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

thats just great ...

[torpor]

... "I've been reading more and more in psychology and anthropology and sociology... Game design is only one facet of online world design, frankly." ...

I guess its just a matter of terms, but I'd prefer he focused on the spirit of the game, rather than turning it into numbers and analyses and breaking it down into this terribly typical corporate newspeak... but then it could be my general dislike of the video-game industry in general which could be swaying my view. I'll admit that I find any group who seek to profit by wasting peoples time as much as possible [(*(void *)consumer-time)] to be a relatively despicable bunch...

Anyway, my point is, justifications of 'not enough iterations' not-withstanding, MMORPG's have just lost a lot of spirit.

Its like, the RPG's which used RPG 'format' as a means by which to tell a story compared to the RPG's which use RPG 'format' just to cover a market seem to be better.

All this format and over-analytical plot-mongering which comes from 'load balancing' and 'average mean time to next bathroom break' measurements seems to detract from the humbler purpose of RPG's, MMORPG's, and video games in general, and that is to tell some sort of story ...

Missing the point

[dhall]

There's been a lot of discussion on how Raph 'failed' both UO and SWG. His concept of what he thinks players want is similiar to how you treat an ant farm. The issue that most players take with this... noone wants to be treated like a worker drone ant, and to be told point blank, well that's a slap in the face.

Raph should take a close look at FFXI, and remind himself that people want to play a game. The word MMORPG ends in G, and that should be the most important aspect, not creating some sort of microcosm of human society. People often play their games as a form of escapism, to get away from the everyday world. They don't want every aspect of reality within this world. Players "pay to play", this isn't a MUD, where devs can play as gods. Customers are just that, and a clash of egos between players and devs does more to hurt the genre.

Another thing people want is content. Not make your own world type content, but real content, that they've paid for. The idea is that MMO's should be worlds built for players, not built BY players. Vocal minorities among players will say one thing, but it's often "pie in the sky" ideals. The vast majority of players will determine what they want, aka "Skinner Box" mentalities via money they've spent.