Richard A. Watson
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Richard A. Watson (RAWA) has worked at Cyan Worlds (creators of the Myst series of computer games) since the early 1990s. He was originally one of the programmers for the game, but later expanded more into the storyline elements. It is rumored he worked for free during the early days of Cyan, deciding that experience was better had if he did not have to worry about a paycheck.
Now he does almost no programming, instead carrying the official title of "D'ni Historian", which indicates his deep involvement with the story development (or "research") on the fictional race of the D'ni.
[edit] RAWA
RAWA is the acronym of Richard Watson, who on his web site (on the Cyan server) gave away different tips (such as Easter eggs) to players of Myst and Riven and gave semi-official explanations to events within that fictional universe.
[edit] Fictional alter-ego
The storyline of the Myst universe and especially the game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst had the odd twist that certain actual people and companies such as Rand Miller, Cyan and Ubisoft (the game's publisher) were featured in the game and/or surrounding storyline.
Within the story, these events describe the actual experiences of the abovementioned people during their tour in D'ni. Inspired from what they saw, they decided to make the games, starting with Myst, in order to make the history they learned widely known to the public. Formally, this makes the "Myst" and other games referred to within the series fictional games (but identical to the actual ones).
In that 'alternative' reality, RAWA takes on the special role of "Dr. Watson", who is the head of the D'ni Restoration Council (DRC). Although Dr. Watson shares his surname and appearance with RAWA, he isn't an actual person.
Richard A. Watson is not a doctor, but, being the actual developer of D'ni history and creator of the language, often assumes the role of a "D'ni historian" in several occasions when sharing his 'expertise' with others.
When speaking about 'research' and 'discoveries', he actually refers to his ideas and inventions regarding this fictional civilization which may be incorrect since he fictional character lived long after the extinction of the real D'nis.
Further, since RAWA had previously been given a semi-official role, it is difficult to know whether his statements about the Myst/Uru universe should be ascribed to the fictional character or the real Richard Watson or seen as canonical statements coming from the authors of the series.
In Myst Online: Uru Live, it was revealed that the character of Dr. Watson, who was missing during the early events of Uru, was actually the player character in Myst V: End of Ages.
