The ancient Myst MMO is getting an brand-new age this weekend

pcgamer.com:

Released in 1993, Myst(opens in new tab) is one of the most successful and influential videogames of all time. Naturally, it became a series, and a decade after the original, developer Cyan Worlds went all-in on its ambitions with Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, which was meant to feature a small-scale MMO component called Uru Live. Alas, it bombed, the whole Uru Live segment was cancelled, and that was that until GameTap released it in 2007 as Myst Online: Uru Live a few years later. That bombed too.

Eventually, the rights to the whole thing went back to Cyan, who put it out (again) for free. I've knocked around in it a few times and it's cool, but it also feels incomplete and small—a tiny memorial to what might have been. It's a forgotten corner of the game world, a place where a half-dozen or so people can wistfully wander and poke around and, on very lucky days, find someone else to talk to. I get the itch to hop into it every few years, and every time I'm happy to discover it's still there, but also kind of blue to see it left in such a state. So I was very pleasantly surprised—stoked, even—to see Cyan tweet yesterday that a new Age is coming to Myst Online.

A new fan-made Age is coming to Myst Online!Please join us in the Chisno Preniv Library on Saturday October 1 at 12:30KI (6:30pm GMT) for the unveiling...«Fahets: Highgarden is a small garden area in the Age of Fahets and is the first Age that I wrote.» — Keith «Tweek» Lord. pic.twitter.com/u5B2GBIcY2September 28, 2022

The addition of new content to Myst Online is a bit like Everquest 2's recently-announced 19th expansion(opens in new tab): Unexpected, and kind of weird, because who knew these games were still running in the first place? And, it's fair to ask, why?