That's really interesting about Myst. I had a similar experience as a kid, I was really intrigued by it, and it was so pretty compared to almost anything else contemporary, and I really wanted to like something that was sophisticated and interesting and challenging but not primarily about shooting. But I gave up because it was just too hard; another thing that's developed over the last couple of decades is providing a well-designed learning curve for challenging games. Somehow having to take notes on a computer game made it feel like work, too.

It's really interesting to know that as an adult with a couple of decades of genre knowledge you can play through in a night and morning! I might well give it another try, knowing that.