[spaceship789]

Its not hard to see one of the myriad of contributing factors that lead to the decline of the adventure game.

Someone mentioned the rise of consoles.

I will mention the fall of the graphic adventure as the genre with the best graphics. In the late eighties early nineties, there weren't many games on the PC - not half the cool looking games you found on the consoles, and the commodore computers. Yet people bought PCs - for home office tasks. On the PC, the adventure games had the best graphics. PC users purchased them cos they had the pretty pictures, it was cool to see pretty pictures on the PC, and a cool thing to show your friends etc. Retailers liked packaging them with new PCS to showcased the graphic ability of the PCs.

Myst had really pretty pictures too. Retailers pushed it/consumers liked showing it to their friends etc.

And through the exposure the adventure game received by being the 'good graphics' title holder, lots of people inadvertantly came to discover that they liked the casual, non-urgent feeling of playing an adventure game. This caused sales of the entire genre.

Gradually, action games became the games showcasing the graphic abililties of the PC. Doom, Tomb raider, Command and Conquer etc. They not only had pretty pictures, but they moved fast too, and were perhaps easier to get into than adventure games.

-

Myst had an aboslutely positive net effect on the adventure game genre.

For one it provided adventure game developers with a great statistic in reference to potential adventure game sales. great for getting funding!

Secondly, it expanded the market. Lots of people who bought Myst hadn't bought an adventure game before, or knew what one was. It made lots of people say to themselves "I like non-urgent type puzzle solving, I will seek out this kind of game again:

Some people argue that, since Myst didn't have "character interaction", or a third person perspective that those adventure gamers desiring these things were turned off adventure games, and migrated to RPGs. I think this is a weak argument.

For starters, they wouldn't be turned off the entire adventure games genre because Myst didn't have these aspects - they would just be turned off Myst-like-games.

And secondly, the segment of the market who like story and character are still out there ready to try out any type of game that provides story and character: Call your game a Hybrid RPG/Adventure game. Give it enough elements to call it an RPG. Put it on a console. Give it lots of pretty pictures. And watch the RPG crowd come and buy it.

[termlesshealer]

[need help with starting things in Myst, the first one. Waiting for a hand to guide me.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by termlesshealer

[need help with starting things in Myst, the first one. Waiting for a hand to guide me.

I think the best hand you could find would be UHS. So if I were you, I'd google UHS Myst walthrough. UHS is a very neat hint system, which lead you gently to the solution, without being too revealing.
If you really don't want too, though, I could help.

EDIT: Oh, and technically, you should have posted that in the Hints forum, but it's no big deal.

[AFGNCAAP]

Thread says: "Remember me?"

For the report from my excursion to the islands of Myst: I pretty much loved Exile. The game was too short, but that's everything bad I can say about it (I also found it less mind-bending than I expected, but I take it that the predecessors are considerably harder, so it's not such a drawback for a series-virgin like me). Anyway, I' m eager to find and play the other instalments, hence my next question: Are there significant differences between original, Ages of Myst, and DVD releases of Myst and Riven?

[Crypto]

Riven

Once all the beautiful pieces fall into place you'll have to admit the brilliance of it.

[qrious]

in every poll i've seen about this (more than 20) Riven always comes first.
that has to mean something

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by qrious

in every poll i've seen about this (more than 20) Riven always comes first.
that has to mean something

Yes, I guess Riven is the best. I have a huge fondness for Revelation, though.

[Elton28]

Riven. Without a doubt.

But then again, I am still playing Revelation, so my opinion may yet change. But Riven seems to be the general consensus here for peeps that have fnished the series.

AF

[Eleri]

I'm a heretic. I didn't *like* Riven. Visually stunning, yes...taken as a whole, brilliant...but any game that gives me a migrane 10 minutes in just from trying to figure out what the frilly heck I'm supposed to be *doing* isn't on my happy list. I actually didn't ever finish Riven until a few months ago, with someone walking me through it. And to spend such huge amounts of time solving spread out puzzles, only to have it all end in a few scenes felt, I dunno... anticlimactic, somehow.

Revelation felt much more cohesive. Puzzles were still kicking me in the ass, but I at least had a sense of accomplishment when I finished one.

[Ninth]

Originally Posted by Eleri

I'm a heretic. I didn't *like* Riven. Visually stunning, yes...taken as a whole, brilliant...but any game that gives me a migrane 10 minutes in just from trying to figure out what the frilly heck I'm supposed to be *doing* isn't on my happy list. I actually didn't ever finish Riven until a few months ago, with someone walking me through it. And to spend such huge amounts of time solving spread out puzzles, only to have it all end in a few scenes felt, I dunno... anticlimactic, somehow.

The whole point of Riven is to figure out what the hell these islands are all about, and see the overall design getting clearer and clearer as you progress through the game. Completing it is a reward great enough, while finishing it with a walkthrough takes some interest out of it, obviously.
Note that I'm explaining why the ending left me satisfied, not why you should have liked the game.

[DustCropper]

Originally Posted by Ninth

The whole point of Riven is to figure out what the hell these islands are all about, and see the overall design getting clearer and clearer as you progress through the game. Completing it is a reward great enough, while finishing it with a walkthrough takes some interest out of it, obviously.
Note that I'm explaining why the ending left me satisfied, not why you should have liked the game.

Yeah, totally. When I first got Riven, right after it was released, I used a walkthrough quite a lot and didn't enjoy the game very much. I recently replayed it though, having forgotten everything and this time without a walkthrough, and guess what, I loved it. My favorite Myst game now.

[mszv]

I'm not fond of Riven either.
For me it's
Myst
Myst Revelation (IV)
Exile and Uru (same ranking)
Riven

Wow, and old thread revived. Wonder if I commented the first time!

[MoriartyL]

Revelation is my favorite, due in large part to Spire. That world is my favorite in any game (and that's saying a lot). Second would be Riven, although I never did understand the end puzzles. Then Myst. Exile doesn't deserve to be considered.

[squarejawhero]

Riven. Perfection for me.