Well, Myst was so phenomenally successful that there's little mystery about why so many other GAGs imitated its formula. I didn't get a chance to play it until well after the CD-ROM and digitized graphics had lost their novelty, but I bet it really was startling then.

Now that I've played what feels like hundreds of GAGs, though, I have to say that the MYST series--even with its flaws--is one of the best overall GAG series. Indeed, I wish they would consider remaking the games and fixing some of the worst flaws, such as that stupid fish with a small button on his head in Riven, or that incredibly counter-intuitive mouse-motion over the snake in Myst IV.

The beauty of these games really is more in exploring the world and just indulging in the overall aesthetics. The music is always wonderful and the experience quite surreal; I often compare it to a Zen rock garden. Obviously, folks more familiar with the vivid, lively gameplay of games like Monkey Island or even Zork aren't going to cotton to Myst right away. There's not much humor, and the puzzles tend to be quite difficult logic puzzles.

Anyway, from what I've read in reviews, many people enjoy Activision's Zork gags. A few weeks ago I went back and played Zork: Grand Inquisitor again. Keep meaning to write a review of it! It is a very fun game, even if it's perhaps much less epic in scope than the Zork trilogy. I did have to use hints a few times, but not nearly as much as I would have playing the text adventures.

I just wish GAG developers would take the lead set in the new Sam & Max games and quit being so stingy with hints! I just agonized through a game called Beyond Atlantis, which was so stingy that I had to consult the hintsite at least a dozen times. In my opinion, you really can't have enough hints, and they should come from different sources (i.e., NPCs you can talk to, texts or clues you can find, suggestions from your character, etc.) In particular, the game ought to be able to recognize when you're stuck and have some means of setting you straight (such as a notebook with a list of current objectives).

The biggest mistake adventure game developers make is trying to make their game "difficult" by leaving out hints. All this does is make the player frustrated and want to quit.