Myst: A waste of time or awesome game?
The debate about Myst for some reason fascinates me. Yes, I know I have problems. I would love to hear everyone's opinions about Myst, whether or not it is a good game, with back up. Yes you can post a message saying "Myst sux!" or "Myst is the $*!&!" but please inform us why you feel this way. It makes for better debates 
Looking forward to a stimulating conversation!
Looking forward to a stimulating conversation!
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And I'm more familiar with Riven, which really creeped me out when I was eleven. There was one day when I spent hours playing Riven, and hours practicing the trumpet part of some music the year six band was going to perform. Now even the trumpet part of that song makes me really uncomfortable. I think it's the emptiness, and some of the endings. Especially the one you get if you guess the code to the star fissure before going to the rebel age, or abuse save games to get it.
And the whale shark thing that slaps the glass if you press the button too often. That bothered me too.
I played Myst later, and it was good game, but not the best thing ever. The puzzles were kind of obscure.
To wit - I tried the original Myst and didn't like it at all. But when I tried the full 3D remake realMyst, I found myself playing until the very end. So clearly the story and puzzles were there, it's just the way it was presented that put me off.
I'm not going to vote, because I don't agree with any of the choices you've given, but I will say that I can see how Myst would appeal to people.
I tired to play Riven, but I had the same issues with Riven as I did with Myst. Too much hidden information. A friend of mine once said "I don't like to read my games." The first Myst game was very reliant on reading the books in the library. I think I was 11 when I got the game, and I was not in the mood to read through digital books. Where the sequels to Myst the same way?
I think the element of Myst that I actually liked was the idea of traveling the different world through books. That is a cool concept, but the game itself did not thrill me.
I gave it many chances (with pen and pad at hand), but it just wasn't my cuppa. I'm extremely patient by nature, it's just that the puzzles didn't give me any enjoyment at all. I think Myst is tailored for a certain type of adventure gamer, thus the huge rift amongst genre fans.
I couldn't get into Morrowind or Oblivion at all, and I was only interested in Fallout 3 long enough to get to the first city and do a couple quests.
Nimeni, I agree with your statement. Myst had barely any interactions with any other character, and the plot was scarce. My sister said that the Myst books were amazing. I am talking about actual tangible books. This may sound a little crazy, but I thought the Myst hint book was entertaining... I enjoyed it more then the game.
I love how it drops you in a strange world without any clue of where you are or what you're supposed to do... and the desolate feeling of a worlds once inhabited but now empty.
However - Riven is a *lot* better. That game is a masterpiece.
Unfortunately the rest of the industry took that as their queue to rip Myst off and I think that's where things went downhill. Riven and Myst III weren't as playable either. Riven is really impressive in some ways, but it's so broad and obtuse that it lost a lot of its mass-market appeal.
This really sums up the mixed feelings I have about Myst. That, and the pulling the focus off plot and characters, which is okay for some games, but not games en masse.
There will be people who love it, and there will be people who hate it. It won't exactly do anything at this point right now to talk about how "Myst killed adventure games". Adventure games didn't die. It just took on another form and lay hidden from view to all, except those who call themselves adventure gamers, following the new adventure games year after year after year, even after Myst supposedly kill adventure game.
Btw, Myst killed itself. Not all Myst games are made equal...
I really love the series and bought the games numerous times. I have:
Myst (original, runs with win XP if I install an old version of quicktime, bought this year because I really wanted to replay Myst)
The Myst Soundtrack
Myst Masterpiece (does not run at all)
Riven (5 Cds)
The Riven Soundtrack
Myst 3 (3 Cds)
The Myst 3 Soundtrack
Myst Trilogy (Myst Masterpiece, Riven and Myst 3 on 1 DVD, finally no mor discswapping in Riven)
Myst 4 (2 DVD)
Myst V (1DVD)
After completing them all without help I bought the Myst collection hintbook.
Uru
Uru: Path Of The Shell.
