What You Never Noticed About Myst | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубликовано: 12 окт 2015
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Myst was one of the best selling PC games throughout the 90's, only getting out-sold by the Sim's in 2002. But what made this mysterious point-and-click island so popular? On this week's episode of Game/Show, Jamin explores early computer technology, and why limitations may have played a key role in Myst's simplistic popularity.
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Hosted by Jamin Warren (@jaminwar)
See more on games and culture on his site: www.killscreendaily.com
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“No matter what, if I get lost... I can always go back to that central location.”
Yeah unless you’re in the Selenetic mine shafts
Oh gods I still have ptsd from selenetics mine shafts, of course that's because I first played Myst in 1997 and I was all of 9 years old
There's a backtrack button. Although I can't remember if that was in the first build
All joking aside I have no idea how to solve the shafts without a guidebook. Was there some clue or hint in the book regarding sounds and directions? With a 2x CDROM drive back in the day the trial and error required would have taken at least a week.
The thing about Myst was its atmosphere - each of the rarely-occuring musical scores was chilling and eerie in flavors of dank prison cells to lush throne rooms (in terms of the imagery conjured by the music itself), and also the sheer emptiness of the game. The only NPCs were in books, as you said, and there were only three of them. The way it was designed, with you only being able to walk around and interact with things - no running, no weapons, no real self even - made you feel vulnerable, even helpless. With all the design choices working together (caused by limited technology or not), Myst was basically like being trapped in a nightmare - not a nightmare where monsters are chasing you, but specifically a nightmare where monsters AREN'T chasing you, where you're all alone with no escape, only directions to go in like a rat in a maze, with this big, oppressive presence weighing down on you. It's just you, a bunch of puzzles and mysteries, and this vague, unidentifiable malevolence breathing down your neck, making you feel like you're being watched by some evil force that you don't know what it is or what it wants, all you know is that it means you harm and enjoys your struggles.
And yes, you can only walk, you can't run; even though there are no monsters chasing you, you're constantly afraid that there will be, knowing that if there were, you'd be dead already. It also means you have to see what's around you, you're forced to take in whatever setting you've been thrown into with its sights and (more importantly) sounds, appreciate what it is and what it might mean. Taking a careful look around was both vital to winning the game and a very dangerous thing to do - anyone who's explored all the easter eggs in the Mechanical Age knows what I'm talking about, with the snake-in-a-box and the hanging skeleton in the distance and Achanar's torture chamber of death. Nothing can hurt you, there's no fail state, but damn if there weren't things that were dangerous to the psyche to stumble across while taking a close look around. Playing Myst means being drowned in atmosphere, and you're basically forced to appreciate it because you have to go so slowly, you can't outrun the hellish feeling weighing down on you or skim over nightmare fuel. THAT'S why it was a masterpiece, the sound design and the imagery working together to create fear and paranoia out of nothing. Especially the fact that it was /nothing/ - from what little I've experienced of Riven, it's less scary because there are actual NPCs you can run into, you don't feel so isolated and trapped; fearing what ISN'T there is much scarier than fearing what IS there.
That said, all of this may just be nostalgia speaking. I played Myst with my favorite uncle as a toddler, it was my favorite part of visiting that branch of the family, and Sirrus was the closest thing to the monster under the bed I ever experienced, I would like awake at night in tears because I feared his presence. As with Myst itself, it wasn't even fear that he would do something to me, the idea of him lurking in the shadows in and of itself was terrifying. And yet, the next morning, I'd be waiting for my uncle to come home, or pestering him while he was working in his office, so we could keep playing it. I don't even remember why we started…I was like two years old, that's a difficult time to recall. Myst was my infancy, and revisiting it recently, I was actually surprised to find hints of things I would develop in terms of my own beliefs and thought processes many years after the last time I played it, cues that may very well have shaped who I would grow up to be. The game shaped me. I can't feel anything for it but love, you know? So take every word I've said with a grain of salt, if you even bothered reading all this. :)
Wandergirl108 . I thought i was the only myst FAN!!😊
I've never seen my Myst paranoia explained so well
I read every word - you said it all. I enjoyed this, and Myst and missed it when i couldnt play it again.
