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Raph Koster

Raph Koster

Game designer, author, speaker

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Raph Koster
Raph Koster
Game designer, author, speaker
  • The new book: A Grammar of Gameplay

    Hours May 19, 2006May 19, 2006 Categories Game talk, Writing
    Comments 24 Comments

    Now that it’s on Amazon, I suppose that I need to actually write it.

    This is the follow-on to A Theory of Fun for Game Design, of course, and it’s called A Grammar of Gameplay: How Games Work. It’s intended as a companion, of course, but also as an amalgam of all the thoughts on game atoms, game design notation, mechannics vs dressing, and so on. It’s also intended to spend a fair amount of time on only the dressing — not so much as to replace indispensable books like Lee Sheldon’s, but just to provide a bit of an overview of how non-mechanical elements influence a player’s perception of a game.

    The overview sell sheet that I provided to the publisher:
    Read More “The new book: A Grammar of Gameplay”

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  • Entropia Universe vs. TerraNova

    Hours May 19, 2006 Categories Game talk
    Comments 7 Comments

    Oh, the drama.

    Read More Entropia Universe vs. TerraNovaContinue

  • Uru returns

    Hours May 18, 2006 Categories Game talk
    Comments 5 Comments

    CNet has an article on how GameTap is going to bring Uru Live back. Certainly unexpected… I assumne it will have a serious impact on the Uru communities in There, for example.

    Read More Uru returnsContinue

  • Paul Simon’s Surprise

    Hours May 16, 2006May 17, 2006 Categories Music
    Comments 6 Comments

    SurpriseIt’s been years, but he’s finally graced us with a new album. And it has the Oscar-nominated “Fathers and Daughters” on it.

    It also has Brian Eno’s production, which may be a bit of a “surprise” to most in itself.

     
     
     
     

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  • Exceptionalism

    Hours May 15, 2006May 15, 2006 Categories Game talk
    Comments 46 Comments

    In the apparently neverending discussion thread on the Metaverse Summit, I seem to have been assigned the role of Second Life skeptic or even opponent, despite this not being my intention. In fact, it’s rather odd, since in some circles I am considered a staunch SL defender, whereas in others I am the skeptic…! I guess I have different avatars for different social worlds…

    In a post over at his blog, Cory Ondrejka writes,

    Would you be willing to give up on online game exceptionalism? 🙂

    Read More “Exceptionalism”

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  • Blog
    • Blog Home
    • Recommended posts 1998-2012
    • Recommended posts 2012-2017
    • Recommended posts, 2017-2025
  • Game Design
    • Game Design Home
    • A Theory of Fun site
    • Presentations
    • Essays
    • Interviews and panels
    • Snippets
    • Laws of Online World Design
    • The Online World Timeline
    • MMO History Links
  • Books
    • All the Books
    • Postmortems
    • Theory of Fun
    • Sunday Poems
    • Other writing
      • Fiction
      • Poetry
      • Lit Crit
  • Music
    • My Music
    • After the Flood
      • Amazon
      • iTunes
      • Spotify
    • Listen
    • Instruments and tunings
  • Art
    • Art Home
    • Pencils
    • Pen and Ink
    • Cartoons
    • Digital Art
    • Doodles
  • About Raph
    • About Me
    • CV
    • Contact Raph
    • Press kit
    • Hobbies
      • Emulation
      • Fish tanks
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