Computer games were, at one time, unified. We didn’t even have the term “casual game” in 1993, let alone the idea that a first-person shooter (then an unnamed genre) could be considered a “hardcore title.” There were people who played computer games, and people who didn’t. People who got way into golf or Harpoon or hearts or text adventures — those were the “hardcore” players, in that they played their chosen field obsessively.
When Myst and the CD-ROM finally broached the mass market, this ecosystem was disrupted. Myst had, Robyn Miller makes clear, been designed to appeal to non-gamers. It sold to them. Enthusiast magazines like Computer Gaming World couldn’t set the taste for the industry anymore: there were millions buying games who didn’t read these magazines. An entirely new breed of player. In this situation, what could be more natural than concocting an us-and-them formula? In a very real way, it was already true.
The great narrative of Myst is that the “hardcore” game press and playerbase lambasted it when it launched. Disowned it. A slideshow, they called it. Abstruse, idiotic puzzles; pretty graphics and not much depth. “Critics and hardcore game players universally panned it as a slide-show that had little actual gameplay interaction”, claimed PC Gamer’s Michael Wolf in 2001.That same year, a columnist for Maximum PC recalled Myst as a “tedious code-breaking and switch-throwing mess”, and saw its then-new remake realMYST as “a pointed reminder of why the press dumped on the original so heavily when it came out.” | Kuna wakati, ambapo michezo ya kompyuta ilikuwa imeungana. Hata hatukuwa na neno "michezo ya kawaida" mwaka 1993, ukiachilia mbali hata kuwa na fikra za mchezo wa wewe mwenyewe kuwa mdunguaji (kipindi hicho aina hii ya michezo haikuwa na jina) ungechukuliwa kama "jina gumu." Kulikuwa na watu waliokuwa wanacheza michezo ya kompyuta, na wale ambao hawakucheza. Watu ambao walijikita kwenye gofu au Hapuni au karata au maneno yenye kusisimu - hao walikuwa ni wachezaji "waliokubuhu", ikiwa ina maana walicheza katika uwanja waliochagua kwa uraibu. Pale ambapo Myst na mlango wa CD vilipoingia sokoni, mfumo huu wa ekolojia uliharibika. Kama Robyn Miller alivyosema, Myst ilikuwa imetengenezwa kuwavutia wale wasiopenda michezo. Iliuzwa kwao. Magazeti makereketwa kama Computer Gaming World hayakuwa na uwezo kuweka uelekeo katika kiwanda cha michezo tena: kulikuwa na watu wengi ambao hawakuwa wakisoma haya magazeti wakinunua michezo. Kundi jipya kabisa la wachezaji. Katika hali hii, nini kingeonekana kuwa asilia zaidi ya kuwa na mpango wa sisi-na-wao? Kiuhalisia, hii ilikuwa tayari ni kweli. Hadithi kubwa juu ya Myst ni kwamba vyombo vya habari za michezo "vilivyokubuhu" na shina la wachezaji yaliliminya lilipozinduliwa. Walilikataa. Waliliita onyesho la slaidi. Fumbo la kijinga lililofupisha; picha nzuri lakini halina mtiririko mzuri. "Wakosoaji na wacheza michezo waliokubuhu duniani kote waliliponda kwa kuliita onyesho la slaidi ambalo halikuwa na uchezaji wenye kushirikisha", ndivyo alivyosema Michael Wolf mchezaji wa michezo ya kompyuta mwaka 2001. Mwaka huo huo, mchangiaji mmoja wa Maximum PC aliita Myst kama "uvunjaji wa kodi zinazochosha na swichi zinazorusha uchafu", na alichukuliwa toleo jipya la wakati huo lilijulikana kama realMYST kama "kumbukumbu mahususi ya kwanini vyombo vya habari vililitupilia mbali wakati wa uzinduzi wake." |