Raph Koster

Raphael " Raph " Koster ( born September 7, 1971) is an American designer of computer games, author and musician. He is primarily known for his work as the lead designer for the MMORPG Ultima Online internationally and was the Creative Director of Star Wars Galaxies. He is currently the President of areae, Inc.

Life

Raph Koster had very early a strong affinity for computer games and developed together with friends their own games for Atari and Commodore 64 computer, which he sold to his classmates. They called their " company " Protocom. Koster at the time was in the sixth or seventh grade. He also developed his own games or adapted computer games to board games that he played with his school friends during the breaks. His access to role-play, he was by the red Dungeons & Dragons box, which he received as a birthday gift.

The following time spent Koster at his mother, who worked for UNICEF in divorce and separated from her husband lived. By their profession they changed hands several times live. So Raph lived in such exotic locations like Peru, Barbados and Haiti, but visited his father during the summer months in Tennessee and Florida. This after he missed his own point of view, the Nintendo period and focused more on writing, although he did not give up playing altogether.

Koster attended Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, reaching in 1992 a Bachelor 's degree in English ( creative writing ) and in Spanish. There he began again to become more interested in games that started with pen & paper role-playing game and started a small email role play.

After graduating in 1992, he was taken by college friends to Multi User Dungeon games ( MUDs ) to stay in touch in this way. Together with his wife, Kristen, he first developed primarily content for LegendMUD, a MUD, that of Sherry Menton ( basic idea and theme ) and Rick Delashmit first implementor started (comparable to administrators). Raph Koster and his wife were consequently also implementers and took over the project in 1994 completely, as Sherry Menton and Rick Delashmit LegendMUD left. Koster appeared there as Ptah.

In 1995 he achieved the title of Master of Fine Arts in Poetry ( Poetry ) at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, reaching a position at Origin Systems as lead designer of Ultima Online. He was subsequently also the lead designer of Ultima Online: The Second Age and Ultima Online Live and an unknown and painted title. In 2000 he moved to Verant Interactive in Austin (Texas ), where he developed as Creative Director Star Wars Galaxies.

Raph Koster was promoted in 2003 after the release of Star Wars Galaxies Chief Creative Officer at Sony Online Entertainment and took care of San Diego, mostly from the development of the business. He left the company again in 2006 to pursue for their own projects "something indie ... 's something that is [ hopefully ] disruptive and different and not games as usual. " In December 2006, the company was founded by areae Inc. announced its president is currently.

Raph Koster is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and the International Game Developers Association ( IGDA ), ASCAP and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is also a frequent speaker at conferences and MMOG games industry, for example, the GDC, DICE State of Play and the largest computer and video game trade show E3 in Los Angeles. He lives in San Diego with his wife Kristen and has a daughter and a son.

Design position

Raph Koster's position in the design based on the worldy (also sandbox ) above design approach in which the game world or game content is dynamically generated from a number of variables that can be manipulated by players. This simulative building a game world can be illustrated with the Infamous Dragon Example. In contrast to other approaches (eg, content directed ), for example, a behavior or process is specified directly, but results from the interaction of variables and resulting instructions.

Infamous Dragon Example Each creature in the game is defined by their needs. For example, needs a Dragon a large amount of meat in order to survive and is also looking for gold ( if he has found what he should bring this back to the nest ). In the application, the dragon would have a nest and then look in widening circles within for food. If the players the game eradicate in this region, the dragon would search large perimeters and may eventually fall on a nearby town to collect food there. The players in turn could solve the problem by doing what feed the dragon (for example, by leading a herd of wild into the dragon's nest ), so the dragon does not need to fly as far and thus spared the villages. Alternatively, they could also slay the dragon ( at bsp. Arrive at the gold). This is an example of how a simulative design can lead to a more dynamic environment.

In this example, information such as hunger are simple variables, whose values ​​decrease with time. When the dragon encounters objects that carry the property meat, the hunger - value is padded by a certain amount back, which leads to a programmed change in behavior ( for example, now to go for gold ). Does the dragon found a certain amount of objects which carry the gold property, this again leads to a change in behavior that causes the dragon to return to its nest.

In addition to these approaches, which could be realized in parts in Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, Raph Koster puts an emphasis on social interaction. So he developed the first guild system for Ultima Online ( system for the organization of players associations ), which has become a general standard of MMORPGs. In Star Wars Galaxies a focus was placed on the creation of player cities and peaceful, social forms of play.

Trivia

• Raph Koster did not work during his time in Barbados three months to school because he probably had a slight depression. The doctor prescribed him vitamins and sunshine. " Kinda ruined my high school transcript. "
• He never got a speeding ticket ( not because he is a very good driver, but because it is mostly down )
• He is a good runner and held the record in the hurdles at his school.
• Bred earlier rodents: hamsters and gerbils in Alabama. He had so many that the black animals were to be had with the white bands on the feet anywhere in the area.

Games

• LegendMUD ( implementor )
• Ultima Online (lead designer; Origin Systems 1997)
• Ultima Online: The Second Age (lead designer; Origin Systems 1998)
• Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (Creative Director; Verant Interactive 2003) Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (Creative Consultant; Sony Online Entertainment 2004)
• Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience ( creative consultant; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)

• EverQuest II: Desert of Flames (Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky (Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment, 2005 )

Discography

• After the Flood (1999)

Bibliography

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design - Foreword by Will Wright, ISBN 1-932111-97-2
• "The rights of avatars "
• "The Laws of Online World Design" (GDC 1999 presentation)
• A Story About a Tree ( May 1998)

Awards

• Hot 100 (Next Generation 2006)
• 100 Greatest Developers (Game Informer 2006)

Credentials

• Real People, Virtual Worlds. Film Documentation of Tracy Spaight, 2002