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Raph Koster's back

AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785
It's been posted in news articles around, but I didn't know it until a few days ago. 
He's just getting started so there's no info other than the $2.7 million seed money, and a few top hires. 

I'm extremely excited. Not only is Raph experienced and very knowledgeable, this is his own company and he doesn't have to follow orders from above, or work with others who don't see eye to eye with him on "Sandbox Worlds." 

I've been waiting for this for a long time. 

https://www.playableworlds.com/about  


Once upon a time....

NorseGod
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Comments

  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785

    Once upon a time....

  • TillerTiller Member LegendaryPosts: 11,125
    edited October 2019
    Already discussed a few weeks ago. Pretty sure it will just be a Second Life type game like his last one. Nothing wrong with that, it' just might not be for everyone.



    SWG Bloodfin vet
    Elder Jedi/Elder Bounty Hunter
     
  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,855
    If they think they can build a crowd funded project, don't even bother bringing this up. It's not real. If it's not crowd funded, show where the backing is.....Then, I'll pretend to look interested.
  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785
    edited October 2019
    If they think they can build a crowd funded project, don't even bother bringing this up. It's not real. If it's not crowd funded, show where the backing is.....Then, I'll pretend to look interested.
    Don't pretend, just don't be interested. lol j/k. 

    It's seed money from an investor who's made their money from, I believe, arena game investments? 
    But the point is that they may invest more when criteria are met. That's often the way that works. 

    Besides that, are there any crowd funded MMORPGs that started out with this kind of seed money? 

    Once upon a time....

  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785
    edited October 2019
    DMKano said:
    Just want to also mention that Scott Hartsman is also on the playable worlds team with Koster.


    Yes! Another guy who really knows what he's doin'. 

    [Deleted User]

    Once upon a time....

  • MendelMendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609
    If they think they can build a crowd funded project, don't even bother bringing this up. It's not real. If it's not crowd funded, show where the backing is.....Then, I'll pretend to look interested.
    At best, they have the $2.7M of seed money.  That will likely be used to hire staff, legal stuff and build a tech demo with the hope of attracting some real investors.  That may be the plan, but the crowdfunding option seems to be firmly on the table, or at least, nothing has expressly precluded that route.

    Let's see how that works out over the next 2 years (for the tech demo/investment phase).  Then we can look forward to 3-5 years of development.  Raph has cemented his place in these forums for the foreseeable future.



    Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.

  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,785
    Tiller said:
    Already discussed a few weeks ago. Pretty sure it will just be a Second Life type game like his last one. Nothing wrong with that, it' just might not be for everyone.



    I'd be really surprised if that were the case.
    Remember Raph's long ago comment in game design, "Players are your enemy"?

    Once upon a time....

  • BrotherMaynardBrotherMaynard Member RarePosts: 565
    DMKano said:
    Just want to also mention that Scott Hartsman is also on the playable worlds team with Koster.


    Is this confirmed? I only found a short and fairly ambiguous tweet - and no confirmation on their website.

    Regardless of the talent Raph might manage to bring on board, if he starts to recruit people like Hartsman, this studio will be dead to me before they even begin.


  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332


    IDC how experienced Koster is,show me something good and i might care.Ultima ok that was a long time ago,those designs are extremely outdated now,not nearly good enough but hey it was good for it's time.Star Wars galaxies,another outdated game.Name me two things from SWG i would want  to play in my game?

    IDK maybe he can do something good for the mmorpg genre,maybe he can't,but his name alone is not going to do a single thing for me.
    2.7 mil...lmao what is that going to do,pay the hydro bill for a couple years?If it is a second Life type game,then lol yeah another has been like Lord British.
    The top end BIG business developers are not even going for AAA games,NONE of the Indie or kickstarter,crowd funded devs are managing AA games.There is a whole lot of rubbish in the market of gaming.
    I often try surfing through Steam and it is one big cesspool of trash bin games.I could compile 500 games on Steam and altogether wouldn't be worth a red penny.So to think this koster guy comes along with very little money and nothing to show that is AAA for a VERY long time and is going to save the gaming market is laughable.

