You're probably all wondering what went
down during Mysterium. How many people dressed up like Catherine,
Gehn or a Whark? Are the fans normal? Did Rand dress up like Atrus?
How much time did each person get to spend playing the Mudpie
demo? Did Gordon Currie bore everyone with stories about drag
racing? As you can see there are so many questions on everyone's
mind, well I hope to answer them all.
When I arrived at Mysterium (8:30am), there
were only a hand-full of fans. A few people taking pictures of
the building and playing hopscotch in the parking lot. Inside
the building Doug McBride was giving last
minute instructions to Cyan volunteers.
Once everything was in place and Doug finished
giving his stern yet compelling instructions, the fans began to
stream in. I was surprised at how many families there were. Ryan
and I were responsible for getting fans into Guilds. This
was a little chaotic and both of us had to use several of the
skills we acquired while working at Red Robin. I think I heard
Ryan ask someone if they would like more fries. We'll save that
for another day. After Guilds were assigned, a Cyan employee escorted
fans to the first exhibit. Once everyone was in a Guild, I was
able to take exclusive pictures and visit with many fans.
All the exhibits at Mysterium were named
after ages. The first age I visited was Channelwood.
As a last minute change, so Doug McBride could act as chief security
officer, Rand was in charge of Channelwood. No, sadly Rand did
not dress up as Atrus. Something about it would limit his outstanding
ability to play the course (funny... Tiger won the Open dressed
as Atrus). Channelwood was a definite fan favorite and we are
still trying to figure out if it was the free golf discs or the
time spent with Rand. Fans were given a chance to test their skills
with their new discs on two of the EDGE course holes.
Inception age was the place to find RAWA (Richard Watson)
and Mark DeForest. As you can tell from the pictures, most of
the fans were very impressed with what they saw. Inception gave
the fans a look at the realMYST trailer along with a glimpse into
the creation process for Myst and Riven. These are the only photos
you will see of this area, as it was off limits to fan photography.
After my visit to Inception I was off to
Mechanical. If fans had any money
to spend this was the place to do it. Eloise gave fans a chance
to update their Myst/Riven merchandise. They also got the chance
to take a quick ride in the elevator. Sadly, by D'ni request,
we had to restrict access to the D'ni levels. Next stop, downstairs.
At the bottom of the steps there was a huge
bottleneck to the left so I went right. There I found Steve
Ogden and Gary Butcher (Smeggy) giving fans an inside look
at the technology being developed at Cyan. The kids seemed really
into the Stoneship exhibit, hmm-future employees? Knowing I had
to visit three more exhibits I took a secret passage to avoid
the bottleneck.
I arrived at the Myst III: Exile exhibit,
J'nanin Age, where Steve Hoogendyk gave
fans a hands-on look at Exile. There were three stations, each
with a different view of the game. After snapping a few exclusive
shots I made my way to the Myst Age.
The Myst Age was home to the realMYST demo. This exhibit also had three different stations, each with a different area of the game available for exploration. Bill Slease made sure everyone got a chance to play. Wait, is that Catherine? This area of the building gave everyone a peek at highly confidential stuff.
I tried to make my way into the Selenitic
exhibit but it was too full, I'm told Tim Larkin did a great job.
In the Mysterium program, Selenitic was described as an exhibit
where "Larkin discusses the process involved in creating
sounds and music for Riven, realMYST and Mudpie."
Out of the corner of my eye I saw that the food for lunch was being delivered. I was so thankful to be a Cyan employee at this point, that I took a bite out of most the food before the fans got to it. And what I wasn't able to taste I was sure to touch.
So to answer the questions above: