Game Industry Legends - Interview with Raph Koster (UltimaOnline, StarWarsGalaxies, PlayableWorlds)

Join AWS's Principal Evangelist for Video Games, Chris Melissinos, as he interviews Raph Koster, the former lead designer on Ultima Online, Chief Creative Officer for Star Wars Galaxies, author of "A Theory of Fun for Game Design", and CEO of Playable Worlds.
Chris and Raph discuss his history in the design and growth of massively multiplayer online games, how MUDs led him to working at Origin Systems, stories around an infamous event in the early Ultima Online days, how gamers solved a puzzle in Star Wars Galaxies faster than the development team thought possible, and a whole lot more!
Check out Raph's career, musings, and posts: www.raphkoster.com/
Check out "A Theory of Fun for Game Design" : www.theoryoffun.com/
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[@MrWyvernfist]

PlayableWorlds discussion starts at 1:01:47

[@Mightoboy]

you should have asked him about Crowfall

[@kerokupo]

will raph save the mmorpg genre from being in the dark ages for more than a decade? i pray

[@goblinphreak2132]

When people pronounce AT-AT like a word instead of the letters it irks me. AT-ST you say "a, t, s, t" you dont pronounce it. So why pronounce the other instead of doing letters? A, t, a, t....

[@AWSGameTech]

Ha! I do use it interchangeably. A.T.A.T. and "atat". Depends on the mood!

[@whatwouldericdo]

The idea that "sending someone a text with a link to a playable game" is going to fix the discovery problem is patently absurd. If someone sends me a text today about an amazing game, I'm not going to ignore it because buying it on steam is JUST TOO CUMBERSOME. It's so disappointing to see these people who were amazing creative innovators get sucked into this absolute web3/html5 nonsense vaporware. How about AGS focus on figuring out how an MMO can launch without server issues. Maybe get that ONE thing right before you go off and "reinvent the web" or whatever nonsensical word salad gets your VC investors hard.

[@goblinphreak2132]

Raph isnt an amazon employee. They are simply partnered with Amazon to use their server centers. Just like I can buy/rent servers from AWS and then run AI inferences.... On that note, what if you could log into the game multiple ways? Steam download for those who like using steam. HTML link for those who never use steam (my parents as example). Guild Wars 2 and Elder Scrolls Online weren't always on Steam and had players using their launchers. Having to be on steam isnt a necessity its just "extra attention". For me, GW2 on steam is useless because you cant link your old GW2 account and your steam account. Ruining it all. So I have to use the private launcher always. While I agree forcing everyone to login via web would be lame, what if its just another option?

[@whatwouldericdo]

@@goblinphreak2132 Ralph isn't, but Chris (whom I was quoting) is an Amazon employee. Regarding web login, it's just so incredibly low on the priority list of things that people who play MMOs that it's insulting to have it part of the conversation. Talk about how you're going to fix having days long queue times on launch. Talk about how you're going to fix botting. Talk about how you're going to fix RMTing. There is no "discovery problem" when you make a good game. BG3 didn't have a discovery problem. They should stop trying to solve problems that aren't problems. We're on a boat in the ocean that's full of holes and they're talking about how to turn the boat into a drill so we can reach the center of the earth. Sure, that'd be cool I guess? But maybe while you're here can you help plug these holes?

[@goblinphreak2132]

@@whatwouldericdo well, with AWS server clusters and "cloud gaming" logging in wouldn't be an issue because you wont have "one login server" because every pc in the cluster/cloud would allow you to do that job. so it would essentially load balance the login process. where as modern mmo's from what ive seen being in many many alpha's and beta's, they generally have ONE PC for log-in/authentication and you get handed off to the actual server pc after the login process which as you pointed out, counter intuitive. its possible cloud based gaming will solve that simply from the game being in the cloud and having seemingly unlimited physical hardware backing it up. especially since AWS claims they will "spin up as many servers as needed on the fly to meet demand" so there is that. of course, i would agree, the developer has to actually plan ahead for that. to make use of the cloud properly.