Fangamer offers the whole myst soundtrack (again) on beautiful colorful vinyl:
www.fangamer.com/collections/music/products/myst-vinyl-ost
Just noticed it today on 4th of July 2022 as it's not a very busy day otherwise... :-) Happy Independence Day !
Personally as a kid in the 90s, what first intrigued me about Myst was the surreal dream quality of the environments, and the creepy feeling of being totally alone and yet constantly paranoid that someone was watching you.
What still keeps me coming back to the Myst series as an adult is actually the story & lore. A lot of people who played Myst more casually back in the day don't realize that there's this whole elaborate story behind it, with the lost culture of D'ni and the history of Atrus's family. I read the Myst novels when I got a bit older and I still love them, especially the Book of Atrus. I wish someone would make a decent movie or miniseries one of these days! The world of Myst is so beautiful and imaginative, and the family story makes for some really compelling drama.
This title is misleading...
+Listening Point Extremely...
Literally not a single obscure fact about Myst. The video is about Myst as a precursor to so-called walking simulator games.
Yes
True
I have to admit, that I never "noticed" his obscure opinions about Myst while I was playing the game back in 1995. Of course how could I since he didn't share them until 20 years later. So, yeah, might be a bit misleading.
Myst isn't a walking simulator. It's a point-and-click adventure game like The Secret of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, etc. but with a much more integrated world (and with only a single inventory slot used for pages). It's not like you can run in those games either!
What you are describing about Myst is ironically what most walking simulators tend to lack. Pacing. Myst made it so that it takes as long as you want to move. Myst also has limited directions but filled the areas with details whereas something like Dear Ester mostly lacks those details. Myst also had a semicoherent plot so you kind of got the gist of what you are doing. Dear Ester doesn't have that and from what I hear Rapture lacks a resolution (though at least you got an idea of what to do). Dear Ester misses the game elements from Myst that keeps the player playing. Rapture made the erroneous mistake of not telling its run button in game which is like if you made minecraft but you the blocks didn't crack when you hit them.
Games don't have to be fast but giving that to the player helps avoid a big dilemma in game design, how do you hold the player's attention enough to finish the game. Being slow and showing no signs of progress are easy ways to fail that dilemma. Myst shows progress easily do to its transitions where you feel lost in Dear Ester even when making progress
+PIKMINROCK1 I think a another big difference is the level of interaction and influence the player has over the game in contrast to what "walking simulators" present. Myst is about solving puzzles and unraveling the story through unlocking new areas. Most "walking simulators" tend to be about you moving while the story unravels around you.
+PIKMINROCK1 Also you can "lose" Myst - by getting trapped in the book and releasing the baddie (if I remember correctly). What people (sometimes derisively) call walking simulators typically don't have a "lose" condition, so there are no stakes in figuring out the puzzles correctly.
+8jb65
Yes, I think there were one or two puzzles if done wrong did not end well ether, but the game was VERY forgiving in those instances. Never sending you back far if you screwed up.
+PIKMINROCK1 Good points! But maybe "the game" of Dear Esther is about discovering the plot? -jj
PBS Game/Show That's certainly the idea for Dear Ester but, that implies the player is a good listener. It isn't that enticing of a story while you play so, it generally results in the player being bored. The type of story that Dear Ester is suited for a poem or novella, something short but can be reread easily so the point gets across
I feel like this is actually a part of the point made in the video, but if I had to guess I'd say it's success was due to atmosphere. The bizarre settings and sparse sound design made it a truly immersive and creepy experience for that time in gaming. Especially the ages outside the main island, which weren't shown at all in the video assets if I remember. The disturbing mechanical island in the middle of the water, the stranded ship with the skeleton through the telescope, the tree top village full of fog -- all amazing video game sets that were way ahead of their time. And they scared the hell out of me as a child.
So, I was still playing King's Qust in 1993, and also given I was 5, I never actually knew Myst existed until a few years ago.
So I was told to go play it. What is it? Just go play it. But seriously what kind of ga--JUST PLAY IT DAMMIT.
So I went from playing Amnesia: the Dark Descent to Myst. Dear nostalgic world: It holds up. Just absolutely beautiful game even to a 20-something gamer who is used to current graphics and action. I fell instantly immersed.
