American video game designer and entrepreneur

Raphael "Raph" Koster (born September 7, 1971) is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies. From 2006 until 2013 he worked as the founder and president of Metaplace (previously operating as Areae and acquired by social gaming company Playdom in 2010, which was in turn acquired by Disney) producing a Facebook game platform.

Contents

• 1 Biography
• 2 Credits
  • 2.1 Games
  • 2.2 Discography
  • 2.3 Writing
• 3 Awards
• 4 References
• 5 External links
  • 5.1 Interviews
  • 5.2 Wikimania 2014
  • 5.3 In the news

Biography

Koster attended Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, receiving a bachelor's degree in English (Creative Writing) and Spanish in 1992. The same year he became involved with MUDs as a developer of Worlds of Carnage, then in 1994 moved on to become implementor of LegendMUD, where he was known as Ptah. He also played MUME for a time. On May 10, 1992, he married Kristen who would later work alongside him at Origin Systems as a game designer.

In 1995, he received a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and joined Origin Systems as the lead designer of Ultima Online. Koster was also the lead designer of Ultima Online: The Second Age, Ultima Online Live, and an unannounced and cancelled *le until 2000, when he joined Verant Interactive in Austin as the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies.

Promoted to chief creative officer in 2003, he relocated to Sony Online Entertainment in San Diego where he spent three years primarily responsible for business development. In March 2006, Koster left the company to work on Metaplace which, at the end, was a social gaming platform for Facebook games. Since 2013 he is an independent designer and consultant.

Koster is a charter member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and a member of the IGDA, ASCAP, and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is also a frequent speaker at game industry conferences such as the GDC, DICE, State of Play, and E3. He presently lives in San Diego, California with his wife and family.

In 2019, Koster and Eric Goldberg founded a new company, Playable Worlds, focused on creating an as-yet-unnamed MMORPG.

Credits

Games

• LegendMUD (emeritus implementor, 1994)
• 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 (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2004)
  • EverQuest II: Desert of Flames (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
  • EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (chief creative officer and editor; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• GripShift (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• Frantix (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• Champions: Return to Arms (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2005)
• Field Commander (chief creative officer; Sony Online Entertainment 2006)

Discography

• After the Flood (1999)

Writing

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design — Foreword by Will Wright (ISBN:1-932111-97-2)
• "Declaring the Rights of Avatars"
• A Story About A Tree, (May 1998), revolving around the Karyn incident
• "The Laws of Online World Design" (GDC 1999 presentation)
• Koster, Raph. "Geek Fun Isn't Frivolous; Alien Swarms of Thundering, Flashing Games Hit Town This Week. They're Here to Make Us Smarter." Los Angeles Times May 15, 2005, sec. M1.
• "As Seen In Modern Lair" (October 2007)

Awards

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

References

External links

• Raph Koster's Website
• Areae, Inc. at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2008-08-01)
• A Theory of Fun for Game Design official website
• MobyGames Biography
• "Raph Koster Leaves Sony Online Entertainment" (Gamasutra)

Interviews

• Pham, Alex. "Game Design; Building a Community—Even a Virtual One—Takes Work." Los Angeles Times Sep 6, 2001, sec. T5.
• Interview: December 21, 2006 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2007-10-12) (Amber Night)
• Interview: December 25, 2006 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-07-23) (Stratics)
• Interview: March 22, 2006 (Game Studies)
• Interview: July 25, 2006 (The Escapist)
• Interview: March 10, 2007 (GameZombie.tv)
• Interview: October 11th, 2007 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2007-10-19) (The MMO Gamer)

Wikimania 2014

Wikipedia is a Game, presentation by Raph Koster at Wikimania 2014

In the news

• BBC: Virtual worlds opened up to all (September 19, 2007)

Wing Commander series

• Wing Commander
• II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
• III: Heart of the Tiger
• IV: The Price of Freedom
• Prophecy

Moebius and sequel

• Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony
• Windwalker

Crusader and sequel

• No Remorse
• No Regret

Jane's Simulations series

• Jane's AH-64D Longbow
• Jane's Longbow 2

Stand-alone games

• Autoduel
• Ogre
• 2400 A.D.
• Times of Lore
• Knights of Legend
• Omega
• Space Rogue
• Tangled Tales
• Bad Blood
• Strike Commander
• Pacific Strike
• Metal Morph
• Wings of Glory
• BioForge
• CyberMage

Published games

• ShadowCaster
• System Shock
• Abuse

People

• Richard Garriott
• Robert Garriott
• Denis Loubet
• Chuck Bueche
• Paul Neurath
• John Romero
• Chris Roberts
• David R. Watson
• Martin Galway
• Warren Spector
• Ken Demarest
• Ellen Beeman
• Mike McShaffry
• Raymond Benson
• Sheri Graner Ray
• Paul Steed
• Harvey Smith
• Britt Daniel
• David W. Bradley
• Starr Long
• Andrew Sega
• Raph Koster

Related

• Looking Gl* Studios
• Destination Games
• Electronic Arts