Slashdot Mirror
Myst Creator Closes Doors
ComputerSherpa writes "Cyan Worlds closed its doors today. Cyan was the creator of Myst, the game that was partially responsible for popularizing the CD-ROM format. Until it was recently overtaken by The Sims, the Myst series was the most popular computer game series of all time. The last game in the Myst series, End of Ages, is scheduled to be released September 20th by UbiSoft."
I remember taking a tour of their "studio" way back in the early Myst days... I worked at a similar shop, and we'd been talking about doing stuff like that for months, and then BOOM! there it was... better than we could have imagined. They used all the common tools of the day in fantastic ways... after I got that game, I spent the rest of my workdays playing it. Research, y'know. But they weren't just crazy minds, they were very nice guys, too.
Then again, it's not like they've died or anything... but it's still sad to see them go.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
But I have to say that I'm glad.
They pretty much killed the adventure game genre. Before Myst, we had great adventure games from Sierra, LucasArts and a few other companies. Granted, they escaped the notice of the general population, but when Myst came along and became super popular, it became fixed in the minds of the populace as the definition of what an adventure game is supposed to be, and REAL adventure games were automatically regarded as 'too complex', and now it is nearly impossible to get them published (Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2, anyone?)
Technoli
http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1997/11/cov_ 06riven.html
Read a couple paragraphs down. As of the release of Riven, the first sequel to Myst, the game had sold 3.1 million copies, more than twice the number of copies as Doom 2, the distant second-place best-selling game.
Aw, man. I was being sarcastic, but then everyone took me so seriously and had such interesting things to say that I almost feel guilty for having not been serious in the first place.
My point really was that there's all this clammoring about how there are no female-friendly games, but then the two most popular games in history both happen to be extremely female-accessible and friendly and are made up of a huge population of female players.
I have always felt that a game should be created for playability and enjoyment. Political correctness be damned. I don't really care if the male has unrealistic quantities of muscles and the female is barbie-like in fantasy-level proportions. What, like I want to escape my life as a fat lazy tech dork by playing a fat lazy character? Hell no.
Good games will be good games. Period. There are some games more geared toward women, just like "The Princess Diaries" is a movie girls will flock to. And there are some games geared toward men - just like Tears of the Sun or something are geared to.
Then there are great games that, like movies, everyone will flock to.
Maybe what would help is if women would EXPLAIN what kind of games they think should be made for them? I have heard countless complaints about how games are so male oriented (possibly because there are so many MALES in gaming? Nobody claims that Magick: The Gathering is too male oriented). But I never hear a single one lay out what is so unique and different about the gameplay they want.
So girls, what is this amazing female-friendly game that will revolutionize the world that every female is just dying to get her hands on, if only someone would make it? Or - has it already been made and everyone is complaining about nothing? (A Tale in the Desert, Myst, The Sims, Nintendogs, etc).
Someone pissed in your cereal this morning. I think you're discounting the importantance of Cyan a bit too much.
> But they're not, say, Nintendo.
No, but good lord, they sold more copies than anyone else at the time and really was a major contributor to the quick adoption of the CD-ROM format... something that Nintendo lagged behind on for nearly 10 years and the failure of which caused Sony to enter the marketplace. Then again you're comparing a publisher to a single developer. Nintendo has greater influence to be sure, but Cyan did at one time carry major street credential in developer circles.
> What did they influence?
You're kidding right? Tell me that low ID of yours isn't saying this. Cyan did inspire a whole horde of copycats and invigorated the adventure genre. You're correct that they didn't put in some new mindbending technology or that prerendered graphics hadn't been done before. They raised the bar to a whole new level with the adventure genre, causing Sierra and Infocom to bring their A game. Are you going to say next that Blizzard isn't influencial because they didn't invent the RTS genre and stuck to a 8-bit palette until Warcraft 3?
> You realize video games have been around since like the 50s? That today's "senior" gamehouses have been around since the 80s?
Check your dates and the video game developer graveyard sometime. While Wally's Eletronic Tennis in the '50s was technically the first, it wasn't commericially available. (Have a conversation with Ralph Baer or Bill Kunkel sometime about video game history. I know I have.)
What you see today as "senior" gamehouses are the lucky few that managed to swallow up the dying ones. Go visit the graves of Infocom, Sierra On-Line, Westwood, Dynamix, Origin, Sir-tech, the undead lich that is Interplay. The EA and Activisions you speak of survive only by sucking the lifeblood of individual development houses.
In retrospect, perhaps Myst isn't the end all be all game that some might make it out to be. (I liked it, didn't love it, but liked it.) But I wouldn't shamlessly discount the influence they had on the industry. Every game developer I've worked with, talked to or emailed (and that number is in the hundreds) has admired Cyan and studied their games and company to find their "secret".
Disagree if you will, but your assertion that they will be a "tiny footnote" is greatly, greatly mistaken and completely wrong.