(I swear that damn crank puzzle took me 15 minutes to solve. I know, because I was Let's Playing it.)
+M.G.L. Hutton you really shoud try the sequel, riven, if you haven't already. Not only has it the charm of myst, but the universe is incredibly cohesive, and most of all, the game is just gorgeous, even by today's standards!
+M.G.L. Hutton You and me both. Cranks are evil evil things. -jj
the King's Quest games YASSS
_Riven_ is a puzzle beast, though.
Myst was one of the first computer games I ever played, and it absolutely set the precedent for what I expect a game to be, and what I love. I wish you'd had more time to talk a little bit about Riven, because in my mind it took Myst and made it a billion times better. The story, the worlds, and the puzzles captivated me then, and still captivate me now. The ending, especially, was very powerful--my first experience with the concept of The Void. I dream of the day when Starry Expanse finishes their real-time 3D remake!
What hooked me about Myst and it's sequels was the story and unique universe, and the compelling choice we had to make between two sides who both didn't seem trustworthy. If the story wasn't as strong and the universe unique, the pretty scenery and switching between levels would have been the same as every other game.
While the "walking simulation" part alone may seem boring, if you can look past the dated graphics, and take it all in, in conjunction with the stories found in the surviving books of the burned out library on Myst island, the game's narrative becomes a wonderful example of the "after the fall" story model, as it were. You read about these amazing worlds, the experiences the writer shared with their respective inhabitants, then you visit those same islands to see what remains after the devastation. I don't really play these kinds of games anymore, so I don't know how other "walking sims" hold up, but I feel the Miller brothers created a wonderful universe here, which only got better in later games.
What the this slightly flippant video didn't mention is that Myst remained the top selling game for 9 YEARS. It was often bundled with a CD-ROM drive purchase (when they cost several hundred dollars) and indeed was often the reason to have a drive in the first place. It was also accessable to older people (me.. now) and is still not understood by gamers who are so locked into getting a shot of adrenaline that they were immediately bored by the experience as they have been trained to have short attention spans.. Which the design of this video itself unfortunately plays to.
man, myst always scared me as a kid. it had that desolate, isolated, unspoken evil kinda feel. I always felt like there was someone watching me. maybe i was just a paranoid kid
same here
+mihr thebear No, that's exactly what the game was designed to do. It's old-fashioned nightmare fuel, simulating the kind of nightmare where you're all alone, surrounded by puzzles and mysteries like a rat in a maze, with this big, vague, evil presence breathing down your neck. It's designed to make you afraid of what ISN'T there. And it did it perfectly. :3
i agree. but as a kid I always questioned what happened to the people who made all these things and why they made all this. for me, myst was like the light house in bioshock. everything seemed so out of place and and had so many questions
I was 5 back when it came out, scared me too. Another scary one was the ol' Titanic game. Long dark hallways with unnerving music made it feel like I was being watched as well.
I remember intense feeling of loneliness in Myst. It was minimalistic, eerie surrealism desert.
Hearing that music still give me the creeps.
A game you can still play in 2019. There is nothing like Myst in the gaming world. It's so exciting getting through these very difficult puzzles. No shootin, killing or weapons in this game. Just the puzzles, the mystery and your notes on paper.
Myst also had the benefit of everything about it was stimulating to look at without being threatening. You could see all kinds of cool sights you didn't have around you IRL and it was a constant series of new discoveries.
Nowdays walking simulators tend to focus on either depressing tones of brown and grey. Non-threatening areas are recreations of real life, and fantastic areas (Skyrim) have things waiting to kill you at every turn. Both of them re-use assets liberally to expand the overall size so you no longer get the hand crafted novel exploration you got in Myst.
+Kim Wincen Y'know, I never thought of that. Fantastic walking simulators. Might be interesting.
+Kim Wincen Real talk, the walking was the best part of Skyrim though. -jj
It totally was, but that's what made it so frustrating to be enjoying your walk and the game demands you kill yet another dragon! They're worst than toddlers I tell you.
Yes! To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. I freaking love Cyan's games....
Skyrim, uh... isn't a walking simulator in any sense of that term.
Title should have been "What You Missed About Myst"
Even then, it would still have been misleading.
