What is Myst? A game made in 1993, of course.

No, I mean what are we looking at? What is the intrinsic nature of the worlds within?

It may seem this question would have a straightforward answer, but as I'll argue here, the community may have been split into two schools of thought on this since the very beginning.

Meanwhile, Cyan has periodically updated the game with new remakes as technology progresses. You’d figure at some point, Cyan would seize the opportunity to give us an amplified version of what the original Myst wanted to be. But that hasn't actually happened. Instead, their remakes have consistently shifted toward a new vision, further away from the original one each time.

Why is this? Is it really necessary? What have we lost because of this?

This is the first of a threepart deep dive into the subject. Here I focus on the recent changes and why I call them into question.

This is not a review of the recent edition, although I do offer some thoughts on it. My main take is that as long as it claims to be ONE vision of Myst, then I can appreciate the changes. But once it claims to be THE vision, we start to have a problem.

This is because, as I said, multiple visions have existed from the beginning. So I don’t think any vision (or version) can ever claim to be the definitive or authoritative one. That includes my vision as well as any other. Rather, the paradigm of multiple remakes offers the opportunity to satisfy different factions of the fanbase each time.

0:00 01. The Many Remakes of Myst
2:47 02. Myst VR
9:19 03. The Rationalist Vision
17:19 04. Is Realism Always Better?
21:58 05. Realism in Riven
26:51 06. Myst's Split Personality
31:37 07. A Conflict of Visions
39:00 08. Not the Same

Deforestation of Myst:    • The Deforestation of Myst  

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