Robyn,
I have been slow to respond, as I want to be deliberate. I don't think we're really all that far apart on this. So let me clarify what may have not been clear in my previous post.
1) "you are you" in Myst and Riven - I completely agree, and said in my previous post by providing several quotes, that Myst and Riven were specifically designed and are intended to be experienced as if YOU (the player) were the one who found the Book. I'm not disagreeing with you on that point at all.
However, as folks here have attested, once you've played Myst and Riven, if you want to dig deeper into the back-story (read the novels, for example) the games are (by nature of what the novels reveal) going to be seen in a different light. That cannot be helped, which is why I have always recommended people play Myst and Riven first, whenever I'm asked in what order Myst/Riven/the novels/etc. should be experienced.
2) my misrepresenting your initial intent - As I said, I only had those discussions with Rand to go on while forming my understanding of Myst when I started at Cyan. I have freely admitted that I was not aware that your views were different from what I learned from him at that time (late 1992, early 1993). I did not know until now that I had been misrepresenting your intent.
3) Rand's "solidified" mind - When I said things were "solidified" in Rand's mind, I was talking about the key foundations of the backstory when I first asked about them, which I clarified in the next paragraph "...while the exact details may have been 'discovered' [fleshed out] bit by bit over years of time, the foundations...(quantum linking theory, basic D'ni history, etc.) were all there when I started at Cyan in 1992". I was not trying to imply that all the details already there or that Rand wasn't open minded in the creative process while all those specific details were being fleshed out over the next several years (the novels, Riven, etc). I'm sorry if it came across that way.
My point was that I've been part of the development process with Rand many, many times over the last nineteen years: Riven, the novels, DIRT, Uru (and all it's permutations), Myst V, Myst Online (the land of perpetual development), Bug Chucker, and half a dozen others that never made it out of development into production. So I know very well Rand's creative process and the "what ifs..." and the "I don't know, maybes...", the give and take, the back and forth, the two steps forward three steps back (yes, there are days when it feels like you're losing progress), etc. and my conversations with him during the second half of Myst's production were not at all like that. That's specifically what makes them stand out, as I look back at them now.
4) over-thinking and insensitivity - I'm very sorry that you feel that I was over-thinking the logic behind Myst and changing things without sensitivity to your original intent. I don't deny that I was over-thinking it - like I said, I hammered Rand with every question I could think of for about a year of Myst production.
But my first answers to fans via snail-mail, that first FAQ, etc. were all based on those talks with Rand, so as far as I knew at the time, I was following your original intent. Further, when a brand new question came in from the fans, I almost always ran any new answers by Rand to be sure I was on the same page with him. I did not just release "new" information unilaterally on a whim. That continues to this day, in fact, if I have doubts of Rand's position on an issue. I even emailed my first response in _this_ thread to Rand before I posted it so that he had a chance to read it first, since I wanted to be sure I wasn't misrepresenting the content of the discussions we had during Myst production. ...I mean, it was nineteen years ago. There was the possibility at this point that I just dreamed all those discussions. :)
To sum up: I'm sorry for my part in bumming you out about all this. If I could go back and change it so that everybody wins, I would. I'm not exactly sure how, but I'd try somehow. Further evidence I never get access to a time machine.
:)
RAWA
_________________ CYAN - Richard A. Watson, RAWA v2.0
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