|
The ''Myst'' series of adventure computer games deal with the events following the player's discovery of a mysterious book describing an island known as Myst. The book is no ordinary volume; it is a linking book, which serves as a portal to the world it describes. The player is transported to Myst Island, and must unravel the world's puzzles in order to return home. ''Myst'' was a commercial and critical success upon release, and spawned four sequels—''Riven'', ''Exile'', ''Revelation'' and ''End of Ages''— as well as several spinoffs and adaptations. While the player, referred to as a Stranger, remains faceless and unnamed, ''Myst'' and its sequels introduce a variety of non-player characters. The inhabitants of Myst include the explorer Atrus, a writer of many linking books, and his wife Catherine and their children. Other characters introduced in the series include Gehn, Atrus' power-hungry father; Saavedro, a traumatized victim of Atrus' sons; and Esher, a member of an old civilization whose motives for helping the player are ambiguous. The first ''Myst'' titles used pre-rendered graphics, and digitally inserted footage of live actors into the backgrounds. For ''Myst V: End of Ages'', a different approach was taken; a special camera recorded actor's faces and mapped the video onto digital models. The characters of ''Myst'' have been generally praised in each installment. Reviewers found that the live action characters increased immersion, while the digital body language and spoken conviction in ''End of Ages'' endeared the characters to the player. Dissenting reviewers considered ''Myst''s acting overly melodramatic and overwrought. ==Development== When the first game in the franchise, ''Myst'', was created, all the characters were created from footage of live actors. The actors were filmed on a bluescreen, then added to the pre-rendered backgrounds via chroma key. Due to a limited amount of time and money, ''Myst''s creators, Rand and Robyn Miller, took on roles in the game themselves; The Ages of Myst were occasionally seen as lonely by players and reviewers. As a result, Cyan added more characters to the sequel, ''Riven''.〔 〕 Villagers scurry away as the player approaches, and major characters such as Gehn and a rebel band known as the Moiety address the player and give or take items away from him or her.〔 For the first time, Cyan directed the live action actors for ''Riven''s scenes; the designers, including Richard Vander Wende, were apprehensive about how the characters would fit in the finished product. Rand Miller reprised his role of Atrus due to fan expectation, even though he hated acting. Later ''Myst'' titles improved on the integration of live action sequences in the prerendered environments of the games. ''Myst III: Exile''s developers filmed all the scenes using standard definition cameras, which producer Dan Irish would look back on as a mistake; without using high definition video cameras, the video did not look crisp at high resolutions. For the next game, ''Myst IV: Revelation'', Ubisoft allowed players to move the game camera and interact with the video while it is playing through the use of the ALIVE game engine. ''Myst V: End of Ages'' was developed so that players could freely navigate Ages rendered in realtime, which meant that the traditional digital insertion of characters into the setting would be infeasible. The models of ''End of Ages''s characters were instead computer-generated. A special device was created that captured video of the actor's faces while they spoke their lines, as Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using a live actor. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters. Motion capture was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff were worried that the audio syncing for animation would not be finished in time for the E3 unveiling of the game, but were happy with the end results. The player character in ''Myst'', ''Riven'', ''Exile'' and ''Revelation'' is the "stranger"; the character's real name is never given and remains faceless at all times. Atrus addresses the player character as "my friend" in cutscenes. Cyan's intent was for players to feel as though they were themselves there, stranded on a mysterious island with no choice but to explore. Thus, the games' protagonist is an anonymous, gender-neutral entity with no given history, and players are free to imagine themselves as the protagonist. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Characters of Myst」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|