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Raph Koster's New Studio Unveiled

Posted by Zonk on from the any-chance-for-an-interview-raph dept.

Gamasutra reports on veteran MMOG designer (and sometimes Slashdot Games commenter) Raph Koster's new studio. The company, called Areae, is gearing up for a new title in the Massive space. Raph's comments in the article are overly coy, and despite his statements that 'you can find some tidbits if you look on the site', there's not a whole lot of details yet on what exactly they'll be doing. From the article: "We're going to run quiet for a little while and finish building out the platform so we can actually start talking about what it is that we're going to put out there. I would guess that you'll be hearing from us again in three months or so.'"

3 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. sounds like... by AliasTheRoot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...some kind of middleware, world building platform. Kosters games have consistently been sandboxes, and don't see that he will change focus on this. There were some quotes on the site about having a a couple of worlds on the back burner, and also about making frontier spaces available for players to colonize. A more game orientated second-life?

    The graphic on the site certainly indicates a genre neutral social MMO.

    1. Re:sounds like... by RaphKoster · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I was the original lead, but Trammel was AFTER my time. I left in late 98 or early 99. Second Age was mine and about the year after that, but not Renaissance.

  2. Re:RAPH KOSTER by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You know, I used to think that too -- he sucked. After UO, and then the SWG fiasco, one really has to wonder if he knows what the hell he is doing as a designer. But I've been reading his "Theory of Fun", and I'm starting to change my mind. Maybe mis-management was just as much part of the problem -- seen it happen in the games industry too many times.

    Have to wait and see. The proof is in the pudding, or game play, as they say.