Myst Comes to the Net in 2003

erichj writes "Reuters is reporting that Cyan Worlds announced that they will be releasing an online version of the popular adventure game Myst for internet play in 2003. Users will pay a fee for the privilege of unraveling the mystery online." The article mentions some multiplayer functionality, but I can't really tell if the online version will be new puzzles or not.

Comments

Multiplayer deserted island?

[mobydobius]

While the original Myst was a single-player game, Miller said people tended to congregate in groups and play, and so the online version will be one of a class of "massively multiplayer" games that permit group exploration and complex interaction.

I don't know if I am alone on this, but I really don't like the idea of a multi-player Myst. Part ot the mystique (no pun intended) of the game was the isolation, walking around alone on an island trying to piece a story together that might have taken place decades ago. I used to get spooked playing that game, sitting alone at night with the speaker volume up, wondering if at the next turn something would poke its head out.

If while playing the game I see a bunch of other netizens playing with me, the experience will feel less like being on a deserted island and more like being at a cheap amusement park.

But I could have it all wrong.

It probably won't be the same thing

[Sheetrock]

I'd imagine that they'll at least add enough multiplayer puzzles to it to make it worthwhile. Most people I know who had a computer with a CD-ROM played Myst, and this would be an excellent opportunity to hook the ones who really got into it.

It would be interesting to see what this kind of technology could do for Myst as well. Perhaps they could combine randomly-generated Myst-like puzzles with MMORPG gameplay to liven up MMORPG a bit as well?

Okay... but why?

[ArthurKing]

Myst was always a lot of fun, as a single-player game (boring my eye. interesting, complex, and full of wonderful intricate goodness, I say), but why make it multiplayer? I keep reading the article, but I still entirely fail to understand why anyone would want to make an Internet version of Myst. It seems kinda like a combination of the sweetness of the series with the aggrivation of AIM.

Sure, MMO games are lots of fun, but how could Cyan turn this series into one? My fondest memories of the Myst trilogy involve sitting at my computer in the wee hours of the morn, exploring amazingly fantastic worlds full of vengance, insanity, and puzzles, puzzles, puzzles! The last thing I want is to be standing at a particularly complicated device, scratching my head, only to have someone walk up behind me and say, "Oh, I got that one! The answer is..." The joys of Myst, at least for me, have always been found in solitary thought (along with breathtaking scenery), not in group efforts. Exile would not have been the same if played with other people, I can say that much. With Riven it might have been good to occasionally get a hand, but not a spoiler. With the original, the idea of a group constitutes sacrilige in my mind.

I doubt very much that I'll buy this, unless it rivals the previous three in graphics quality and playability (and the chat can be turned off!).

Oh, and a tip for Mr. Rand Miller: Myst is all about addiction.

A couple of potential problems

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not so sure this is a good thing:

1. Part of the appeal of Myst for people who really, really like Myst games (like me) is the solitude. In the original game, it was the fun of visiting a lot of worlds where something unknown but obviously terrible had happened, months or years earlier, and it was up to you and you alone to put things right. It's also the fun of solving mysteries - what happened here in the past? Who is that guy, and why does he hate Atrus so much? What was the purpose of this machine for the people who used to live here? I enjoyed solving the puzzles on my own - I don't want to enter a world where a couple hundred amateur detectives are exploring the world with me, looking for clues.
   
2. If this is indeed an adventure/puzzle-based game like the other Myst titles, what's going to prevent spoilers? How can I be sure I won't walk by some jerk who tells me "Hey, check out the secret passage behind the fake wall in the inn up ahead! And don't trust the innkeeper - he's lying!"
   

On the other hand, maybe it's just going to be a chance to walk around a Myst-like universe with a bunch of people. But doing what? Going on quests? Fighting monsters? Come on, Ubi, stick with your strengths! Give us fun puzzles, intricate, well-designed worlds, and engrossing plotlines, and leave the MMORPGs (or even Small ORPGs) to the other guys. Please? I promise I'll buy Myst 4 if you do.