Post by Morreion on Nov 28, 2022 10:30:37 GMT -5
Playable Worlds
Raph Koster’s plan is to build the metaverse tech, build a sandbox MMORPG on it, then open it all up (Massively)
Raph Koster talks metaverse creation and learning lessons from past game design mistakes (Massively)
Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds scored $25M in investment for his ‘modern sandbox MMO’ (Massively)
Raph Koster talks about the ‘mission’ of Playable Worlds, his vision of the metaverse, and player ownership (Massively)
Raph Koster’s plan is to build the metaverse tech, build a sandbox MMORPG on it, then open it all up (Massively)
If Raph Koster’s metaverse talk has you more confused than before, then don’t worry; his new more technical blog is going to scramble your brains even more. Essential, he argues that Playable Worlds’ metaverse tech will help solve some of the difficulty and cost of building MMOs in the modern world, making sharding, custom rulesets, dynamic content, and patching much easier.
“Slow iteration means fewer chances to refine gameplay,” he says. “It also means higher costs, which leads to greater conservatism in game design; higher costs make devs less inclined to take risks. When we look across the history of games, we see periods of enormous innovation come along whenever costs fall. Flash games, mobile games, the availability of Unity and Unreal: all of them led to new experiences, because cost barriers fell. Well, MMOs have not had that happen. If anything, barriers just keep going up.”
Koster reiterates that Playable Worlds’ plan is to build the tech, build his sandbox MMORPG using it, and then flesh out the platform for other uses, like modding or “networks of multiple games, not all made by us.”
“We are making a game with this tech for you, rather than asking you to make games for us,” he finishes. “But there’s no point in paying much attention to that until you make a great game. All of this only matters if players are happy. So that’s what we’re working on first. A great player experience is the point.”
“Slow iteration means fewer chances to refine gameplay,” he says. “It also means higher costs, which leads to greater conservatism in game design; higher costs make devs less inclined to take risks. When we look across the history of games, we see periods of enormous innovation come along whenever costs fall. Flash games, mobile games, the availability of Unity and Unreal: all of them led to new experiences, because cost barriers fell. Well, MMOs have not had that happen. If anything, barriers just keep going up.”
Koster reiterates that Playable Worlds’ plan is to build the tech, build his sandbox MMORPG using it, and then flesh out the platform for other uses, like modding or “networks of multiple games, not all made by us.”
“We are making a game with this tech for you, rather than asking you to make games for us,” he finishes. “But there’s no point in paying much attention to that until you make a great game. All of this only matters if players are happy. So that’s what we’re working on first. A great player experience is the point.”
Raph Koster talks metaverse creation and learning lessons from past game design mistakes (Massively)
“Metaverse.” It’s the one word that, apparently, drives game execs and investors into a babbling frenzy just seconds before they explode into venture capital that rains down on any studio that wants to make it happen. It’s also enough of a concept – nebulous as it is right now – that GamesBeat created a summit about the whole thing, and one of that summit’s speakers was none other than Raph Koster, who talked about how many of the technical challenges in creating a metaverse were already solved in the past.
“We’ve had online worlds for 44 years, and any vision of the metaverse is built on top of the idea of online worlds, whether you call them online worlds, MUDs, virtual worlds social worlds — it doesn’t matter. […] I’m here to just share some high level lessons, some mistakes that have already been made, in hopes that it saves you from making future mistakes.”
Koster recounted the creation of decentralized online worlds as far back as 1992; his own creation of a virtual version of a real-world mall was in 1994. With that in mind, he reasons that the major hurdles for a metaverse creation are more social than technical; players are not interested in item portability, and the option to take an item from one digital place to another requires a set of standards, which are a “social coordination problem.”
Koster also talks about how a 3-D metaverse isn’t necessarily better and further pointed out how technology alone can’t ultimately solve the problems of governance in a digital universe. However, he appears to be optimistic that game devs can work together to solve many of the social challenges of a metaverse’s creation. So long as they look back at the past.
“We’ve had online worlds for 44 years, and any vision of the metaverse is built on top of the idea of online worlds, whether you call them online worlds, MUDs, virtual worlds social worlds — it doesn’t matter. […] I’m here to just share some high level lessons, some mistakes that have already been made, in hopes that it saves you from making future mistakes.”
Koster recounted the creation of decentralized online worlds as far back as 1992; his own creation of a virtual version of a real-world mall was in 1994. With that in mind, he reasons that the major hurdles for a metaverse creation are more social than technical; players are not interested in item portability, and the option to take an item from one digital place to another requires a set of standards, which are a “social coordination problem.”
