Have just completed End of Ages and returned to the forums. I've read summations and conclusions from several members; sirandar, chinaboatman, mattsound and nori90, to mention but a few.

sirandar, I thought your summing up of EofA was very fair and I do agree with you on many points. I felt the beginning was superb and I really became hooked in the conflict between Esher, Yeesha and the Bahro. Like you, I thought the final age of Laki'ahn was rushed and almost pointless except to convince that Esher was a "bad lot" and didn't deserve the Tablet. Up till then I'd quite liked him! I agree that Revelation was terrific - I ended that game totally exhausted both physically and emotionally (see my posting "GAME OVER!" in that spoiler forum)

mattsound; yes, the digital characters do not replace real people - to me Rand Miller will always be "Atrus." I agree that Riven was a great game too - though why did Gehn, the baddie, have to be English, when all the rest were American? Can you guess my nationality from this?

nori90; like you, I have only ever played MYST, from the time my son gave me the original game just over ten years ago. I don't expect I shall play any other, at 68 I don't know if I'm ready for another ten year commitment!

chinaboatman; sorry you got off to such a bad start, I do hope that you will find something in the game to enjoy - just give yourself over to the emotion and try not to be too critical a "gamer."

All of you folk, in one way or another were disparaging of End of Ages, and with good reason, I'm sure. However, I'm not a real "gamer," in that I'm not hooked on puzzles and technicalities, I'm a poet and tend to drift off in a world of my own, which is why I've loved MYST so much, it has afforded the opportunity to wander and be imaginative. I've also really engaged with the characters, empathetically & emotionally over the years, with Atrus in particular, but also with Catherine and Yeesha; I've followed her from a tiny baby in Exile, then as a ten year old in Revelation, through URU, even though only a voice and hologram, and up to her embittered but finally released and happy character in EofA. This being so, the fact that they were digitised characters in the final game didn't mean quite so much to me - Yeesha and Atrus were still the people I'd grown to know and care about over the years. Though there were undoubted flaws in this, the final game, to me the overiding and important issue was ensuring that D'ni continued and that Yeesha and Atrus were united. Ok, I'll admit it, I shed a few tears at their re-union on Releeshahn, and I was so glad to see this, their new D'ni, after Atrus had promised to show it to me in MYST Exile, before Saavedro linked and snatched away the linking book.

So, all in all, a happy conclusion. All that's left for me to do now is edit my own extensive journal which I kept thoughout, add a Prologue and Epilogue, insert a few extra screen shots (thank you nanoukmetal), print and have the booklet bound. Together with the book I wrote after my original adventures on and from MYST Island, they will remind me of the many happy hours I spent in the ages of MYST.

With thanks to Cyan,

Signing off

Jerome Beresford

I also just finished Myst V... for the third time. It was the first time I realized that all of K'Veer could be played before any of the Ages, i.e. all of Yeesha's journals could be collected at the beginning of the game... I always sort of "fell" into Tah'gira at the beginning.

I liked the game more AFTER knowing the puzzle solutions; helped the flow and lowered my stress level.

I thought David Ogden Stiers' voice work as Esher was excellent, except for his over the top performance on Myst.

My favorite mode of play is "Classic Plus." Almost realtime and not requiring so much coordination as realtime 3D.

Now if Uru could just be ported to the Mac... could "Beenox" do that?