raph-koster
Latest
The Daily Grind: Which MMO devs cause you to follow a project?
Raph Koster's involvement with Crowfall has increased my interest in the game. I still doubt the title is for me, but given Koster's role at the forefront of my two favorite MMORPGs, I kinda have to pay attention. What about you, Massively readers? Are there any MMO devs whose involvement causes you to follow a project? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Raph Koster is collaborating on Crowfall [Updated with video]
So here's a funny story: Yesterday, the Massively writers were shooting the breeze in team chat when the subject of sandbox devs who were not also closet-gankers came up. "When do you think Raph Koster will finally make a new sandbox?" I asked, half kidding and half wistful. "Never," Jef answered. Then we commiserated for a bit. It turns out we were remarkably prescient because that day is... today. ArtCraft, the studio working on the nebulous PvP MMO Crowfall, announced today that Koster, the backbone of sandbox legends Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, has been collaborating with the Crowfall team on the game's design for a year already as a "formal advisor and design consultant." "Raph and I have been working together for about a year on the design architecture for Crowfall," ArtCraft's J. Todd Coleman wrote. "At the heart of this game, we have two core systems: dynamic territorial conquest and a player-driven economy. Marrying these two concepts is the holy grail of MMO development, and Raph is arguably the best person in the world to help us solve this puzzle." Koster gets a blurb of his own in the PR: "There isn't anything on the market like Crowfall, and it has been a long time since some of these design ideas were explored. There's a very specific audience out there waiting for a game like this -- the conflict, the real economy -- that has been looking for new steps beyond the games of ten years ago." Your move, MMO genre.
Raph Koster explains how WoW changed MMOs
There's liable to be a lot of virtual ink spilled over World of Warcraft as it celebrates its 10-year anniversary this month. You can save yourself some time by just reading famed MMO designer Raph Koster's lengthy and informed analysis, though. He covers a ton of ground, both negative and positive, including WoW's roots in EverQuest and the DikuMUD while also touching on all of the genre features that Blizzard cut in the name of "fun" and accessibility. Among the things left by the wayside were features that were proven. Gone were the richer pet systems that had driven so much engagement from players in earlier games. Player housing, past and future source of endless devotion (and revenue) in other games, absent. Never mind stuff like towns and politics and the like. Crafting took massive steps backwards from the heights it had been developed into in [Star Wars] Galaxies or even Sims Online, and went back to being more like that in EverQuest. Even the robust character customization that we slaved over in Galaxies, a system which today is in every RPG on earth, was gone. Koster credits WoW as the true innovator of the quest-led game, but he also points out that the game stifled MMORPG innovation in numerous ways.
The Daily Grind: What makes an MMO a 'WoW clone'?
Eminent MMO designer Raph Koster inspired today's Daily Grind with his recent article titled When is a Clone, in which he discusses the difference between clones, reskins, variants, families, genres, and other words that gamers often use interchangeably when debating the merits of their favorite games. Specifically, he lays out a "recipe" for inventing a new game as opposed to just cloning one; for example, he suggests that developers might model a new scenario mathematically or alter the physical dimensions or major goals of an existing ruleset. But the truth is that gamers, especially MMO players, will probably never stop using the word clone when we mean iteration. We wield the word as a curse, knowing that a game isn't a literal clone but choosing to employ hyperbole to make a point about the sameyness of so many MMOs that slap a fresh coat of paint on World of Warcraft and expect praise. Today, we're asking you: What, exactly, makes an MMO a WoW clone? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Wars Galaxies lead designer passes away
Massively is saddened by the news that veteran MMO designer Ben Hanson has passed away, according to a recent tweet by friend and fellow designer Raph Koster. Koster and Hanson worked together on Star Wars Galaxies's Jump to Lightspeed expansion, on which Hanson was the lead content designer. In addition to working at SOE, Hanson worked with Simutronics, Origin, ArenaNet, and Digital Anvil during his long career. Our deepest condolences go out to Ben Hanson's family and friends.
Raph Koster on Origin's Privateer Online
Raph Koster's thrown up a fairly fascinating blog post detailing one of his Origin projects that never saw the light of day. It was originally codenamed Star Settlers and it featured procedurally generated planets, exploration, resource management, and more. Koster's executive bosses "blew up a huge portion of the design" in favor of fitting the fledgling game into Origin's Wing Commander IP, several online versions of which were already in the works. "Some of them had gotten pretty far -- piles of artwork, design work, and even some tech," Koster writes. Finally a Privateer Online team was assembled, and it cranked out a prototype featuring "radically different" procedural planets, multiplayer space dogfighting, fractal ship customization, modular planetary settlement capabilities, and "a huge pile of lore" written by Wing Commander vets. Though Privateer Online was cancelled in favor of Earth & Beyond and its design docs were burned in a bonfire at Origin's shut-down party, Koster says that many of the developers went on to make Star Wars Galaxies which contained some of the same ideas.
