The article didn't make mention of the role of sound in Myst. I remember people setting up their big 90's stereos with massive speakers to fully immerse themselves in the Myst world. The game really built a strange, otherworldy atmosphere.
There was one location in Riven where I spent about fifteen minutes listening to a short-ish music loop over and over and watching a simple atmospheric location animation, because both were just so perfect.
The video has the bubbles-in-the-toilet-bowl explanation (see 7:30 onwards), along with a ton of other great nuggets.