Raph Koster

Metaplace Stress Test: a 2d space shooter
March 7, 2008March 7, 2008 Gamemaking
7 Comments

Here we go, stress test number three! Stuff is starting to accelerate quite a lot here as we gear up for releases. So we’re doing another stress test. This one is for an overhead 2d space shooter that you may have seen screenshots of before. This intent this time is to stress test with some physics and a really bandwidth-intensive game. We’ve also worked some on optimizations and on browser compatibility since last time, so we’ll see how that does. We really hope we manage to break stuff this time!

You don’t need to be an alpha tester to play. Just visit the main Metaplace page at noon Pacific time tomorrow, and there will be a link to the game.

Read More Metaplace Stress Test: a 2d space shooter
When real life becomes a game
March 6, 2008 Game talk
3 Comments

Someone in Beijing decides to try reaching a blogger under house-arrest:

Luckily, just prior to this I had finished reading The Gulag Archipelago, so I was mentally prepared for the conditions inside an institution. However, this was still not enough, so I did a crash course in learning some criminal procedure law and investigation and interrogation methodology. Aside from that, my head was full of the first-person shooters in Delta Force and Counter-Strike—so I was thinking of what was needed for a military operation.

Global Voices Online » China: Hack into Freedom City

Read More When real life becomes a game
Social Fun
March 6, 2008 Game talk
6 Comments

Moroagh’s excellent blog continues to have thought-provoking pieces on game design. This time around it’s a great post on social fun, looking at an often neglected quadrant of Nicole Lazzaro’s four types of fun.

Social and Family Gaming #3: Fun and being social « Thoughts on Moroagh – MMORPGs and other distractions

This is an important aspect of family gaming that doesn’t fit the all to heavy if not pure challenge model of “hard fun” alone. We play social games not just to gloat and be proud of the achievement of our beloved ones. We also play social games to socially interact, learn about each other, foster social skills, form bonds, explore others in a safe context of an artificial game environment, learn to cooperate, learn to give in, learn to support, learn to empathize, learn to see things from someone else’s perspective, learn to argue with grace, learn to be able to accept that multiple points of view are present, learn to cope with interpersonal frustrations, learn to unwind together. And of course learning to not gloat and be a graceful winner as much as a proud and respectful loser.

A lot of social behaviors are about the ability to not win for the sake of someone else, to forgo competition for the sake of preserving a social bond, to seek activities that are cooperative rather than competitive.

I couldn’t agree more; and yet, the picture is pretty tangled.

Read More “Social Fun”

Read More Social Fun
Core of Fun audio
March 4, 2008 Game talk
1 Comment

ETech is on this year again, and this time I am not attending — too busy at work, even though it’s right here in town. Alas! Lots of friends are here and I won’t get to see most of them.

Coincidentally, my keynote there from last year on The Core of Fun is now available as audio from IT Conversations as a free download or stream.

Boy, it’s weird to listen to yourself!

Read More Core of Fun audio
Gary Gygax, RIP
March 4, 2008March 4, 2008 Game talk
10 Comments

Gary Gygax has died.

Naturally, all of us — game world or social world folk, pen and paper or computer — owe a lot to him and Dave Arneson, for developing so many of the underpinnings of alternate worlds and roleplaying.

Read More Gary Gygax, RIP

Meta

Policies

Find Raph Online