In case you missed the gist of Myst
Myst was the first game I played that showed me that video games can be more than just punching bricks for magical mushrooms. I dove way too deep into the Myst lore, even going so far as to reading the novels by Rand Miller. I loved those books. Still got them today.
Funny you should mention Skyrim in this context. I sometimes enjoy wandering the Skyrim countryside. Sometimes I wish that I wasn't constantly encountering bandits and predators because it interrupts my enjoyment of the landscape around me.
point and click adventures?
I think they call that sniper camping now.
I love that terrific stillness as you wander around Myst and even more so in Riven, but it's not for everybody. I read a review from the nineties that compared the early part of Riven to "L'Avventura," at which point I had to play it.
In regards to your description of the Chinese Room thought experiment: the tools that the person in the room don't allow the person to decipher what is being said to them. Instead, the tools tell the person how they should respond to the input, whilst shedding no light on the actual information being exchanged. It's an important distinction to draw because it makes the room itself a "computer" composed of the tools and the person and subsequently removing any necessity for sentience from that person, as they're following nothing other than a ruleset and at no stage could they ever establish any meaning from their inputs and outputs with the information made available.
+AFGNCAAP the great Yep, this is the key point of the thought experiment: the guy in the room only has access to an instruction book processing and "responding" to what, to him, are meaningless symbols or scribbles -- or are at least indistinguishable from meaningless squiggles. As Searle would put it, the book would have instructions like, "Whenever you are given [squiggle squiggle], reply with [squoggle squoggle]."
This, for Searle, showed that any purely formal or syntactic system -- like a computer -- is insufficient for meaning or semantics. The computer is just pushing the symbols around without knowing what they mean (or "meaning" anything by them).
Then again, when Jamin and the Furby guy say that there may be no appreciable difference between real emotions and simulated emotions, at least from out position "outside the Chinese Room," they are posing a pretty common reply to the Searle experiment: How do we know that *anyone* --- human or robotic -- knows Chinese, or English, other than by their ability to produce appropriate responses. And the same might be said of emotion.
Now I think this misses a key point in Searle, but it's a decent enough reply, summed up in this cartoon by Daniel Dennett and Neil Cohn: www.visuallanguagelab.com/chinese_room/images/Chinese_Room_web.png
Yes, I know I am mostly just repeating what you said, with a bit added at the end. Take this as a verbose thumbs-up!!
Lit Crit
Thanks for explaining it a little more thoroughly. I wrote my post out on my phone and I couldn't be bothered revising :P
AFGNCAAP the great
The real question is, Did your **phone** know what it was writing? ;P
+Lit Crit Thanks for expanding the discussion. -jj
I bought this in 1993 and was addicted to it. The walking and images plus puzzles were not the reason why we all loved it. It was a mysterious island that lured you in with the mystery and that every now and again you learnt a bit more. Game mechanics are not necessarily the reason why someone wanted to play any game - although - very often is. But, it was not anything to do with walking. It was the immersive mysterious world with the ominous situation. It was very solitary, and thus meditative.
I kinda like the frame-by-frame walking. It lets your imagination fill in the blanks.
+HQDefault Trauma by Krystian Majewski does a similar thing. Comes highly recommended. -jj
Myst was relaxing, but the constant CD-changing for Riven at the time was rage-inducing.
Yeah! Thank goodness it came to DVD. And that they were smart and made most of the CD transitions occur just after a "ride" ended, resting on the same view you'd see on loading the next disc, so it was more like struggling to get up out of your seat in-game than something totally immersion-breaking.
Myst was mostly about solving puzzles in a deep atmosphere. They did very well in creating a stunning and haunting atmosphere with the graphics, sounds and music.
My gawd I loved that game. Love the sequel Rivan most. Really wish the'd do a new one.
+MavenCree They are, have you seen Obduction? Check it out!
+MavenCree They're making a myst series on hulu, and apparently are planning to make another game based on the show.
@Betsy, _Exile_ and _Revelation_ (third and fourth in the series) were made by third parties, with little to no involvement from the original creators. They themselves worked on _Myst_ and _Riven,_ and then _Uru_ and the finale (to _Uru_ more than _Myst,_ really), _End of Ages._ They also put out some in-universe novels.
I doubt anyone will ever read this comment, but the next game from the devlopers is currently in development. It's called Firmament and the trailer is on RUclips.
