Raph Koster On Sony Online's MMO Plans, Hopes

Thanks to Warcry for its interview with Sony Online's chief creative officer, Raph Koster, as he discusses his relatively new job ("My job is primarily to help the teams make their games better, not to have them make my game. I know a lot of folks have been wondering if I'm here to change EverQuest to be more like Ultima Online or Star Wars Galaxies, and the answer is no"), the evolution of the MMO ("I see a little bit of a backlash here and there against the MMORPG in its classic form. There's maybe a sense that we haven't advanced the genre fast enough. My main answer to that one is 'it takes three years to make one of these things, give us a break, we haven't actually gotten to iterate very much yet'"), and why it's not just about designing the game ("I've been reading more and more in psychology and anthropology and sociology... Game design is only one facet of online world design, frankly.")

Comments

Get In The Game!

[blueZhift]

I was a bit disappointed that Koster didn't get into more details about what he thinks needs to be done. Granted, he shouldn't give away any trade secrets, but saying more might assure the reader that he really understands the problems. For example, as others have said here already, RPGs are also about telling a story. What I've been looking for is a story that totally engulfs you and permeates everything. Having played EverQuest and SWG, I can say that they've got the massive world to explore thing down pretty well, but I never felt a part of any larger story that I cared about. Yeah, the socializing is okay, but that's not really why I play, I want a story that blurs the line between fact and fiction, something I'll waste time thinking about at work...

One thing I think Mr. Koster needs to do at all costs is to get into the games. Get in there and play, so that he has a really good feeling of what the players are experiencing and sometime griping about. I know that MMORPGs are very complex beasts where there is no escape from paying the beta test. There's just no way to get it all right on day one (though FF XI is doing a good job I hear). Given that, maybe the best way to evolve and move the game on is from the inside. Live it, breathe it, eat it! Grok it!