Talk:Riven

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[edit] Could these images be used?

Robyn Miller once released early design sketches for Riven on his blog, under a CC license (by-nc-nd 2.5). They are no longer to be found on his server, however I have one of them on my hard drive. I think it could add a lot of value to the "Development"-section. I'm not sure what's ok and not with such CC-licenced images. Should I upload them? 81.236.199.5 (talk) 08:52, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, here's the link to the blog post: Early Riven.
The (NC) stands for noncommercial, which means we can't use them freely on Wikipedia, unfortunately. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs (talk) 10:24, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Screenshots!

This article would greatly benefit from a few screenshots. Currently, it's just a lot of text which gives a somewhat uninspiring impression. After all, the game is probably mostly known for its impressive graphics. 84.217.139.151 21:48, 30 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Story

I've edited the story section to better reflect the nature of the book that is given to the stranger. It is in fact a small prison that can actually be linked to and does not leave the character in limbo.

[edit] Continunity

I have posted this message on all myst articles: I think it would be nice to have continuity over all the Myst Articles. This could be done with a section on the story, ages / islands and graphical advancements for all. What does everyone else think? Also, how could this be coordinated?

[edit] To be added after page is unprotected.

Please use this section for any notes on changes the article needs, so they can be done after the protection is removed.

  • "Riven in the rest of the Myst franchise": need to add that the Moiety dagger is also seen in the Cyan Worlds splash movie. (Look close just before the large cone fills the screen, and down at the bottom left you'll see the dagger)
    • It is unprotected now.Ti Exi Yexyes 00:57, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Alternate Name

Is an alternate name for this game used by fans of the series "Myst II"?


- Not really, it's almost always referred to as 'Riven'.

217.211.215.43 21:08, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Island names

I changed a few island names to better known ones (Crater Island -> Book Assembly Island and Plateau Island -> Survey Island). Maybe the "Ages" section should be renamed to "Islands"? --Akhel 17:09, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think so since this part is firstly dedicated to Ages description, not Island description, unless they make a bigpart of this article. But you may right-shift description of islands, to show they are part of Riven Age. Take a look at french article to see what I mean. AElfwine 21:26, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The "hardest" Myst game

I wonder where this often repeated statement originates from. Whoever said it had/has never tried "Uru" or "End of Ages". I did't find "Riven" particularly hard in 1997, and today I'd say it's easier than the original "Myst". Once solved, you never really forget how. The references to the number Five in the game may interest hardcore fans, but I'd rather read more about Richard Vander Wende and his background. IMO he played a great role in designing Riven and never got the proper attention. The game was called "Riven - The Sequel to Myst" in 1997. So it has as many references to "Myst" in its title as "Uru - Ages beyond Myst", which hasn't got a number and is apparently not really considered by the Millers to be part of the "Myst" series. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 217.189.140.27 (talk) 17:44, 11 April 2007 (UTC).

The thing that makes Riven, in my opinion, the toughest one, is that the story is not given to you. You kind of have to figure out your objectives for yourself. Uru isn't really part of the Myst continuity, and End of Ages is only easy to understand, it's just hard as anything to work the tablet correctly.Elmorell 20:14, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

You need to explore the four island (Specialy Plateau island) before to understand HOW TO. Because, at the beginnig of the game, your goals are "Rescue Catherine" then "Call Atrus". Nothing more !

