Welcome to Raph Koster's personal website: MMOs, gaming, writing, art, music, books.
Welcome to Raph Koster's personal website: MMOs, gaming, writing, art, music, books.

The whole Web
Raph's Website


Essays
These are full-blown essays, papers, and articles.

Presentations
Slideshows and presentation materials from conferences.

Interviews and Panels
Reprints of non-game-specific interviews, and transcripts of panels and roundtables.

Snippets
Excerpts from blog, newsgroup, and forum posts.

Laws
The "Laws of Online World Design" in various forms.

Timeline
A timeline of developments in online worlds.

A Theory of Fun for Game Design
My book on why games matter and what fun is.

Insubstantial Pageants
A book I started and never finished outlining the basics of online world design.

Links
Links to resources on online world design.



Online World Timeline

The following is a timeline of significant events for the development of virtual worlds. This has been reprinted at a few places, including MudCenter and Four Below Zero. I welcome more additions to the timeline. Check at the bottom of this for a list of sources.

Created, March 4th, 2000. Last updated February 20th, 2002.

-Raph Koster


1937

1947

1954-55

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001 2002
*

Still looking for info on these items:

???? - MajorMUD "... a mud that originated on BBSs (MajorBBS?) ...this one seems important though I've never played it. I just _know_ someone on this list has." - Jon Lambert

*

Sources:

Back to Raph's Website, gaming section.

Child's Play


A Theory of Fun
for Game Design

Cover of A Theory of Fun

Press

Excerpts

Buy from Amazon


After the Flood

Cover for After the Flood CD

Available on CD
$14.99


More stuff to buy

Gratuitous Penguin 2006 Wall Calendar

Gratuitous Penguin 2006 Wall Calendar
$18.99


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LegendMUD

click here to visit the Legend website

"The world the way they thought it was..."