I was first introduced to Myst way back in high school.  At the time, Riven was about to come out and my parents had just gotten a computer on which I could play the games.  I was already into games like the LucasArts series so adventure games were definitely up my alley.  I was sold on the total immersive environments, story, and how I was allowed to sit back and think about the puzzles before I tried to solve them. 

Though I also enjoy action games, the Myst series defined a new genre of interactive story-driven puzzles.  Riven gave me fits as I attempted to decipher an alien numerical system and fit the pieces together to figure out exactly what was happening.  I eagerly awaited the next installment of the saga to see what happened to Atrus and his family as well as get lost in new worlds. 

Then came Uru Live a few years later.  The online gaming community had previously been very unattractive to me, given the immaturity and hostility of many of its clients (on other games).  Uru was different.  The cross-section of intelligence amazed me and the people were very friendly and eager to help with the puzzles or just simply chat.  It was my first experience with any sort of online community so I was very shy and didn't make many friends the first go around.  The first Uru Live shut down but I kept tabs on what was going on and signed up for Until Uru.  I popped in occasionally to see what was happening but never really got involved as much as I would have liked.  When MOUL came back, I jumped at the chance and got to know many more people.  I helped out others when I could, I hung around a lot of neighborhoods, and made some friends.  This, of course, made the second shutdown that much more difficult for me.  I stayed until the very end.  I was impressed by how many names appeared on my buddy list and humbled by how many people had me on theirs as we said our goodbyes. 

Though we have seen Uru come and go in two incarnations, we have not seen the end of the community or even the whole story.  I am touched by the cohesiveness of the community here that shows that the ending will never be written. 

 -LostOwl