Zandi sets his book in his lap. “You felt drawn here, like the others”, he explains, noting your befuddled look. “She’s left a message for you in the cleft. Listen to it well”. Beyond him sits the cleft, a deep scar in the terrain sitting in the shadow of a volcano ringed with barbed wire. Down there your journey begins.

Lost in Wonderland. Yes, you might expect a white rabbit to bound by at any moment while exploring this Age.

“Even though the many different worlds of Myst Online: Uru Live can get pretty wild in a science-fiction/fantasy sense, it’s still a game based on the world you and I live in: the real, twenty-first century world”, explains Cyan Worlds co-founder and Myst co-creator Rand Miller. “The character you play is not a wizard, or a warrior, or a protector of the galaxy, but, rather, yourself. Or, at least, the twenty-first century person you would like to be”.

“You solve problems with your mind and your heart, not your magic or your muscles.”

- Myst co-creator Rand Miller

He adds: “The hub of these fantastic worlds you discover is right here on Earth, albeit far below the surface in a massive cavern, where the scientific excavation of a vast, ancient city is underway. You know how those scientists are always getting in over their heads”.

Rely on Your Mind and Heart

That city was home of the D’ni for thousands of years until the destruction of their civilization over 200 years ago, as chronicled in the classic Myst series of puzzle games. Uru (the title of the game and not the name of that metropolis) is a Sumerian word meaning “deep city”, but its letters also convey the central idea behind Myst Online: you are you. And as such, notes Miller, “in the game, you solve problems with your mind and your heart, not your magic or your muscles”.

Meet Me By the Fountain. Players gather to share what they’ve learned.

The D’ni perfected the ability, known as The Art, to create Ages that they could access through tomes they called linking books. You learned about that in the first Myst game, in which you travelled to Myst and freed Atrus, who is one of the greatest adherents of The Art. As the series progressed, you uncovered more information about D’ni history, but your role was always that of a stranger who lived during that era and was pulled into stories full of enigmatic puzzles and lush visuals.

“You’ll never know what to expect next, and like all Myst games, there’s more to it all than meets the eye.”

- Rand Miller

Now, however, you’re in the present day as you explore the city and travel to the Ages linked from it. Everyone else you meet is in the same situation, but each Age you access is a unique instance that others can’t enter unless you give them permission. “The persistence of the worlds you are exploring is paramount”, explains Miller, “but if you’ve got three-quarters of the solution to opening a locked door all figured out and set up, you don’t want to come back later to find that all your progress was erased”.

A Desolate View. Wandering near the water in the underground city.

He adds: “So we’ve gone where most MMORPGs [massively multi-player role-playing games] wouldn’t dare: true persistence and all it implies, such as giving players control over who has access to their worlds. We’ve managed to create a very nice balance between places everyone can go — public areas like the neighborhoods and the city — and places you can only go by invitation”.

Highly Collaborative

While the original Myst series always featured single-player gameplay, Miller recalls that Cyan’s research uncovered “highly collaborative” situations. “People would talk about what they’d experienced between sessions, or call each other while playing to figure things out, or even sit side-by-side to play”, he says.

A Mystery to Us. This Age’s serene surroundings hold many puzzles.

Players’ ability to share the game world in Myst Online “opened up a whole new way to look at puzzle creation”, Miller continues. “We could require cooperation or communication or even competition to get past certain areas. One example is the garden Age: one way to solve it requires multiple people to be at various locations with a leader stationed at a key location to make note of a symbol and tell the others”.