New age can be modern?

[Grogyan]

I just had a thought about an Age that links you to a complex containing, among other things, another book.

The complex could be a research base, for many things, sort of like the SGC in Stargate SG1.

Your goal is to free all the locks surrounding the book within a certain time period, after which time your avatar panic links, simulating being caught being a restricted area, and all locks being sealed again.

What do you think of that idea?

I see no restrictions that an Age has to be old and abandoned, and we are the new writers of ages, which can enevitably mean linking to an Age very similar to our own with similar tech or more futuristic.

[Nadnerb]

Well, you can indeed have whatever you want in the ages, but you have to have some kind of explanation for why it is there. I suppose either you link to an age that is/was inhabited by a civilization advanced enough to build it, or you, the writer, somehow procured surface help in building stuff there. Both perfectly feasible if done well.

[bluewyvern]

Indeed -- an Age absolutely can be modern.

The reason we tend to view Ages as wild outposts containing a few decrepit, run-down buildings is because the majority of Ages we've seen were uninhabited Ages Written by Atrus a hundred years ago, where he built everything you see with his own two hands. Pretty impressive for all that, but much more is possible, whether pulled off by the Age's advanced inhabitants, or merely the resources of a modern Earth that the Writers have at their disposal (anyone know an unflappable contractor that won't ask too many questions? )

Of course, we have to consider the reception such an Age might receive -- however possible or probable, we have to try to make it somehow "feel like" Myst, or else the public might have trouble accepting it as part of the universe we play in...

[Nek'rahm]

You mean like an Age you're "breaking into" and must pass through before you're caught?

Yea... I like the idea... but you can't die in Uru... so what'd they do to you?

Think of something more like... animals in the Pod Age being released to chase you if you don't get to the book.