Raph_Koster

5 ms·

1.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
https://www.raphkoster.com/2008/07/09/a-game-designers-core-... which leads to https://www.raphkoster.com/2014/01/15/a-vision-exercise/ and its critique counterpart: http
2.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
Towards the end of the article, I say this: "If you just make the same game, the one you know how to make, the players get bored because it’s nothing but problems they have seen before and already have their answers to. Sometimes, they
3.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
"Hard to play" has almost nothing to do with "the underlying game system is Hard in a complexity sense." And both are somewhat orthogonal to the complaint about "adding more stuff" -- doing so may make somethin
4.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
This goes back to the motivations thing. For those who are motivated by narrative stuff, that opening works well. It sets up uncertainties and ambiguities that engage curiosity and prediction. But you don't like those sorts of problems
5.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
Towards the end of the article I mention "some of us have been working out the rule set for how you can link loops into a larger network of problems for literally over twenty years." That is referencing the "game grammar&quot
6.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
No, I added all the images after writing the article. But the images ARE from the many many presentations I have given on game design, which can be found here: https://www.raphkoster.com/games/presentations/ Many
7.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
Most classic games are in fact built out of NP problems, or at least the upper reaches of PSPACE. https://www.raphkoster.com/games/presentations/games-are-mat... has an overview.
8.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
No, it's not a very local definition at all, it's actually a generalized definition for all forms of game and entertainment -- and art, even! You seem to be assuming I have a reductive definition of game, when the definition given
9.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
1. As the article says, "People will be willing to go along with pretty simple and pretty familiar problems as long as the feedback is great." 2. For arbitrary n x m boards, Candy Crush (and Bejeweled, it's predecessor), has
10.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
They're not stupid -- they're feedback. You get them as a reward for having done something, usually. But they are also not gameplay, obviously. https://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-
11.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
Remember, it's about prediction (point 1 of the 12). Pure random cannot be predicted. From a prediction point of view, it is therefore ironically, an already determined result. So it is solved, and therefore not interesting. In Theory
12.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
You might like this article: https://www.raphkoster.com/2012/01/20/narrative-is-not-a-gam...
13.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
I mention it because so many people reach blindly for dopamine as an explanation for everything and expect it to get mentioned. That's why I said "it’s tied to prediction; but it’s complicated and nuanced" and instead provide
14.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
Frankly, I think you will be hard pressed to find a game that does NOT make use of repeated challenges. Especially when seen through the atomic and fractal framework the article gives. But repeated challenges does not equal grind. Grind t
15.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
The article indeed states that fun is different for everyone. The answer on inferring relationships between flavors of fun, and good colalteral fun activities, is in number 11. :D
16.
by Raph_Koster 10mo ago
1. This article, at its very core, says that grind-based games are less successful than games that are not based on grind. How you got the reverse out of it, I do not know. 2. This article also does not say that fun equals repeated challe
17.
by Raph_Koster 4y ago
Original lead designer here. Quora has answers on on the tech stack in this thread: https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-technology-stack-driving-... Reddit has answers on the rendering engine here: https://www.red
18.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
Everyone just called them "servers." Not shards.
19.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
It was exactly that, a callback. In fact, the game opening cinematic recounted the story.
20.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
I'm an English major -- of course we knew about Chekhov's gun. :) You may want to check here regarding that particular article/video: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18749793
21.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
Our dividing line for massive in 1995 was 250, because most LAN play capped at 64, and MUDs achieved up to around 253 (the number of available file descriptors on a standard Linux kernel at the time). Meridian 59 launched with 250 player ca
22.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
You're welcome! We knew we were making something that could be impactful, but we really didn't have any idea how much impact it would have, and it's always amazing to hear stories of how it affected players. :)
23.
by Raph_Koster 6y ago
WoW's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. Actually, everyone's crafting system is pretty strongly inspired by UO's. That said, the big difference is that crafting in WoW at launch, and for many years t
24.
by Raph_Koster 7y ago
Original lead designer of the game here. Richard's recollection is flawed on this (he wasn't close enough to the tech to know why it failed). Reason #1: the closed loop fell victim to hoarding, particularly because the advancement
25.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
Actually, we do in fact say that X is a jerk over the telephone but less so in person. It's pretty well studied. The generic term is "psychological disinhibition" and it used to come up all the time around the issue of emai
26.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
You're welcome!
27.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
You're welcome, I guess. Assuming you like your career.
28.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
We actually wanted the scarcity, so it would affect prices and desirability. We just didn't expect everything to be scarce.
29.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
This and many other experiments were tried in the MUDs and early days of MMOs. The idea of denying services to those who killed a lot worked pretty well on many UO player-run shards.
30.
by Raph_Koster 8y ago
This still causes runaway inflation of item power, which results in mudflation.

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