Wow! Forgot about Rivan...!
Did you mean... "what you Myst about Myst"? I'll let myself out.
I almost Myst that one.
The pun was obviously deliberate..
HyperCard! Yes! I loved that program... I made several little point-and-click adventures, cartoons, and even little arcade games using HyperCard back in the day. It had a really super simple English-based programming language where you could literally type stuff like "On Collision between UFO and Bullet > Play sound 'Explosion' > Destroy UFO > Add 100 to Score" and it would understand it. Awesome program, I wish there were something analogous to it today. Some things come close, but aren't as powerful or easy to use.
I think MOOD and ATMOSPHERE were probably the most important elements which contributed to Myst's success. The three dimensional rendered environments combined with a soundtrack which supplies ambient sounds and eerie music was able to attract a whole host of players. When Myst was released games did not look and sound like that. It made a good graphical demo for any computer it was working on. The gameplay made no real demands on the player, one could just explore the main hub island for minutes. It was a game anyone of any age could play.
myst was my first game. I hadn't played it till recently though. when I was a kid my brother and I would sit on my dads lap as he played through myst and riven. it's been one of my all time favorites ever since. probably partly because of my memories of that but mostly i absolutely love the story telling and just the over all atmosphere. all of this just to say, I've never given any thought to movement mechanics at all. in fact, i prefer real Myst in which you explore freely, so 'm not so sure that really played so much of a role in why i love the game.
I don't know much about the science of design, but I find that spacing and travel time powerful tools in horror games. It gives you lots of time to get uncomfortable before bringing any real danger to the player. By the time the first monster appears you're already ready to cut and run.
The town of Silent Hill is a good example of this kind of idea, using lots of unsettling sounds, creepy mist effects that add sparseness, and subtle contextual environment keys. All of this adds to the depressing and crushing hopelessness of the environment; no one escapes from Silent Hill
OMG....I'm so old...I built things in hypercard....wow...
+cityzenjane2 i miss my classic....
Myst was great; set the way for a lot of games of the sort.
Riven and the rest of the Myst franchise.
Shivers and Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls
Lighthouse: The Dark Being
The Crystal Key
Amerzone
Riddle of the Sphinx and The Omega Stone
Even the later Zork games
All great times! Do they even make games like these anymore?
The title of this video has such untapped potential: What you "Missed" in Myst.
For those looking to replay Myst and Riven, SCUMMVM version 2.0 now supports these (and Myst Masterpiece).
Myst was my first video game and even to this day i like the slower pace of puzzle games. In retrospect the slowness of the walking probably was good as it allowed for more time to think about the puzzles.
Myst was a forerunner of the escape room games you see today. They are very similar. I wish you could still run Myst.
I think the difference between what might get called a "walking sim" and a game like Myst is the interaction, or at least perceived interaction.
Some games go for an "Interactive story," but the story is not affected by your actions. While your actions may not effect the plot in Halo other that progressing it, you have to do something other that rock-up to a place then go to the next place. Until Dawn is a good example of an interactive story, where your actions effect the plot, Everyone's gone to the Rapture is a bad example. It is not interactive. It is more like crossing a scavenger hunt with an audio book. Myst works because there are things to do to progress the plot. You may only ever walk from place to place, but there is more to the game than walking.
What I, personally, would call a "Walking Sim" is a game that is about walking about a place to find a narrative with little to no interaction.
Early 1st-person-ish dungeon games that moved you a full cell at a time, teleport style, always bothered me. The old Bards Quest was like that. The way Myst loaded each picture and also used multiple pictures (along a path for instance) to get you from one point of interest to another really improved on that. While I don't think Myst really felt like a walking game, it did have a sense of movement that earlier point-and-click games lacked. That game was freaking AWESOME!!
I loved all 7.5 iterations of Myst, as well as all 3 of the books. The exploration at your own pace is something all too many games don't do or over do in today's gaming market. But, as I still have and play all 7.5 games of Myst, I believe it is still a classic in today's time.Edit:Myst, realMyst, Riven, Exile, Revelations, URU ABM, URU Live, End of AgesBook of Tiana, Book of Atrus, Book of D'ni
+unitearica Myst AND Doctor Who?! I thought I was the only one!