    He deserves NO HYPE,let him prove what he can do then i will high five him...or not.
    RemaliRungarNorseGod

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • AmatheAmathe Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
    AmarantharAlBQuirky[Deleted User]

    EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests

  • NorseGodNorseGod Member EpicPosts: 2,654
    Hard to get excited about his. It's almost 2020.
    [Deleted User]
    To talk about games without the censorship, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/
  • anemoanemo Member RarePosts: 1,903

    Though they're really not targeting "gamers" quite yet.   At least not directly, though appreciate the attention for getting more investors.



    Practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.

    "At one point technology meant making tech that could get to the moon, now it means making tech that could get you a taxi."

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937
    NorseGod said:
    Hard to get excited about his. It's almost 2020.
    What does that mean?

    One could say "so excited about this as it's 2020 and we finally have the announcement of a new mmorpg in the works!"
    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

    Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w


    Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547

    Try the "Special Edition." 'Cause it's "Special." https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64878/?tab=description

    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • MendelMendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609
    I don't get the whole "It's Raph Koster, let's invest in him" thing.  That seems a lure for the crowdfunding dollar.  Professional investors invest in proven businessmen; they hire game designers.  Raph may be a god among game designers, but how is he at running a business?  That's what the investment community will be looking for.



    NorseGod[Deleted User]

    Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.

  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 31,937
    Mendel said:
    I don't get the whole "It's Raph Koster, let's invest in him" thing.  That seems a lure for the crowdfunding dollar.  Professional investors invest in proven businessmen; they hire game designers.  Raph may be a god among game designers, but how is he at running a business?  That's what the investment community will be looking for.



    I think the investment community will be looking for the best balance for making a profit.

    If a person can run a business but has no idea how to make a game then why in the world would I invest in them? "Great!" they can manage their money. Right up until the point where the game falters and fails.

    Conversely, if they can make a game but can't run a business then of course that's an issue. What needs to be looked at is the company as a whole. Though apparently he was in charge of business development for Sony Online Entertainment for a bit.
    Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb." 

    Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w


    Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547

    Try the "Special Edition." 'Cause it's "Special." https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/64878/?tab=description

    Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo 
  • cameltosiscameltosis Member LegendaryPosts: 3,703
    I'm excited about this, but as with all things, it'll come down to the implementation.

    Raph's books are a great insight into the way he thinks and the reasons behind the design decisions on UO and SWG. He is clearly very talented and knowledgeable and has some great ideas on the virtual world concept and how to advance the art form of computer games.


    But it's all about implementation.

    The design ideas for Metaplace were great, for example, but the actual implementation wasn't. It achieved much more than I expected it would, but ultimately not good enough for the general public.

    This new MMO, well, it all depends on what he's trying to do. Learning lessons from the MMO world and other genres is a great thing, for soem reason most devs don't seem to learn any lessons which is why they keep repeating the same mistakes. But which lessons will Raph have learnt? And having learnt the lessons, will he be able to turn them into a fun game?

    We'll have to wait and see. At least I know that Raph will be trying harder and has better intentions and design philosophy than most MMO devs.
    Mendel[Deleted User]AlBQuirky
  • alkarionlogalkarionlog Member EpicPosts: 3,584
    edited October 2019
    hmm where I heard then X is having his company and he now don't need to follow orders and still failed....

    I'm not sure, i'm pretty sure I heard this tale before



    [Deleted User]
    FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
  • PyndaPynda Member UncommonPosts: 856
    edited October 2019
    I'm nowhere near the industry watcher that some of you guys are, but the last I remember of Raph Koster he had left the mmorpg business to focus on making "social apps" for smartphones. And that was directly after being let go by Sony/SWG, so it was what - 16 years ago? I guess the phone gaming thing didn't work out so well for him, and now he's back?

    Bottom line, I'll of course take a look at anything he does after it's finished. But until then, his stock with me has sunk to a fairly low level (but it's not zero).
  • AlBQuirkyAlBQuirky Member EpicPosts: 7,432
    edited October 2019
    Seeing all this Raph Koster love here (I'm not knocking it!) I though of a song:


    Now, the MMORPG world is gonna get a beatin'!
    And he'll (Raph) save the reputation!
    Sovrath[Deleted User]

    - Al

    Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.
    - FARGIN_WAR


  • UtinniUtinni Member EpicPosts: 2,209
    Wizardry said:


    Star Wars galaxies,another outdated game.Name me two things from SWG i would want  to play in my game?


