The reason the Myst series (Riven in particular) are so incredible is that they aren't games. They're complete worlds ready for exploration and discovery, with a HUGE backstory and gigantic mental scope (much of this didn't arrive until after Myst, but the original game is still a classic). They're the kind of adventures where you can literally just stay in an area for 10 minutes "breathing in" the atmosphere. There are places I've visited in various Cyan-made worlds that feel more real to me than many real-life places.
The puzzles and "gameplay" are not the main emphasis -- they're simply a means to an end: story, environment, discovery, adventure. The sound and the music play as big a role as the graphics. There are sounds and musical motives in the Myst "games" that are now encoded in my DNA. I will never, ever, forget my experiences playing Myst, Riven, Uru, Myst IV, etc. They were events in my life not to be duplicated, even though I've played all the games dozens of times over. I've also read all of the Myst books and look forward to the Book of Marrim when it comes out. These books helped reinforce the history of the Myst and D'ni saga and give an added dimension to the worlds in the games.
The loss of Cyan to the game/computer industry is overwhelming. This art form, this incredible technological creative genre -- virtual worlds with beauty and mystery waiting to be explored -- was established by Cyan in a way no, I mean NO, other company has ever done. The future of the game industry is bleak indeed when a group of artists this influential are left begging for crumbs. For someone who has talked so much in this post, I am speechless.
There's only one thing out of the entire E3 news that interests me: Myst IV. They were demoing it at E3 and even Rand Miller showed up a couple of times and was mobbed by a few rabid Myst fans!:)
Myst IV looks like it will be fantastic, possibly the best title in the Myst series yet. Check out the developer's blog at: http://revelatione3team.blogspot.com/
I've seen this exact same message posted at least once before here on Slashdot some time ago. Is someone just pressing the "Flame Apple" button in their reprogrammed Slashdot browser or something?
Grrrrr,
Jared
Re:What IS the fucking deal with Apple?
on
Linux and Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
OS X runs Microsoft Office. Like it or not, that's the office suite that +90% of the world uses. Until Office runs on Linux, you won't see most desktop users switching to Linux, plain and simple.
Beyond that, there's already tons of great desktop software available for OS X, with more and more coming out all the time. Between OS 9 and OS X, the Mac platform has so much more desktop-oriented software than Linux, it's not even funny. If you think Linux is a more viable desktop OS than Mac OS X at this point in time, then *you're* the one who's been doin' some real powerful smokin' lately.
I think you're a bit off on this one. I don't know about the DVD mastering issue, but the rest of what you're talking about is rather skewed.
Apple's licensing of Amazon's one-click service doesn't do anything other than make Apple's online store easier to use for their customers. Amazon has a patent on that technology whether Apple licenses that technology or not, so it really makes no difference. Besides, you seem to forget that Apple's DELAYING the release of QuickTime 5 indefinitely because of the MPEGLA's licensing scheme for MPEG 4 -- not because Apple doesn't want to pay the MPEGLA for the technology, but because they don't want any content providers (including Apple, I admit) to have to pay streaming fees to the MPEGLA. I think it all evens out in the end.
Apple's legal threats on skinners I don't care much for, but as a business Apple has every right to want to protect their intellectual propertey. If they've spent millions of dollars designing a hot new interface for their operating system, why should anyone else be able to rip it off at whim?
Apple "screwed over" the clone vendors because they had to. The clone licensing deal was a badly engineered move, and Apple wasn't competetive enough at the time to resist being clobbered by the clone makers. If Apple had gone under, the clone makers would have gone under as well anyway. Steve Jobs did what he had to do to ensure the health of the company.
Now let's name a few of the GOOD things Apple as a company has done.
o Open-sourced Darwin. Sure, it isn't Aqua/Carbon/Cocoa, but it's a good start.
o Released a free speech, free beer Quicktime Streaming Server that runs on multiple platforms.
o Contributed PPC optimizations to GCC, which benefits LinuxPPC just as much as it does OS X.
o Given away sophisticated developers tools so freeware and shareware developers can program for OS X easily and cheaply. Let's see Microsoft try that.