Raph Koster on getting criticism
Veteran developer Raph Koster has authored a blog post that's worth a read if you're a game designer. Heck, it's worth a read if you're a game blogger, game player, or anyone else with aspirations on creative output. The topic is criticism, and more specifically, making the most of it. Koster, best known in MMO circles as one of the minds behind Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, and Metaplace, offers plenty of advice on everything from dealing with people who tell you that you're awesome (these folks are "useless, no, dangerous") to digging for good feedback to the fact that all of your critics are right. "I've never gotten a piece of feedback that was wrong," Koster explains. "You see, you can't deny a player their unique experience. Whatever they felt was true. For them. And something in your work triggered it." He goes on to say that "self-doubt is one of your most powerful tools for craftsmanship." Aside from having "the arrogance to assume anyone will care in the first place," self-doubt is healthy and necessary because creatives are never done learning.
WildStar economy post talks item decay, Raph Koster, and more
What do hyperinflation and Raph Koster's A Theory of Fun for Game Design have to do with WildStar? Well, they're both mentioned in the game's latest dev blog. As you may have guessed, it's all about the title's economy, and Senior Systems Designer Charles "Bull" Durham expends quite a bit of virtual ink talking about things like resource sinks, resource fonts, and Carbine's interpretation of "fun" as it relates to resource reallocation. Durham also mentions item decay in passing, though it's not clear whether or not the game will make use of the mechanic in some form or fashion. "We also want to make sure that when you have to make a choice, it is based on what you, the player, feels is most important. Therefore, the choices cannot be too obvious or too enmeshed in critical needs," he writes. "Item repair, for example, doesn't offer much in the way of choice, so it shouldn't be an impactful, painful thing. We will get into this particular money sink later, but it is a very handy and fair money sink to have."
Raph Koster is open to making another 'worldy MMO'
On his personal blog, Raph Koster announced that he has left Disney to become an unemployed game developer. The big question is, of course, what's next for the driving force behind Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. The answer is... he doesn't know. However, Koster does indicate that he is open to working on another traditional MMO, but not one born of Kickstarter. "I suspect that those of you who want this all want me to make a worldy MMO," he writes. "I may yet make one of those in the future, but I don't think that you can raise enough money on Kickstarter to do it justice." Koster says that he might be doing some consulting, writing, and speaking, but what he wants to do most is to "simply start making games." He claims that GDC inspired him to get back into the game-making business, big-time. He also says contrary to some rumors, he is not working with Richard Garriott on Shroud of the Avatar.
MMO Family: Why Catfish is a term your kids should know
By now, everyone's probably heard the strange story of Manti Te'o, the football player who had an online relationship with someone who wasn't really that person. The question that people keep asking is whether or not he was in on the hoax, but I think that's irrelevant. The real question is why people are surprised to begin with. Ironically, gamers probably have a leg up on the Catfish scenario, since there are plenty of examples of players misrepresenting themselves through their in-game avatars. And there's often a grey area when it comes to roleplaying and honesty. In this week's MMO Family, let's look at the lessons of gaming, identity, and social media and what children should learn about all three. (And I promise I won't mention Manti again in this column.)
The Daily Grind: What degree best suits an MMO developer?
Until relatively recently, the idea of a degree in game development seemed bizarre. That means that most of today's industry vets didn't start out planning to make games their career. You might expect programming degrees, art degrees, management degrees, creative writing degrees... but you're likely to find stranger degrees by far, marine biology and ancient history among them. That's even true in games journalism. Massively is staffed by pilots, farmers, historians, claims adjusters, clergymen, artists, salesmen, ex-military, radio announcers, teachers, musicians, and yes, even some full-time writers and editors. It's a weird place, and that diversity widens our perspective. Raph Koster of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies fame recommends that budding game developers acquire a broad education, not necessarily a specialized game design degree. Learn to program, draw, and write, he says, but "don't choose a narrow education. Choose a broad one. History, economics, psychology, art, science. A classic liberal arts education is the best training for a designer." What do you think -- what degree best suits an MMO developer? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
GDC Online 2012: SWTOR, Diablo III, Koster honored in GDC Online awards
Wednesday night saw the Game Developers Choice Online awards being handed out to MMO, social, mobile, and free-to-play games. Star Wars: The Old Republic came away with the awards for best online game design, best online visual arts, best online technology, and best new online game. Riot Games won for best live game, the audience award, and best community relations for League of Legends. Raph Koster was officially recognized with an online game legend award, and World of Warcraft received a hall of fame award. Blizzard also scored with Diablo III, receiving an award for having the best audio for an online game. The award for best social network game went to Draw Something, and thatgamecompany won an online innovation award for Journey. Massively sent two plucky game journalists -- Beau Hindman and Karen Bryan -- to Austin, Texas, for this year's GDC Online, where they'll be reporting back on MMO trends, community theory, old favorites, and new classics. Stay tuned for even more highlights from the show!
GDC Online 2012: Raph Koster's keynote on a Theory of Fun, 10 years later
Ten years ago at GDC, Raph Koster gave a talk called A Theory of Fun. The presentation turned into a book, and after a series of printings and reprintings, that book has arguably become the best-selling game design book of all time. At GDC Online this week, Koster revisited his Theory of Fun to look at what still applies and what's changed. Read on for highlights from this GDC keynote address.
