In case you hadn’t noticed, Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster is basically handing out a free 101 course in how video games work in his string of essays and blogs on virtual worlds, though we’re sure it works just as well as a promotional preamble to the MMORPG sandbox and metaverse his new studio is building. Last week, Koster tackled how objects in games work, which isn’t necessarily how gamers might think they work, all of which has an effect on what is possible in a multi-sharded universe of games with any kind of shared functionality and code. This week, he’s continuing his object discussion by focusing on how modern game structures allow designers to separate objects from scripted behaviors, dependencies, stats, and even things like procs, not all of which transmits easily between gameworlds if their frameworks aren’t planned around it.
“There are no standards right now for ‘what things can do’ in a virtual world, and we shouldn’t want them,” Koster says. “The act of setting the standard is also setting the limit, which would curb creativity enormously. There’s far too much possibility to be explored still.” And while loading common scripts from a shared database on the web could work, that comes with its own problems: “Ironically for fans of decentralization, though, the literal decentralizing of the script locations results instead in centralizing the point of failure. If that script has a bug, everyone’s eating stops working.”
“What used to be a technical problem then becomes a people problem,” he concludes. “This is why carrying object functionality around between worlds is above all a thorny social problem, and item portability in the way that most people dream of it is far more likely to be limited to appearances for a long while. The exception would be cases where there is central control over, or at least strong agreement on, the game design across multiple worlds.”
Again, it’s pretty granular, but if you aren’t already a developer or engineer or even a modder, it might be useful to learn these basics.
Further reading:
• 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
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