GAMING & GRAPHICS Looking for Some A r t Amidst the Technology Just why is/Hyst so popular! This seems to be a question that has stymied the computer gaming industry for the last couple of years. Cyan's adventure game hlyst, with its finely rendered 3D appearance and "slideshow" style gameplay has continued to sell well to this day, while games which on the surface appear to be of quite similar content and quality have sold dismally, not even making blips on best seller charts. The dominant industry opinion at this point seems to have chalked the whole hlyst phenomena up to timing and dumb luck. I'm certainly not one to be overly concerned with sales of products as an indicator of their actual quality. I can name lots of gorgeous, brilliantly conceived games that have tanked horribly in the sales department. But at the same time, I think that when industry professionals sneer at hlyst and call it a bad game that "got lucky:' it's just a case of sour grapes. Granted, good timing and marketing were certainly involved in the game's financial success, at least initially. But it seems that for Myst to have been that popular
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