I've been cognizant of how much I hate walking in open world games and ignore the insane detail that so many game devs have put effort into. I've been playing a lot of Fallout 3 and New Vegas to get hype for Fallout 4, and I realized that when I walk somewhere, I don't take the time to smell the flowers. Usually I'm trying to optimize my (very limited amount of) play time, so I rush through the travel aspects.
This also reminded me a bit about the last World of Warcraft expansion when I heard news that they wouldn't allow flying in some areas. Many players bemoaned this, but I can see why as a world-building team, you put so much energy into creating it just for players to neglect it while flying over. Even beyond wanting to be recognized for their hard work, it pulls out a lot of player immersion if they can bypass so much of the world.
I enjoyed the exploration of the worlds and puzzles. It was a cool game.
My thought was that Myst appealed to a general audience that normally didn't play games. Similar to Sim City or The Sims.
I think Myst worked as a slow game because everything you do in it is very contemplative.
I always figured that the scenery was what Myst was all about. It's not like most of the puzzles were that difficult, and mostly I just remember doing things like pulling a lever at one spot and then walking to another spot to pull another lever.
+aurickandrien I'd say the mystery and the story are what drew me into Myst. It was obvious from the beginning that something was...'off' about the two brothers trapped in the books. But discovering the depths of their evil and just how much destruction they had caused in each Age was really unsettling.
Myst VR would (will) be amazing reboot and perfect fit. Not fast, thinking instead of crazy action, solving all those puzzles using hands... :D
The difference between Myst and EGttR is that there is no gameplay in EGttR. It's a nice little movie, but can't even find keys to open doors, or listen for clues within the echos, Myst has puzzles to solve, and an open world, Rapture has a line, guided by a little yellow ball that you have to follow until you finish watching all the cutscenes.
I felt similar about Dear Esther. When I first saw Dear Esther I thought it was going to be more like Myst, and I was really excited. It was still gorgeous, of course, but I was disappointed by the fact that you didn't really need to interact with anything or actually _do_ anything other than just walk around and listen to the narrator give you bits of the story. What the Myst series did so well (especially Riven) was to weave the story into the puzzles, so that you were learning what happened while you were solving puzzles.
I've been a fan of Myst since 1998 when my uncle showed me the game. I was only 4 years when I got into Myst. And then to the rest of the Myst games. But most favourite game of the Myst Series is, Myst IV: Revelation because it had better graphics than the first Myst game, and cast, including Peter Gabriel.
I tried to play Myst when I was a kid, but got completely lost in an underground maze. When I tried to play it more recently none of my computers could run it. It installed, but crashed whenever I clicked on something.
Yeah, a lot of people had trouble with that. Drawing a map is almost mandatory.
This $6 downloadable version was updated last year, and now runs beautifully:
store.steampowered.com/app/63660/Myst_Masterpiece_Edition/
My copy of myst came with my first cd rom drive. Then my first DVD came with Wing Commander.
It's funny what he said about computer per household in the 1990s, it's true. We got our first PC in 1998. I think there were more televisions per household in the late 1940s then there were PCs per household in the late 1990s.
I miss those hyperstudio days when making the stacks. I did not know Robyn and Ran were on the computer chronicles I watch that RUclips channel.
I like it when it first came out, and still a favourite to visit every time, and noticing as aspects of the virtual world/space that I did not catch the last I visited. For me it was first solitary virtual game that can visit at my own phase , The recent release was even more detailed and adds more excitement. Love the game, a mainstay in my computer.
Myst was the first game I played, so it holds a special place in my heart
Myst is a great game. I remember when I first played it and it was no easy walk in the park but I still like it.
Anyone know what game is shown at 3:49 with the little astronaut?
Where can I find a link to that old Apple commercial that's in this video? "You can even get music on it!"
Released in 1983 it would have been way ahead of its time.
... sooo, what was it I was supposed to have missed in myst? 😂
I think the sound design really helped the atmosphere along combined with the walking. I remember renting a... I think 3Do with Myst, and it had a headphone jack in the controller. I loved using it and hearing the wind and the trees. It really helped put you in the game and the mindset of your character.
wow, I was just randomly talking about Myst a few hours ago (and just saw this video now)
I need to play these games again.
