After a two month hiatus, Julie and I played a little Myst 3: Exile last night. It was a lot of fun!

Julie spends so much time using computers as tools to actually get work done that she doesn't think of them as very recreational things. I, on the other hand, have a long and storied history as a computer game enthusiast. But the Myst games give us something to play together on the computer.

It's nice to do something that requires some serious thinking but doesn't have serious impact on our lives. And we get to be proud of each other when we discover solutions. The little "A-HA!" moments are great.

No blood, no guns, no spells, no nausea. Myst 3 is amazingly detailed and beautiful to look at, and the puzzles are a lot of fun to solve. I played Myst I in college, and we started playing Riven together a few years ago. Unfortunately, we never finished it, but we might go back and do that sometime. Riven is a really involved game, and we probably don't have the time and dedication it takes to really play it well. Oh well.

I read somewhere that something like 45% of Myst players are female, and that the average age of a Myst player is around 35. We're not 35, but that sort of balanced appeal is really evident when we play.

If you're an avid gamer but your significant other doesn't appreciate the gratification and personal satisfaction embodied in a two-for-one railgun shot, pick up a copy of Myst 3 and give it a try.