Believe us, we here at Massively OP are dying to know all of the details about the online game project that Raph Koster and his team at Playable Worlds is making. We’ll probably be waiting a while to see what the Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies creator is up to, but at least Koster gives us a hint that it’ll be something special thanks to his new manifesto on the future of online worlds.
Koster challenges us as a gaming community to remember back to when we had grand hopes for virtual worlds — and says that while “a lot of those big dreams did not come true,” this vision is still attainable.
“The dreams have always been big,” he said. “But now, they are within reach, because today’s world is a magical place. It’s time. Over the next few weeks, I want to tell you about the potential that online worlds have been passing up. About the ways in which we can fulfill the dreams we once had. I am going to tell you that, yes, worlds can feel alive, like real places.”
Koster pointed to the fact that there’s much better technology, design knowledge, and understanding of gaming culture to reach toward a better gaming world. And he goes out of his way to say that when it arrives, such games should adapt to a player’s schedule rather than the other way around.
“Our online alternatives have gotten kind of… mundane. Predictable. Kill some blues, collect some purples, fetch ten of whatever. They don’t have to be that way. We can dream big again, together. It’s time to turn those dreams back into playable worlds.”
More on Koster:
• Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds teases housing, planetary governance, and languages for the unnamed MMORPG sandbox
• Raph Koster’s nine Playable Worlds teasers (so far) hint at the MMORPG sandbox you always wanted
• Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds is counting down to… something
• Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds enlists ‘AI-powered’ character platform Popul8
• Raph Koster has been warning about the death of games innovation longer than most MMOs have been alive
• Raph Koster predicts the future of the metaverse is a ‘virtual Machu Picchu’ – that you can leave
• MMO dev Raph Koster disambiguates sandboxes, themeparks, simulation, and stagecraft
• Raph Koster talks about the ‘mission’ of Playable Worlds, his vision of the metaverse, and player ownership
• Crowfall’s Gordon Walton joins Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds MMO and platform
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster makes bold promises about his studio’s developing sandbox MMORPG
• Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds scored $25M in investment for his ‘modern sandbox MMO’
• Raph Koster talks metaverse creation and learning lessons from past game design mistakes
• Raph Koster and Playable Worlds won’t announce their MMO until next year
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster explains how feedback loops can create unexpected results in MMO design
• Raph Koster’s ‘modern sandbox MMO’ is teasing concept art for the first time
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on who really owns all the stuff inside your video games
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on gaming’s social design problems masquerading as technical challenges
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on the ‘stuff’ inside your virtual worlds
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster is not gonna stop saying the word metaverse
• Raph Koster says nobody wants a metaverse with ‘Fairyland butting up against World War II’
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on why avatars traipsing across the metaverse are a major tech challenge
• Playable Worlds’ lead QA engineer on the industry’s problematic ‘godlike status’ for devs
• Raph Koster’s plan is to build the metaverse tech, build a sandbox MMORPG on it, then open it all up
• Massively OP Podcast Episode 338: No power in the multiverse can stop Raph Koster
• So it turns out Raph Koster is building the metaverse and a sandbox MMO on top of it
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster has all but said he’s building a metaverse
• Playable Worlds’ lead designer: ‘Our industry does not thrive on ideas’
• Raph Koster expounds on MMO fun, retention, and cynicism in the genre
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster shares the secret of good social design in MMOs
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on the player-driven economies at the heart of virtual worlds
• Playable Worlds’ hiring page suggests Raph Koster’s upcoming MMO is a AAA sandbox
• Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster posts a manifesto on the future of MMOs
• The folks working on Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds MMO provide clues into what it’ll be
• Raph Koster argues MMOs are much more than ‘a series of kill and fetch quest pellets’
• MMO designer Raph Koster talks about what makes the subscription model a success
• Raph Koster shares rare behind-the-scenes Star Wars Galaxies pics in honor of the anniversary
• Raph Koster touches on the technology and community that will bring Playable Worlds’ MMO to life
• Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds studio raises an additional $10 million in funding
• Raph Koster will give more insight on Playable Worlds’ in-development MMO next year
• Raph Koster’s dev studio Playable Worlds opens a new website and begins the search for game devs
• Raph Koster’s new MMORPG will reward social gameplay, not just hack-n-slash
• Raph Koster’s new MMORPG will be more than ‘just hack and slashing your way through levels’
• Raph Koster is making a new MMO and just raised $2.7M in seed funding to do it
•
More coverage of Koster's writing and games
