Rand Miller
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| Rand Miller | |
| Born | January 17, 1959 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Co-founder and CEO of Cyan Worlds |
Rand Miller (born January 17, 1959, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.) co-founded Cyan (now Cyan Worlds) with brother Robyn Miller and became famous from the unexpected success of their computer game Myst, which remained the number one-selling game for the remainder of the 1990s. Rand also worked on the game's sequel, Riven, and later Myst III: Exile, Myst IV: Revelation, Myst V: End of Ages, realMyst, and Uru. The brothers also acted out parts in the game, with Robyn as Sirrus and Rand as Achenar and Atrus.
Still CEO, he is now less involved with working out storyline, gameplay and programming, instead focusing on managing the project his company works on. As a sideline, you will find him acting Atrus in the Myst sequels, some of which were created by other companies, including Myst III: Exile (by Presto Studios) and Myst IV: Revelation (by Ubisoft Montreal). However, he claims that he dislikes this job and feels he is the wrong person to do it, but does so because changing the actor for such a major role in the game would have caused uproar in the Myst community.
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[edit] Views
Miller, being a son of a minister, maintains the religious views that are traits of his family, which is part of the reason there is no major violence, sexual or otherwise potentially offensive content in Cyan's games—the experience should be as rich as possible, while keeping distracting matters out.
Miller is also a known Apple Macintosh fan [1].
[edit] The Uru project
During the almost 7-year-long Uru project, Miller faced the Internet as a new way to stay in contact with Myst's large fan base, but also as a risky business: in interviews before the Uru launch, he kept stressing the importance of the then-growing broadband internet access market, following the general optimism and expecting Uru Live to be the one integral part of the game. Maybe out of necessity, he remained positive about using Live as a "never-ending" place, with frequently-added and changed content and a community in the hundreds of thousands to "live" in it.
Miller appeared shocked by Uru Live's ultimate failure, as reflected in his letter to the Uru Live community[2], which he wrote to explain why the game had to be shut down for an indefinite amount of time. In a previous interview, Miller had stated that finance from outside investment, not technology, was the reason for the failed project, "I think the biggest failure was running out of money, and thus running out of time, and thus losing control of our own destiny. No matter what promises are made or common goals are agreed upon, whoever pays the bills has the final say." Despite the earlier setback, Cyan Worlds announced in Los Angeles at E3 2006 that they would be partnering with GameTap to bring Uru Live to life again. On February 15, 2007, Myst Online: Uru Live was released. Miller himself has made some appearances in the "Bevins" - the common neighborhoods where players congregate - on at least two occasions.
[edit] Interview with Space Ghost
GameTap also brought him into an interview with cartoon star Space Ghost in the popular animated talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast. In this interview, Space Ghost talked to him about his "Myst Island Travel Package", having many complaints, amongst them being lack of bathrooms or bedrooms "You know, I noticed that...just before my bladder imploded!", lack of nightlife activity "The only action after sundown was the Chiggers burrowing into my ears. *whistles* Those feels.", and the apparent illness of the ponies. "Mine never did stop going." Miller denied the existence of ponies on Myst island, only to have the monitor being blasted by Space Ghost's Power Band ("feeling the 'Wrath of the Ghost'") and he delivered the comment, "Your...phantom ponies...BITE!"
[edit] External links
[edit] Interviews
- WorldVillage.com Gamezone interview about Myst
- Adventure Classic Gaming interview about Myst and Uru development history
- Imaginarium interview after Riven
- The Adrenaline Vault interview about "Mudpie" - what later became Uru at The Adrenaline Vault
- Tiscali UK interview about Uru's release
- JustAdventure interview about Uru's release
- Ubisoft / MystWorlds.com Q&A chat session during Uru Live launch