Koster also talks about how a 3-D metaverse isn’t necessarily better and further pointed out how technology alone can’t ultimately solve the problems of governance in a digital universe. However, he appears to be optimistic that game devs can work together to solve many of the social challenges of a metaverse’s creation. So long as they look back at the past.
Raph Koster’s Playable Worlds scored $25M in investment for his ‘modern sandbox MMO’ (Massively)
GIbiz reports that the company has raised another $25M in investment in a Series B funding round. That’s in addition to the at least $2.7M in seed funding in 2019 and a $10M Series A round reported in 2020, though Koster has clarified not all the funding has been made public. Notably, the lead investor in this round was South Korea’s Kakao Games, well known to our audience for its global MMOs.
Koster, the veteran MMO designer behind Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, has previously characterized his project as a metaverse platform for MMORPGs, including one designed by Playable Worlds itself, though that was last September before the entire industry pivoted to chase the metaverse rabbit. Last year, Koster wrote that his team is “reasonably far along on building” a “modern sandbox MMO” on the platform; he’s said the game is “at least a few years out,” though we have yet to see a formal announcement or name.
Koster, the veteran MMO designer behind Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online, has previously characterized his project as a metaverse platform for MMORPGs, including one designed by Playable Worlds itself, though that was last September before the entire industry pivoted to chase the metaverse rabbit. Last year, Koster wrote that his team is “reasonably far along on building” a “modern sandbox MMO” on the platform; he’s said the game is “at least a few years out,” though we have yet to see a formal announcement or name.
Raph Koster talks about the ‘mission’ of Playable Worlds, his vision of the metaverse, and player ownership (Massively)
In the interview, Koster was asked about the “mission” for his studio Playable Worlds, which garnered the following response:
“I would say that the mission of Playable Worlds is to fulfill the potential of what online worlds can be. […] I would like online worlds to be a place where different groups come to understand one another; a place where we can experiment and work together to solve group coordination problems that maybe help make a difference in the real world. I would like online worlds to be places of identity exploration, where we come to know ourselves better. They’re not just a public square but a lab for experimentation.
“In terms of what that means in terms of what we’re building, first is we want to make online worlds actually work the way the rest of the modern internet does rather than using a decades-old very rigid client/server model; we want to do something that plays better with the internet today.”
Koster also talked about what kind of metaverse he wants to see in the world:
“When we dream of a metaverse, it’s super clear that it needs some clued elements such as on-the-fly dynamic updates, far less reliance on static content, less emphasis on the concept of content period, more ability for there to be a two-way connection between players and the game, more leveraging of the amazing power of simulation and the power of the cloud than what we do now. We keep building worlds like we’re building the stage for a high school play.”
Finally, Koster talked about the idea of player ownership and player-owned economies in gaming. Here Koster talks about the differences between whether games can or whether they should, noting that he currently falls in the “should but maybe can’t” category, citing current tech infrastructure as the primary reason. “To my mind, you cannot disentangle the notion of ownership from the fundamental fact that somebody else owns the server that embodies all of the ownership data,” he says.
“I would say that the mission of Playable Worlds is to fulfill the potential of what online worlds can be. […] I would like online worlds to be a place where different groups come to understand one another; a place where we can experiment and work together to solve group coordination problems that maybe help make a difference in the real world. I would like online worlds to be places of identity exploration, where we come to know ourselves better. They’re not just a public square but a lab for experimentation.
“In terms of what that means in terms of what we’re building, first is we want to make online worlds actually work the way the rest of the modern internet does rather than using a decades-old very rigid client/server model; we want to do something that plays better with the internet today.”
Koster also talked about what kind of metaverse he wants to see in the world:
“When we dream of a metaverse, it’s super clear that it needs some clued elements such as on-the-fly dynamic updates, far less reliance on static content, less emphasis on the concept of content period, more ability for there to be a two-way connection between players and the game, more leveraging of the amazing power of simulation and the power of the cloud than what we do now. We keep building worlds like we’re building the stage for a high school play.”
Finally, Koster talked about the idea of player ownership and player-owned economies in gaming. Here Koster talks about the differences between whether games can or whether they should, noting that he currently falls in the “should but maybe can’t” category, citing current tech infrastructure as the primary reason. “To my mind, you cannot disentangle the notion of ownership from the fundamental fact that somebody else owns the server that embodies all of the ownership data,” he says.