And of course Apple's continuing to develop high-quality, innovative products. They could become another Microsoft if they had the chance, maybe, but the fact is that they're NOT, and they won't be for a long time simply because of market pressures. Don't let anti-business "open source" zealotry get in the way of reason and understanding facts here.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason the Myst series (Riven in particular) are so incredible is that they aren't games. They're complete worlds ready for exploration and discovery, with a HUGE backstory and gigantic mental scope (much of this didn't arrive until after Myst, but the original game is still a classic). They're the kind of adventures where you can literally just stay in an area for 10 minutes "breathing in" the atmosphere. There are places I've visited in various Cyan-made worlds that feel more real to me than many real-life places.
The puzzles and "gameplay" are not the main emphasis -- they're simply a means to an end: story, environment, discovery, adventure. The sound and the music play as big a role as the graphics. There are sounds and musical motives in the Myst "games" that are now encoded in my DNA. I will never, ever, forget my experiences playing Myst, Riven, Uru, Myst IV, etc. They were events in my life not to be duplicated, even though I've played all the games dozens of times over. I've also read all of the Myst books and look forward to the Book of Marrim when it comes out. These books helped reinforce the history of the Myst and D'ni saga and give an added dimension to the worlds in the games.
The loss of Cyan to the game/computer industry is overwhelming. This art form, this incredible technological creative genre -- virtual worlds with beauty and mystery waiting to be explored -- was established by Cyan in a way no, I mean NO, other company has ever done. The future of the game industry is bleak indeed when a group of artists this influential are left begging for crumbs. For someone who has talked so much in this post, I am speechless.
Jared
There's only one thing out of the entire E3 news that interests me: Myst IV. They were demoing it at E3 and even Rand Miller showed up a couple of times and was mobbed by a few rabid Myst fans! :)
Myst IV looks like it will be fantastic, possibly the best title in the Myst series yet. Check out the developer's blog at:
http://revelatione3team.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Jared
I've seen this exact same message posted at least once before here on Slashdot some time ago. Is someone just pressing the "Flame Apple" button in their reprogrammed Slashdot browser or something?
Grrrrr,
Jared
OS X runs Microsoft Office. Like it or not, that's the office suite that +90% of the world uses. Until Office runs on Linux, you won't see most desktop users switching to Linux, plain and simple.
Beyond that, there's already tons of great desktop software available for OS X, with more and more coming out all the time. Between OS 9 and OS X, the Mac platform has so much more desktop-oriented software than Linux, it's not even funny. If you think Linux is a more viable desktop OS than Mac OS X at this point in time, then *you're* the one who's been doin' some real powerful smokin' lately.
Jared
I think you're a bit off on this one. I don't know about the DVD mastering issue, but the rest of what you're talking about is rather skewed.
Apple's licensing of Amazon's one-click service doesn't do anything other than make Apple's online store easier to use for their customers. Amazon has a patent on that technology whether Apple licenses that technology or not, so it really makes no difference. Besides, you seem to forget that Apple's DELAYING the release of QuickTime 5 indefinitely because of the MPEGLA's licensing scheme for MPEG 4 -- not because Apple doesn't want to pay the MPEGLA for the technology, but because they don't want any content providers (including Apple, I admit) to have to pay streaming fees to the MPEGLA. I think it all evens out in the end.
Apple's legal threats on skinners I don't care much for, but as a business Apple has every right to want to protect their intellectual propertey. If they've spent millions of dollars designing a hot new interface for their operating system, why should anyone else be able to rip it off at whim?
Apple "screwed over" the clone vendors because they had to. The clone licensing deal was a badly engineered move, and Apple wasn't competetive enough at the time to resist being clobbered by the clone makers. If Apple had gone under, the clone makers would have gone under as well anyway. Steve Jobs did what he had to do to ensure the health of the company.
Now let's name a few of the GOOD things Apple as a company has done.
o Open-sourced Darwin. Sure, it isn't Aqua/Carbon/Cocoa, but it's a good start.
o Released a free speech, free beer Quicktime Streaming Server that runs on multiple platforms.
o Contributed PPC optimizations to GCC, which benefits LinuxPPC just as much as it does OS X.
o Given away sophisticated developers tools so freeware and shareware developers can program for OS X easily and cheaply. Let's see Microsoft try that.
And of course Apple's continuing to develop high-quality, innovative products. They could become another Microsoft if they had the chance, maybe, but the fact is that they're NOT, and they won't be for a long time simply because of market pressures. Don't let anti-business "open source" zealotry get in the way of reason and understanding facts here.
Regards,
Jared