    The housing, the fact that every item down to junk has a place-able 3D model, limited resource system(an actual economy), each crafting class and system, storytelling items. 

    All the things that made it a sandbox? I'm guessing you never played SWG.
    anemoNorseGod
  • Vermillion_RaventhalVermillion_Raventhal Member EpicPosts: 4,198
    I am a believer and certainly influenced.
  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    DMKano said:
    Just want to also mention that Scott Hartsman is also on the playable worlds team with Koster.


    I would avoid anything Harstman has to do with , he ruined Trion and introduced P2W to Eq 2 all those years ago , ruining that along with his lapdog Brasse
    [Deleted User]
  • NorseGodNorseGod Member EpicPosts: 2,654
    Mendel said:
    I don't get the whole "It's Raph Koster, let's invest in him" thing.  That seems a lure for the crowdfunding dollar.  Professional investors invest in proven businessmen; they hire game designers.  Raph may be a god among game designers, but how is he at running a business?  That's what the investment community will be looking for.



    Yep, same can be said with McQuaid, Garriot, and even Bioware. They did "something" 20 years ago. I'm going to need more than that now, don't care what their names are.

    I like Koster, he's smart and seems nice. 
    To talk about games without the censorship, check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/
  • Hawkaya399Hawkaya399 Member RarePosts: 620
    It's been posted in news articles around, but I didn't know it until a few days ago. 
    He's just getting started so there's no info other than the $2.7 million seed money, and a few top hires. 

    I'm extremely excited. Not only is Raph experienced and very knowledgeable, this is his own company and he doesn't have to follow orders from above, or work with others who don't see eye to eye with him on "Sandbox Worlds." 

    I've been waiting for this for a long time. 

    https://www.playableworlds.com/about  


    I thought he was working wioth Crowfall.
  • Hawkaya399Hawkaya399 Member RarePosts: 620
    edited October 2019
    Mendel said:
    I don't get the whole "It's Raph Koster, let's invest in him" thing.  That seems a lure for the crowdfunding dollar.  Professional investors invest in proven businessmen; they hire game designers.  Raph may be a god among game designers, but how is he at running a business?  That's what the investment community will be looking for.



    I've always been intrigued by his influence in games. I think of sandbox MMORPGs. And I've always favored them. UO. SWG. Evne some work in MUDs. His way of approaching a MMO seems more geared to nonlinear things than the traditional. This is the realm of gaming and MMO's that has always been the pinnacle of wonder and inspiriation for me as a gamer and coder. It's not how fun something is, it's how amazingly lifelike or immersive it can be. Honestly, I'm as drawn to simulations too. Far more than just conventional game design or games in general. Normal games to sim-games are like campfire stories to building an actual spaceship and traveling to Mars.

    That's why DWarf Fortress is still one of the most amazing games I know of, even though its grahpics are essentially ASCI. It's a huge sim. It even simulates the history of the world. Everything that exists in the world the player starts in was grown from a petri dish. And everything that happens after is including the influences of the player. Therer'e so many interacting forces, it's unpredictable what'll happen. And that's what can make it so amazing. And not amazing because it's random, but because there's a pattern to things, a cause and effect. It's just so much happening that you can't know the end result. Like real life almost. They succeeded in making more than just a game.

    I also think unless we can learn to harness procedural generation even more than we have already, far more,  our worlds are going to shrink versus expectations, or increase astronomically in cost. The reason is fidelity is increasing and it's more expensive by the moment to keep up in development. And by the use of the term fidelity I mean, roughly realism. It's one thing to make a sprite project in a 3d world, like with trees that only ever show one face, but another entirely to make a fully 3d high polygon model, with all of the requisite textures and shading and other elements. The richer these worlds become, the more we're going to be reliant on computers to generate them. And yes this means we need to understand how things come together. To some extent, this means we have to simulate some things, or at least use deep learning to create environments and npc interrelationships in the world. I think there's a great future in deep learning and generating game worlds. Give the learning engine enough data, and it might mine enough things to generate massive worlds believable and interesting enough for players to enjoy. This will cut costs and allow worlds to grow, not shrink.
    Post edited by Hawkaya399 on
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