Learning to Build Worlds

 It always amazes me how tech-savvy my students are as well as how much fun they have playing computer games. During our "pride" time at school, if they don't have any homework to work on and their grades are good, I let them play games on their phones and laptops. Several students will team up to play Minecraft, others play games separately on their phones. They seem to enjoy teamwork and good storytelling, at least from what I overhear while I work on lesson plans.

One of the best resources I learned storytelling from was actually a computer game. My sister got the game Myst for either her birthday or Christmas and it was the first time I remember feeling enthralled and immersed into a completely realized fictional world (outside of reading books, of course, and certain movies). Myst originally came out in 1993 but we probably received it closer to 1996-1997. The game places you (the player) in an unknown universe whereby placing your hand on the flickering page of a book, you are suddenly taken to a mysterious island. The main premise is that you have been asked for help by a man called Atrus, whose two sons (Sirrus and Achenar) have been imprisoned in books. You must explore the main island and solve puzzles through interacting with objects and solving puzzles. The main island has 'linking books' to vastly different worlds where you travel and try to decide which brother to help.

View of the main island

By following the clues and working through puzzles, you gain a larger understanding of the schism between Atrus and his sons. In the end, your choice determines your fate and the fate of others. In terms of storytelling, what I admire most about this game is how immersive it is. You can spend hours in the library reading books about each place the linking books lead to. You can learn about the actions of both sons. Secrets are revealed by opening drawers and looking behind curtains. I feel like the story shapes the puzzles and vice versa.

As a kid, I loved that I could create my own backstory for how I stumbled across the Myst book which leads to the new world. My sister and I would keep track of our actions in a notebook, noting down the cause and effect of certain decisions we made as players. I didn't realize it then but by playing the game and keeping track of the choices we made, the puzzles we solved, and the consequences-- I was really mapping different stories. It's hard to articulate without delving deeper into the Myst universe itself.

Myst has a sequel game called Riven. I'll probably devote a post to it individually. Suffice it to say, you encounter Atrus again. This time you are tasked with helping save his wife, Catherine, who is trapped in a  dying world where Atrus' megalomaniac father Gehn rules through fear. In this game you encounter a few people but you are mostly left to your own devices, racing against the clock before the world collapses on itself and is lost forever. Riven is followed by Myst III: Exile where a dangerous man threatens Atrus, Catherine, and their daughter out of a desire for vengeance due to the actions of Sirrus and Achenar. There are more games that follow but I have not played them. To provide connections and context, the makers of the games (Rand, Robyn, and Ryan Miller of Cyan) wrote three books that expand the universe of the games and provide backstories for both Atrus, Catherine, and Gehn as well as an explanation for the mysterious skill of writing tangible worlds into books. Here is where I want to come back to my original idea of learning storytelling. Perhaps a better way of phrasing it is "world building."

What I love about the books and games is how real they felt to me. Even if the graphics pictured above look grainy or outdated to some, the games felt so vividly real that I could feel the sun on my face, the rough wood of a door handle in my hand. The places described in the books recalled distinct locations in the games. And I felt as if I was walking through these worlds, acting out the same stories over and over again, deciding when and where I would solve the last puzzle for the hundredth time and bring the game to a close.

It's been years since I've played any of the games. I downloaded Riven from Steam, only to realize that my laptop's software is out of date and so I can't open the game. I'm still working on finding a way to play Myst, Riven, and Myst III again. The world is on fire, teaching face to face is stressful, everything feels hard. Why not escape a little bit and reclaim some control in a positive way?

For those interested, Cyan is updating Myst. You can read more about here, as well as news about their other games. I have a wonderful interview with Rand Miller saved somewhere--I'll try to link it when I find it. He talks about how revolutionary Myst was when it was first created-- in both technical terms and in its storytelling. It's an hour long interview so you might have to be a big fan like me to listen! I'll leave you with an image of the new version of the island for you to ponder. Maybe you will find time to immerse yourself as well in the world of Myst.

This image is from Cyan's website (linked in the paragraph above)