[edit] Article title

Isn't "The Sequel to Myst" more of a tagline than part of the title? So the article title should only be "Riven". Anyone agree? --Mika1h 20:35, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. QuagmireDog 20:55, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
Agree too. 84.217.135.172 17:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Disagree. While 'The Sequel to Myst" sounds like a tag line, it is the official release title of the game. Moby Games entry and IMDB, which require official titles as established by the publisher, state the full name of the title. While not a crime to refer to the game as Riven, Wikipedia requires official titles of creative works for main articles. Seg 21:34, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
Does the entry at Cyan Worlds have any weight? Rehevkor 23:20, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reception

Please... add someting more than this jerking review of CGW. Just a 2 minute of play, of course you can say this... but play it completly next time ! 205.205.239.179 06:56, 31 May 2007

  • I agree. It's late and I'm not going to go hunting for more reviews, though, so I've removed that section entirely. ComputerSherpa 08:07, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
  • I think you misunderstood the quotes or, I typed it incorrectly. They said that after playing the game for a couple of minutes, (just like the last game) the storytelling stops and you are forced to do tedious, meaningless puzzles. I added the reception section back in again with a positive review included since Riven originally received mixed reviews. DancingBlind (talk) 14:43, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DVD vs. CD

There was a DVD edition and a CD edition of this game. What's the difference? —Preceding unsigned comment added by SuperGerbil (talk • contribs) 17:21, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

CD version was on 5 discs, DVD version was on 1. No difference in the game itself afaik. Rehevkor 17:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
CD Version ran on Quicktime 2, First DVD ran on Quicktime 3, and the newest version runs on Quicktime 6. Now, this is a discussion page for the article, not for discussing the subject of the article! Hope it helps though. SpigotMap 18:41, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removing alternate endings section

I felt that the section that details out every single aspect of every single alternate ending was quite a bit too detailed, and didn't bring anything useful to the article... I have now removed it completely, if for some reason you object, do bring it back but please leave a comment about it here too. 81.225.128.124 14:45, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fate of the Riven age? [Spoiler Warning?]

the line "[...], but the black Gateway Image suggests Riven has been completely destroyed by that time", confuses me slightly, as (if my memory serves me correct), in the ending sequence of Riven, when "The Stranger", opens a "hatch" to the star-filled void, the entire age is torn apart in a process very alike to the vacuum of space sucking out everything (through this "hatch"), and thus completly destroying the age...

correct me if i'm wrong


81.235.171.21 14:20, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] , or :

I hate to bring up another page move debate, but shouldn't it be "Riven: The Sequel to Myst" rather than the current arrangement? The comma is not part of the title and a colon is usually used to separate subtitles.. Rehevkor (talk) 16:57, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Alas, you're right. The article title should just be Riven in my humble opinion, although I realize this isn't an opinion that is universally held. ... - DavidWBrooks (talk) 22:26, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
The official title as originally published is "Riven: The Sequel to Myst". If you need a source, check out Riven: The Sequel to Myst at MobyGames which requires the official shipping title for it's entries. Seg (talk) 08:26, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
The problem is that there is a redirect page at Riven: The Sequel to Myst. It would require administrator intervention to delete the redirect page to allow the move. Eleven Special (talk) 13:17, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Can still be done manually by copy and pasting. Rehevkor (talk) 13:24, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
That's not the recommended way to move a page. It doesn't move page history and talk page history and violates GFDL. Eleven Special (talk) 17:16, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was move back to Riven. JPG-GR (talk) 23:01, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

I placed a move request at Wikipedia:Requested moves so we can decide this issue once and for all. The two possible names for this article are Riven or Riven: The Sequel to Myst.