Anyone who's finished Virtue's Last Reward is very familiar with the Chinese Room.
I went outside and took a walk, no lag and it was in HD.
What game is pictured at 1:09?
No. Myst (the video game) was successful in the same way that Avatar (the movie) was successful. It had a massive world to explore with the best graphics ever seen on a computer. Also, just like how Avatar was released during the Peek of stereoscopic 3D, Myst was riding on the shoulders of the CD-rom boom of the early to mid 90s. Not only people went to by a CD-rom drive to play Myst, but a huge junk of people bought Myst to justify their purchase of their spanking new CD-rom drive.
Timing is what made it successful. The Game mechanic is what made it good.
I will tell you what it MYST;Fun,entertainment, and amusement.
I think you may have a point, if not for the walking then for their use of pacing and often retracing your steps to solve layers of puzzles.
they even had an advantage over more free roam games of today in that the player was sure to wind up where they needed to be and not accidentally wander off into a blind patch of trees. Unless there would at one point be something to do in said trees.
+Tristra Gyopsie Right. Good thought! -jj
I'm fairly sure I noticed my avatar walking when traversing the Myst worlds. It's not particularly easy to miss.
Hey pbs show, read a blog from an architect on gamasutra, who worked on the witness. Fascinating stuff and how architectural principles can help create more immersive and better designed levels.
Just thought I'd share if anyone's interested.
OH! PBS has a Video Games Channel!?!?!?! Subscribed.
+The Stry Show Welcome aboard! -jj
Where is the 'It's ok to be smart' link?
I played Myst on a 2X speed CD drive.
I beat Myst, Riven and all future sequels as a child, it was sooooo AWESOME!
I always felt something had been lost with the move to 3d. I've not been able to get into Obduction in the same way (partly my system struggling with it, and partly me not having the time I did as a kid on Myst), but even the 3d re-release of Myst lacked some of the charm. With a node system not only could they lavish almost attention to detail on it than is possible with a 3d world but what I realy loved was that each spot had its own ambiance and atmosphere to absorb. To me the system of fixed spots from which you could look around at any angle in Exile was perfect.
There was an opportunity lost to title this "what you missed in myst"
Myst was the first full budget game that was introduced into class rooms in public schools.
+Minngarm Halnhammer You got to play Myst at school? All I had at school was a half hour of Oregon Trail once a week. My parents got me Myst to play at home but we only had one computer and my parents both needed it for their work so I was lucky if I got a couple of hours during the weekend to play. It's really amazing how far and how fast technology has come. Even as I'm typing this I've got Myst open and playing in a corner of my screen on my laptop. It's mind boggling when you think about it, and kind of makes me feel a bit old even though the feeling makes no sense because I just hit thirty one and that's barely anything in the grand scheme of things. I wonder what kind of technology leaps will happen in the next 30 years?
I loved playing this game. My other favorite was Under a Killing Moon Tex Murphy, another classic.
1:44 Gorillas! I loved that game!
I miss this show.... how did i end up here?
The lack of npcs and progress markers gave me lots of anxiety.
how could you not use the line "What you missed in myst" it was right there man!
3:51 Shoutout to Red Gaming Tech :D
And now I need to go play Riven...
love MYST
I still play it :)
That's funny cause the last time I walked I thought: I really should sit down and watch some tv.
I feel like this video is less a discussion of the point-and-click exploration mechanics of Myst than a partisan defense of today's "walking simulators" which as others have pointed out do not possess anywhere near the complex gameplay of Myst. Because that's what's being missed in this Myst comparison: the GAMEPLAY. Dear Esther and Gone Home are fundamentally different and arguably inferior games to Myst, because Myst contained puzzles and challenges and required patience to discover all its hidden depths. The reason why certain games are labeled "walking simulators" is because they lack that depth of play, substituting walking to a location and listening to a voiceover for any deeper gameplay mechanic. "Atmosphere" was just what Myst oozed while it tried your patience and brainpower with complex puzzles; Dear Esther and Gone Home have made the scenery the game and have avoided any complex puzzles to challenge players.
Myst was like reading a book and entering the book as well.....Alice In Wonderland....hmmmmmm
I wish they would unlock FOV in realMyst so we could play On the oculus rift using VorpX.