Raph Koster reminisces about Ultima Online 15 years later
Fifteen years of any MMO is a legitimate enough excuse to wax nostalgic, so we can't blame original Ultima Online developer Raph Koster for writing down a few thoughts about the game's 15th anniversary. His article is a collection of early behind-the-scenes vignettes, including how a player from one of his previous MUDs followed him to UO to sue the game, how the architecture presented challenges, and the pain of cutting unfinished content prior to launch. Koster is bluntly honest about the middling reception of the game at the time of its launch, although he said he reveled in the positive press: "The EA lawyers were very unhappy with me over a quote from that newspaper article in the pic. I ended by saying Ultima Online was 'a grand experiment.' They said, 'Don't you realize that's the sort of thing they will use in court against us?' But it was. Grand."
Koster, Blizzard to be honored at GDC Online event
Raph Koster and Blizzard may be polar opposites in terms of design philosophy, but both will take home awards at this year's GDC Online convention. Koster, instrumental in the development of sandbox worlds like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, will take home the Online Game Legend Award. Blizzard, which turned the MMO space on its ear via World of Warcraft's resounding financial success, will see its flagship title inducted into the Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame. The ceremonies take place on October 10th in Austin, Texas. Don't forget to cast your vote for the GDC Audience Award prior to September 14th! [Source: GDC press release]
Koster, Vogel, Long headline GDC Online Ultima panel
The 2012 edition of GDC Online is filling out its schedule, and one of the more interesting dev panels is a "classic game postmortem" concerning Ultima Online. While the term postmortem is a bit of a misnomer since the game is still very much alive, the panel features an eclectic mix of dev personalities who helped shape both UO and the industry itself. Original UO team members Starr Long, Rich Vogel, and Raph Koster will discuss how a "combination of insane ambition and idealistic cluelessness can sometimes result in creating something that changes people's lives and the course of an industry," according to the GDC website. If you'll be in Austin, Texas, from October 9th through the 11th, stop by and learn a thing or two about MMOs and the folks who make them.
The Guild Counsel: Gender choice and guild drama
There are many reasons for guild drama, but one of the most challenging comes from a single choice that we make before our characters even see the light of day. In MMOs, character creation can consist of full customization, or it can simply be a choice among some pre-sets, but the majority of games give you the choice to pick your gender. Even if you select a non-human race, there are usually male versions and female versions. For many players, this is a no-brainer, and they play as their own gender. But many others opt to go cross-gender, and that can lead to drama later on, even if it's unintended. In this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at the topic of gender to see why it can be so problematic and how guilds can avoid potential drama from it.
Raph Koster wants to know why we can't all just get along
Raph Koster, MMO guru and erstwhile creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, has had it up to here with you people and your intolerance of one another. Yes, you, game designers. In a recent blog post, Koster makes shame carrots at those on both sides of the science-versus-humanities schism in the game design community. He states that people on either side of the spectrum can be right and that there's room for both emotional value and scientific fact in games. Too many people, he says, are entrenched in their viewpoints, and that makes progress more difficult for everyone. The result is an abundance of "hipstery, self-indulgent, artsy, self-referential, slight, pretentious work all over the place that people are claiming as the One True Way or the best way to push the boundaries of the field." Koster says that rather than fiercely defend a specific type of game design, designers need to embrace a both/and mentality, in which multiple viewpoints and approaches are accepted as valid and worthwhile. Narrative designers should try making a game with nothing but counters and dice and no story. System designers should try making a game that is about telling a story. While we're at it, the world should really learn how to sing in perfect harmony.
Raph Koster categorizes his best game design blog posts
If you're looking for an entry point into the voluminous back-catalogue of game design posts sitting on Raph Koster's web server, look no further than his newest entry, which serves as something of a greatest hits listing. For those unfamiliar with Koster, most gamers associate him with watershed sandbox titles like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, and he has also written a book called A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster first published his website in 1997, and some of his articles date almost as far back. He's arranged the links in what he calls a "rough reverse chronological order," so grab your favorite caffeinated beverage and settle in for a lengthy design-focused read.
The Daily Grind: Who will be our MMO development heroes of tomorrow?
The lifespan of the MMO genre is still fairly short when you take general gaming into consideration. Fifteen years ago, most of us wouldn't have dreamed of what's available online today, thanks to the innovators who brought together graphical roleplaying games and the MUDs of the day. People like Richard Garriott, Raph Koster, Starr Long, J. Todd Coleman, and a handful of others helped create what we know today as MMORPGs. But who will be the innovators and trend-setters of tomorrow's MMOs? We see a lot of innovation these days, but ascribing those ideas to one person isn't as easy (or applicable) as it was in the early days of five-man studios. Still, there are geniuses in these modern studios making some much-needed improvements that will carry on for many years. So if you're a player and you know of someone who will be known for his or her innovation in the future, let us know. If you're a developer who wants to call out a co-worker for something he or she has done to change the genre, get that name out there! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
