27 14:31:43) HeritageNightGuy: I don’t ahve a problem with breaking cannon though, it’s fun
(02/27 14:31:47) skuavi II: the kiva’s exists in real life
(02/27 14:31:59) HeritageNightGuy: I’ve used hacks in the past to show things that you can’t see in game like the light meter
(02/27 14:32:14) HeritageNightGuy: I know some of the tours use them this way as well
(02/27 14:32:29) rarified: The most attractive one I could use would be fly mode for taking photos or movies.
(02/27 14:32:54) skuavi II: brb
(02/27 14:32:56) HeritageNightGuy: Ok
(02/27 14:33:13) Tai’lahr: I would like to thank Jamie for inviting me to tell my story here today and in general for hosting the Heritage Night events and preserving our history of the cavern.
(02/27 14:33:29) HeritageNightGuy: Your welcome!
(02/27 14:33:36) Tai’lahr: And, thank you all for coming and listening.
(02/27 14:33:49) rarified: Thanks All!
(02/27 14:34:44) HeritageNightGuy: Any other questionts
(02/27 14:35:27) rarified: Is there a syllabus about what you present in HN? A point where you reset and start from the beginning?
(02/27 14:36:13) rarified: I guess I’m predicating that on your gatherings going through history chronologically.
(02/27 14:37:45) Tom(Samoth): shorah all :)
(02/27 14:37:53) Tai’lahr: Shorah, Tom.
(02/27 14:38:00) rarified: Shorah?
(02/27 14:38:02) rarified: !
(02/27 14:38:08) skuavi II: shorah tom
(02/27 14:38:11) skuavi II: :)
(02/27 14:38:19) Tai’lahr: I’m afraid we’re near the end of the event.
(02/27 14:38:23) HeritageNightGuy: I may have went ‘in order’ at one point but at this point I like to try new and diffrent things and don’t plan on retellig my old stories unless I can make them much better.
(02/27 14:38:30) skuavi II leans left
(02/27 14:38:36) Tom(Samoth) leans left
(02/27 14:38:40) skuavi II leans right
(02/27 14:38:48) Tai’lahr: But, you can read them on the Heritage Night website.
(02/27 14:38:57) skuavi II: talking about new ages :)
(02/27 14:39:02) rarified: Ok, I’ll do that!
(02/27 14:39:08) Tom(Samoth): ok, I was just curious wat was going one here..
(02/27 14:39:16) skuavi II: who know the word nekisaloth?
(02/27 14:39:19) HeritageNightGuy: Haveing said that I have iniveted OHB in for next month and wil be retelling stories about his robots, since I found them really fun.:)
(02/27 14:39:34) Tai’lahr: Now, that should be interesting.
(02/27 14:40:08) HeritageNightGuy: Yes the archive on the site(https://heritagenight.wordpress.com/) is very large
(02/27 14:41:07) Tom(Samoth): ok… go to the Plaza.
(02/27 14:41:45) HeritageNightGuy: Dimensional Traveler Celm has stories on the site from the gametap erea. They detail everyting that happend then./
(02/27 14:41:58) HeritageNightGuy: I have 2010-present ears stuff
(02/27 14:42:22) HeritageNightGuy: (I find it hard to tell storeis about thigns I did not experince)
(02/27 14:42:47) rarified: Better than me… I find it “impossible” ;)
(02/27 14:43:08) HeritageNightGuy: Any more questionts or can I wrap things up now?
(02/27 14:43:54) Tai’lahr: Thank you again, Jamie. I had fun writing my story.
(02/27 14:44:01) rarified: Take a bow, Jamie
(02/27 14:44:08) Tai’lahr claps her hands
(02/27 14:44:12) HeritageNightGuy: I guess this is the end. Well thank you very much for comeing and thanks again to my specail guest this month Tai’lahr.
(02/27 14:44:13) rarified claps his hands
(02/27 14:44:14) HeritageNightGuy claps his hands
(02/27 14:44:14) tkol17 claps his hands
(02/27 14:44:26) Tai’lahr: Safe journeys, everyone!
(02/27 14:44:27) Tai’lahr salutes
(02/27 14:44:51) HeritageNightGuy: And if you thought this was fun, you should come next mont when I will talk about computer controleld avatars
(02/27 14:44:59) HeritageNightGuy: Chow!

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From Heritage Night.

The Fun House vidoes

At a recent event, a retold the stories that lead to the creation of The Fun House and filmed it. Here are the videos for your viewing pleasure:

Hertiage Night: Why I love the serries!

Welcome to Heritage Night. Today, I will be talking about the Myst games and what makes them so great. This may sound redundant (since you probably already know this), but I’m hoping it’s not and that you learn something great about the series which you never thought of. After I’m done talking, I will give you a chance to tell your story of why you love the Myst series! So, let us begin:

-The graphics – the graphics in the series have always been impressive given the limitation of computers when the games were released. The graphics still look great today, if not a tad dated and some of the pre-rendered games look a bit pixelated on modern LCD displays. Most of the graphics in Myst Online also hold up very well today, considering most of the textures, models, and shaders were made for the 2003 URU and the game uses no modern graphics techniques.

-Sound and music – The sound and music have always been very good. Myst III and IV have the best soundtracks, followed by Myst and Riven. I’m not a huge fan of the URU or Myst V soundtracks though. The Myst III and IV soundtracks can easily be described as ‘epic’.

-Game play- The game play is solid for the most part and this does make the series a good set of games, but this is not the reason why I find them so awesome as I do.

– Puzzles – Puzzles in the games are pretty interesting, although that is not the major reason why I play the games. Solving puzzles normally results in unlocking new story segments and new areas to explore, which is rewarding. The only problem is that some of the puzzles are a bit too challenging and I haven’t beaten Myst IV because of this.

– Story – most people would probably say that they play the game for the story. I think of the story as the events that occur in the game. The stories of the games are often interesting and, as I have said, it makes the challenging puzzles worthwhile. Since I haven’t finished Myst IV, I can’t comment on its story. With that in mind, the best story was Myst III, which made me feel sad (but never ‘too’ sad) as the story went on. I will avoid spoilers, but when the whole thing resolved itself at the end, I felt a feeling of great joy.

Now, I’ve saved the best for last. The reason I love the series the most, more than anything else! The reason is “the world!”

The world- the world of Myst is what makes me keep coming back to it! The world is complete, lived in, and has been built to the last detail! Everything exists for a reason; there is logic in the world! The world is complex and there is lots to explore. There are still things I have never seen before scattered across the world. Exploring these worlds is what makes the games so fantastic and so engaging! We are talking about a series where fans ask such questions as ‘What powers the spinning domes in Riven?’, ‘How did Gehn get the Whark into the lake at Plato Island?’, ‘Can the sun in Teledahn really be a sun?’ and many others. These are the worlds of Myst; they are complete to the point of the creators coming up with their own civilization with its own social norms and even its own religion. I think the game with the most in-depth world is also the largest in terms of its size. The only game to be on five CDs! – Riven! Well that’s what I think; why do you like the series? Anyone want to come up here and tell your story?

At this point we casually talked about the series. I have decided not to feature this talk in this blog.