The zoomed vision is the only problem stopping it.
I know this is an older video, so the odds are not in my favor, but when you start talking about HyperCard, what is that horror game example you used? I've been trying to ID it for years!
I own, like, three copies of Myst..... the original, the re-mastered, and a copy on the DS. The original and re-mastered need DOS to run, so they don't like running these new fangled computers... The DS version is 'ok' but Myst is the kind of game that works best on a bigger screen than the DS offered.
I didn't care much about MYST as a child as the empty world that is the island scared me shitless. Because of that I never came far in the game and would probably never be able to complete it today as some of that fear still lingers in me.
What does the letters NPC mean? I have not heard this term before.
So, I used to play this game and heard it was inspiration for LOST tv series.. on refreshing my memory.. yes.. it’s true.., !!!
I threw up in my mouth when he said 4x.... The old days of not having a burner on your computer so spending 20 minutes to burn one disc at your friend house was a thing
I do dislike how people dismiss some games as "walking simulators", but I understand where some of that criticism comes from. Ever since steam Early Access started, there has been a phenomenon of many overly simple 3d-walking-around games, especially in the horror genre, that all really blend in together as being the same rehashed thing. Walk around a kinda boring maze, grab keys, spooky notes, and sometimes there's something chasing you, and often there's nothing at all. Almost no narrative or any kind of storytelling other than a text prompt at the beginning.
It almost comes off as a scam sometimes, like the game just wants you to keep playing expecting something new to happen, and by the time you realize the game has nothing to offer, its too late to get a refund. Very few of them have anything worthwhile to say! This sorta thing makes people wary of games that have certain... warning signs.
That said, I always say it and will say it again, Gone Home definitely does *not* deserve the "walking simulator" moniker. It is very light on explicit gameplay rules and challenges, but piecing together the details of the story is definitely a valid gameplay mechanic. Just because the game doesn't test you on your understanding of it at the end doesn't make it invalid. I think Gone Home is just as much of a game as Myst ever was.
Dear Esther on the other hand is a bit harder to defend. It was more of a thought experiment than a game, and the "walking simulator" description really does fit. I still enjoyed it though, but I can empathize with the disappointment of someone who expected a spooky exploration experience with some danger. It was interesting, but clearly not for everyone, would really depend on your mood and expectations.
All of that said, I think Myst's success has little to do with its walking. More contemplative games were not a rarity on the PC at the time. Text adventures and point-and-click games were still very present, and quite popular, they would keep going for several years even, until Grim Fandango's huge critical success and commercial failure scared publishers away from the genre. It doesn't mean Mysts' tone and slow, serious pace wasn't a part of its success, but it certainly wasn't filling some sort of void that would explain its extreme popularity.
I think its clear Myst's success owes more to the first gasps of the 3d game craze. It started with stuff like Wolfenstein 3d released a year before, the popularity of which made people seek out 3d games, leaving 2d behind as being the kids' stuff.
It was that weird time in the 90s where any 3d at all was a big enough feature that it sold games on its own, even when it looked awful, and Myst looked really good. It even looks good today, if just a little low-fi. Aged a lot better visually than many N64 and Playstation titles that came in later. Just the advantages of pre-rendered images over real time 3d. The stills were a lot more visually impressive than Doom which came out later the same year, which had much more polygonal/blocky environments, though Doom arguably aged a lot better than Myst when in motion.
The real Mist sequel is Google Street View
myst succeeded because it was literally everywhere. free with just about every computer
Myst was free with every computer, because it was something novel that required a CD Rom to be able to play and appealed to people that didn't consider themselves "gamers".
Just a quick correction: John Searle is a philosophy professor--not a psychology professor. I know it is a minor thing, but contemporary-academic philosophy is important to me, so I felt the need to comment.
+Jason Emami Right you are, sorry for the slip up. And I know this all too well as Hubert Dreyfus is a big major influence. -jj
People always talk about Myst while the pinnacle of the series was Riven.
Riven is my favorite, too, and much more dedicated, polished, and artistic, but I can definitely see why a lot of people would prefer Myst. It's more colorful and accessible. Assuming that you have time to waste on random internet conversations, how did you feel about Exile?