I personally prefer Riven as it's listed like that in the official site. Also "The Sequel to Myst" sounds like a tagline (not used in article titles) more than a subtitle (used in article titles). --Mika1h (talk) 00:05, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Mika1h here, "Riven" is a more appropriate title. Rehevkor (talk) 00:13, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
  • Support move to Riven. Adding the subtitle to the article name has nothing going for it, it's pure advertising (not that this classic game needs it). Andrewa (talk) 21:08, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
  • Support Riven. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (books)#Subtitles says to ignore subtitles; logic suggests the same rule should apply here. Mcmullen writes (talk) 23:20, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
I consider this to be similar to The X-Files (film), the tag line may have been used as a sub title in advertisements/publicity/etc to distinguish it from the series (or in this case, to distinguish Riven as the sequel to Myst), but it's just that, a tag line. Rehevkor (talk) 00:57, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
Mcmullen, notice the BOOKS part. Movies and video game articles DO use substitles (since book subtitles are often little more than a brief summary of the book and not meant to be part of the title).
  • Support move to "Riven: The Sequel to Myst". TJ Spyke 02:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
    • Still support, but just "Riven". It appears that "The Sequel to Myst" was not meant to be part of the title, rather it was just meant ot let people known that that was the sequel to Myst (although why they couldn't just name it something like "Myst 2" is beyond me). TJ Spyke 04:57, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
  • Support move to "Riven" only taglines are unimportant - DavidWBrooks (talk) 12:52, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
  • Support, so long as it's made clear in the lead paragraph that The Sequal to Myst was a widely used tagline, or alternative title. TalkIslander 14:30, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion

Incidentally, assuming we move it back we're just correcting this ill-advised move. Andrewa (talk) 21:10, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

From the survey above: but it's just that, a tag line. It's a significant tag line, in that it gives a title with five words, which ties in with the game. But the game is commonly called Riven (and note the five letters). Andrewa (talk) 01:03, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Is it a tagline or subtitle? This matters since subtitles for video games are part of the article name, while taglines are not (it doesn't help that some game publishers do put taglines on the box). TJ Spyke 02:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The best reference is the official site.. which says "Riven" (See above). Rehevkor (talk) 03:02, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

I know the discussion is over so, I'm not going to modify the text above. But, in my opinion, the title should be what is shown onscreen when you play the game. Different countries have different box art and may not have that subtitle on it. The actual game content should be the same from english speaking country to english speaking country. 156.34.216.75 (talk) 01:11, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] punctuation and quotation marks

We have signs of a minor edit disagreement over whether commas and periods should go inside or outside of quotation marks that exist around a word that isn't a quotation, such as a title - e.g., should it be:

... Riven has an optional method of movement known as "Zip Mode," which ...

or

... Riven has an optional method of movement known as "Zip Mode", which ...

Before anybody gets all fired up about this, please note that there is no agreed-upon style. Nothing is right or wrong; it's a matter of taste and habit.

The Associated Press and many American grammarians (see Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style") prefer commas and periods inside quote marks, while many British/Commonwealth grammarians prefer them outside - as do programmers, fearing confusion over whether to write a punctuation mark as part of a line of code. (This site [1] discusses the British style) Neither is correct or incorrect.

Because "Riven" is an American game, my personal opinion is that it should follow American habits, just as we do with spelling, which would mean commas and periods inside quote marks. But I don't think it matters much. (Semicolons and colons go outside quote marks in either system.) - DavidWBrooks (talk) 22:27, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Just to note, that the Manual of Style does have provisions about punctuation in quotes, namely that the period should go outside the quotes if its not the complete statement. Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs (talk) 22:34, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
Well, there you go - I didn't realize that was in WP style. (Kind of snootily worded though - implying that Strunk and White are illogical, forsooth!) - DavidWBrooks (talk) 22:38, 1 June 2008 (UTC)
The manual says that we can use either the logical (punctuation outside quotes unless it's part of the quote) or aesthetic style (punctuation always on the inside), but the logical style is preferred, and the entire article should use the same style throughout. Personally, I think that the logical style helps keep quotations in the context they were originally written in, so that's why I changed a couple of those punctuation marks back to the outside of some of the quotes.
On a separate but related note, for those terms that are currently inside quotes, such as "Zip Mode", would it be better to write them as Zip Mode so that there is less confusion about whether the term was made up by the media or the game developers? I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I feel that the quotes around the term make it seem less authoritative, like we made up the term to describe something that was unnamed. What do you think? — OranL (talk) 17:55, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
Why not simply write Zip Mode with no particular formatting? Aren't the capital letters and the sentence itself enough to indicate that it is a term used in the game? Kariteh (talk) 18:05, 3 June 2008 (UTC)