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.”
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