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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.
You and 100 of your closest friends...boring each other to death.
I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."
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.
"I like to wear big boy pants."
with this or this?
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?
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Amazing what you can do with Hypercard nowadays!
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.
It's been codenamed "Mudpie". It's going to focus less on traditional Myst-style puzzles and more on Dn'i culture, traditions, etc. This may be a rumor, but I've heard that you can write your own ages (!) I actually can't wait, the screenshots look incredible.
Everything is mainstream now.
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.
Well, the puzzles could require some kind of cooperation. That wouldn't be too hard. You could even introduce some kind of variable elements, to keep it interesting. If the puzzle doesn't change from game to game, either randomly or depending on what other people do, this would get really annoying, of course, since some jerk who already knew the whole puzzle would just race through it.
Most likely, you'll just have to coordinate lever pulling with someone in another room, which would be just like Myst only with the added frustration, I mean fun, of online social interaction.
If they did this right they would've looked to good, simple/innovative, mutiplayer boardgames for inspiration.
Clue - where there was some information (needed to solve the mystery) that only certain players could get, and you have to pool the info, that could be cool.
Settlers of Katan - there could be items (not just information) that you need from other players, but you have to trade other stuff you actually need (or may need) to get it. An economy of items (where you need X of each item over the course of the game, maybe) could be interesting.
Slasher - one of the other players IS the villain; the identity of the evil one is actually determined during the course of play.
Features introduced by other players could be worked into the puzzles, somehow. This would be incredibly difficult to do in an interesting way; it would also require a level of interaction with the environment well beyond what was present in the The Manhole (anyone else remember The Manhole?)
Myst has beautiful artwork, but I've always had this problem where you don't inject anything into the game; you might as well be watching a movie, to my mind (not intended as a Troll.) This would be a good opportunity for them to remedy that with a vengeance - not only would you alter the storyline in a real way, but so would a bunch of other people.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
This is probably the result of the project code named Mud Pie. This is not rehash of any of the current games, it is definetly a Myst IV. From what I can tell it is based on the same technology as RealMyst, though hopefully they will have improved on the engine.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Also, the Myst team had come under minor attacks from various Civil Rights unions stating that if they were to come up with a multiplayer game, the players would have needed to be available in different races and cultures, so as not to promote "racial supremacy" among any certain player.
Really, if anyone's worried about racial issues coming into gaming and Myst is what occurs them, they certainly haven't taken a look at Dark Age of Camelot. I like Dark Age of Camelot a great deal. But let's face it. Dark Age of Camelot's 'realm vs. realm' theme is all about genocide, race-hatred and racial supremacy. Hoorah. And the emotions attached to that slip into people's real-life feelings relating to the game. There are players who will honestly say they 'hate mids' (hate members of the 'Midgard' realm) and there are players who will honestly say they 'hate albs' (hate members of the 'Albion' realm). Occasionally, on the Roleplay servers, someone will bother to yell something like 'death to all normemen!' in the heat of battle. That helps add to the charm of the game.
I don't know if that should be worrisome, but I know I get a kick out of DAoC and I'll continue to get a kick out of killing every member of a nation that is not mine, in the context of that game. Hmm...
I would have posted earlier, but I didn't feel like /. the creators of my favorite game series. Anyway, check out http://www.drcsite.org/ for information on the new game.
"It's an official site, but it's not marketing-oriented. In fact you'll have a hard time finding the word "Cyan" anywhere unless you look at the copyright in the source code. That's because the site cleverly discusses Mudpie as if it's talking about real events rather than an upcoming online game," according to the Unofficial Riven Homepage.
Michael C. Hollinger