Fuelled almost entirely by the word-of-mouth of drawn-in gamers, Myst slowly began climbing to the top of sales charts. By the end of 1994, it was the most popular game in the world and would hold the number one spot for years. As late as the week ending January 11, 1998, PC Data (now NPD Market Tracking) reported that Myst had sold more than any other game, including Quake II and Tomb Raider II..

As Myst's popularity expanded, an even more surprising phenomenon developed: gamers around the globe began pouring their hearts out to Miller and Cyan Worlds via email and letters. A grand mom in Montana complained that Myst was causing her to neglect her household chores. A husband and wife claimed that Myst saved their marriage by giving them a common interest and a renewed connection.

In Miller's mind, the most touching tale involved an autistic child whose parents thanked Cyan for allowing their son to express himself and feel a rare sense of freedom when exploring Myst 's world. For Miller, this was the ultimate tribute to the power of building an interactive place. "What we began to realise," he fondly recalls,"Is that we had built this incredibly powerful tool that was empowering human beings everywhere." For he, Robyn and the rest of Cyan, the entire experience remains extremely humbling.

Ten years later, Myst has registered an astonishing 12 million unit sales total across all platforms and sequels. But perhaps more important than the sales figures is the paradigm-changing effect the game had on the entire gaming industry: these massive sales numbers revealed a world of gamers much bigger and more vibrant than anyone had previously imagined.

The Myst phenomenon kick-started a whole new segment of PC gaming. The phrase "Myst -like graphics" became prevalent as software companies quickly dove into PC game development, fuelling a frenzied five-year boom of revenue and development.

URU extends the legacy

Miller, a visionary then and now, is busy these days crafting URU: Ages Beyond Myst , a sequel he calls "truer to our Myst roots than anything we've done to date."

"Myst was the introduction of a small piece of the D'ni civilisation. URU takes it all to the ultimate extreme." Miller explains. "In URU, we point out that D'ni culture was part of the Earth and lived underground, and died hundreds of years ago, so they are still there. Several explorations have uncovered a long dead underground city and people are starting to go there to explore, and uncover even more."

Gorgeously drawn and unbelievably huge, URU adds to and enhances Myst 's core values of visually stunning environments, mind-bending puzzles and non-violent play with the presence of beautiful 3D worlds that can be explored in real-time, third- and first-person perspectives that will allow gamers to become even more immersed in the adventure.

"URU goes back to the level of innovation we tried with Myst . We want to build a game that defines where interactive entertainment goes."

Pointing out that the rich D'ni history Cyan's writers are constantly developing on web sites like www.drcsite.org (The "Official Website for the Restoration of D'ni"), Rand Miller, visionary then and now, believes that the core legacy of Myst being passed on in URU is one of culture, stories, worlds and making a difference.

"The core basis of what drives people is what matters," Miller explains. "We want to stand out to somebody, someplace, sometime and part of the way we matter is through stories."

In Miller's mind, the one thing better than listening to a great story is having your own great story to tell. "In URU, just like in Myst , we're building an adventure that is so compelling and interesting that it's going to give people great stories to tell." As long as Miller and Cyan Worlds keep giving people great stories to tell, Myst's legacy will live on forever.

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