I don't have realMYST because it was never released in my country. But I played it on gametap and really liked it.
The best game (imho) is Myst 3. Myst 4 hast the best graphics. Myst V just didn't do anything right. I really hated carrying this stoneplate around all the time. And once I painted something on it and it immediately unlocked the last teleporter point. And the thing I painted looked nothing like the last symbol of the map. It's things like this that make Myst V suck.
The idea of whether Myst is a good or a bad game is somewhat irrelevant. I started this discussion because as far as I can tell in the Graphic Adventure time line, Myst was a major turning point. Myst did not kill the graphic adventure (even though I would love to blame it), but it was instrumental in the evolution of games as we know it.
I believe that some people need something to blame when they don't like change, and it seems that Myst is it. So why is Myst so passionately hated or loved? No one ever seems to have such strong emotions to Super Mario Brothers, which was also a game that changed the face of gaming. Then again... their may be such threads and I just haven't found them.
It has been down for over a year due to lack of a funding publisher (so they decided open source was the way to go)
Is it dead? maybe... but the story, vision, and inspiration that is Myst will live on forever.
(The 3 books are also very good reads, and kinda explain the storyline a lot more
But I couldn't tell if it was just because I was young and that was the first game of it's type I ever played.
Check out this link for instructions on making the older myst versions play nice with newer computers. http://www.mystcommunity.com/board/lofiversion/index.php/t438.html
Already tried all of this. Doesn't work for me with Myst Masterpiece. But it helped with Myst & Riven.
I've seen the Myst Trilogy in stores but never had the money to spare to pick it up. I wanted to have them all on DVD as well. I do have Myst III on DVD. Came included with my copy of Myst IV. But having Riven on DVD would really be handy. I never got to enjoy Uru Live. I always wondered what that was like. Also, what's the second expansion to Uru called again? I remember I bought Uru by itself and then went looking for the expansions. I eventually found the Complete Chronicles with all of them for cheaper than the standalone game was by itself! Really wish I could have picked up the trilogy, though. I'm a sucker for collecting this stuff....sigh.
Uru isn't a bad game though... I finished all the single player stuff.
The trilogy is nice, but they also released a collection with all five games in, right? Or the first four, anyway?
They did.
Amateria, the Dynamic Forces Age. Have fun with that age, MI; I think it's the hardest one overall.
The Path of the Shell (To D'Ni was the first).
Personally, I like most of the games. Uru and End of Ages are a little meh, but I think that's more the jump to a different visual style and moving away from the tale of The Stranger. I feel that Exile was probably the best "entry" game for someone to get into the series since it's nowhere near as obtusely difficult as Riven and has true endings, unlike the first game. Brad Dourif's work as Saavedro goes a long way, too. However, I think Riven is the best game from a visual standpoint (despite the 360-degree pan of later titles) while Revelation is the best in terms of character development of the children of Atrus. For me, gameplay is hard to rate in this style of game, though I'd probably go with realMyst simply for its free-range controls.
I recognize the hate this game gets for being considered the "death of the traditional adventure game." Personally though, I say the inundation of Myst clones should have been expected. At the time, Myst was the best selling game ever; of course people are gonna copy that. Old-school adventure gamers act like that was a shocking development but let's be honest - what form of fiction has never had ripoffs of the most popular titles? It also smacks of nostalgia goggles - part of the reason adventure games had an ebb for such a long time is that the genre wasn't evolving (new = bad) while other genres began adapting some of the traits of adventures.
Overall, I choose to go with "Awesome" for my vote.
Myst III is the first one I completed on my own. I must say I had a lot of fun doing this one, and it was cool to see Brad Dourif as the bad guy
I also played Uru (but only in solo) and I enjoyed it very much, probably because you visit places from the novels.
So I have fond memories of Myst III, IV, Uru and the Myst books, and not much of the rest of the series.
And such a beautiful world.
Indeed it is. At least you'll enjoy the scenery while you go mad from the puzzles.
Hehe, glad I could help out!:D