I have some good news and bad news. The bad news is that Raph Koster’s Stars Reach is probably a good long while away for everyone but lucky pre-alpha testers. The good news is that means we’re in for a whole lot of dev blogs and videos about the game along the way, the latest of which enumerates some of the MMORPG sandbox’s core game pillars.
“We didn’t just come up with these out of the blue,” Playable Worlds’ Koster cautions. “These were based on doing market research, looking at what things players have been asking for, what things have been missing from MMOs for a long time, and so on. It was also based on dreams about what is possible now, with current technology. MMOs have been kind of stagnant, we feel. Back when I was working on Ultima Online we were dreaming of fully simulated worlds, worlds that could react to player actions. Instead, we have kind of settled into a mode where we as developers tend to make theme park rides for players, little canned experiences they run through, rather than alternate worlds.”
Specifically, here are some of Stars Reach’s first pillars:
- It will be “the Most Alive Online World Ever Created” – which means “economic and environmental simulation” underpinning the game, with everyone “interconnected into a living society” and a world that reacts to everything players do.
- “The game will run off simulation” – Here, Koster aims to avoid “stagecraft” themepark design and focus on a genuine simulation that leads to emergent gameplay and a “playful attitude to the game,” all tempered with the understanding that “realism is often not very fun,” so the devs focus on gameplay that leads to fun outcomes.
- “The game will be a true persistent state world” – meaning the studio will create “pride of place” with a persistent single shard, where players aren’t just “mov[ing] through the environent” but planting roots, shaping the planets, and crafting the kind of game history that generated the nostalgia veteran MMORPG players feel toward the genre’s earliest entries.
- “The game will be driven by player community and interdependence” – Finally, Playable Worlds hopes to harness strong and weak social ties to improve retention and lessen the impact of celebrity players; interdependence isn’t just about trade but about guilds, planetary governments, player cities, housing, and all the things that “[make] you less likely to want to leave.”
Raph talks about the core game pillars behind the design of Stars Reach. So grab a beverage & snack, then dig in here: https://t.co/NPTNqtSaag
— Playable Worlds (@PlayableWorlds) July 10, 2024
Further reading since the game’s official announcement:
