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The Escapist: Raph Koster Interview
Vortex500
Member Posts: 392
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Vortex500
Member Posts: 392
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It's Koster
fishermage.blogspot.com
ok..dammit...for all future references
Its Raph not Ralph
Its Koster not Kostner
*this is not directed at the op...but everyone :P who knew his name is one of the hardest to spell lol*
lol nah LucasArts is not controlling lol
TE: One has to wonder if your emphasis on user creation and, one infers, user ownership is in any way in response to the SWG debacle you've been both so vocal and so circumspect about. Are you trying to allow users to create a world no one will be able to take away from them?
RK: It isn't any sort of reaction to Galaxies, I don't think. It doesn't have anything much to do with that. If there is a way in which it relates to Galaxies it would be this: The market is very much narrowing into a particular gameplay style, right? Even though I'm very gratified when I see something people made fun of getting adopted into other MMOGs, like I'm really glad to see the musicianship system in Lord of the Rings Online. It is the step beyond the Galaxies, one that we couldn't take because of lawyers. Or the amount of dancing emotes that are in World of Warcraft, when before SWG everyone was making fun of us for dancing. Some of these things are sneaking in, but at the same time the overall gameplay really has narrowed into kind of a lack of variety, honestly.Despite occasional things like EVE and Puzzle Pirates, by and large they play mostly the same. To my mind, Galaxies had a different vibe to it, and part of the thing here would be to see different vibes. I think if we can open up MMOG creation to a wider array of people and influences, I think we'll see a much more interesting gaming library.
Further proof that LA strangleholds and holds all the cards in developement of SWG
I still don't understand why people act like this fella is some be all end all MMO guru. UO? Yeah it was ok, it's a MUD and Ultima... SWG? How many people on this site rip that game a new one daily?
I can't think of a single thing he's done for MMOs then now or between. All he seems to do is say lot of pseudo mumbo jumbo that never comes about.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
That is more likely SOE's own lawyers because of song copyrights..Especially if the legal advice is handle by the parent and not SOE having an internal legal team since they would be dealing with copyright issues for Sony BMG as well.
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
That is more likely SOE's own lawyers because of song copyrights..Especially if the legal advice is handle by the parent and not SOE having an internal legal team since they would be dealing with copyright issues for Sony BMG as well.
being a musician myself....i can tell you...i have never been sued for playing a song in front of my friends on the piano from memory....how is this any different? It is not illegal to perform music if you are not making money from it....and as far as i could tell..no musician in LOTRO is personally making money from creating or playing a song in game
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
Despite what the old school purists may say or believe, Pre-CU / Pre-NGE was not a great game. It had a ton of issues and was only fun for hardcores. As a matter of fact, there are more subscribers to SWG now than there were before the changes. That to me says a lot.
There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set.
Oh and as for Raph, he's nothing more than a "Brad McQuaid" of the sci-fi mmo. Old school, outdated, outmoded and generally unwanted in the genre.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
Despite what the old school purists may say or believe, Pre-CU / Pre-NGE was not a great game. It had a ton of issues and was only fun for hardcores. As a matter of fact, there are more subscribers to SWG now than there were before the changes. That to me says a lot.
There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set.
its not great...but it was the 2nd largest mmo in NA right behind EQ at the time
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
Despite what the old school purists may say or believe, Pre-CU / Pre-NGE was not a great game. It had a ton of issues and was only fun for hardcores. As a matter of fact, there are more subscribers to SWG now than there were before the changes. That to me says a lot.
There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set.
Oh and as for Raph, he's nothing more than a "Brad McQuaid" of the sci-fi mmo. Old school, outdated, outmoded and generally unwanted in the genre.
Are you serious or just starting trouble?
being a musician myself....i can tell you...i have never been sued for playing a song in front of my friends on the piano from memory....how is this any different? It is not illegal to perform music if you are not making money from it....and as far as i could tell..no musician in LOTRO is personally making money from creating or playing a song in game
The problem is not that PLAYERS are making money off it; but LotR is making money off allowing players to POTENTIALLY be making money off it.
Will they be sued? Maybe, eventually. The problem is always with RECORDING, not performing; sharing, not enjoying, We'll see, This is a very new area of law and many people are afraid to move here. It's a pity LA was as well, but it is certainly understandable.
fishermage.blogspot.com
That is more likely SOE's own lawyers because of song copyrights..Especially if the legal advice is handle by the parent and not SOE having an internal legal team since they would be dealing with copyright issues for Sony BMG as well.
being a musician myself....i can tell you...i have never been sued for playing a song in front of my friends on the piano from memory....how is this any different? It is not illegal to perform music if you are not making money from it....and as far as i could tell..no musician in LOTRO is personally making money from creating or playing a song in game
The problem is not that PLAYERS are making money off it; but LotR is making money off allowing players to POTENTIALLY be making money off it.
Will they be sued? Maybe, eventually. The problem is always with RECORDING, not performing; sharing, not enjoying, We'll see, This is a very new area of law and many people are afraid to move here. It's a pity LA was as well, but it is certainly understandable.
well by that logic than anyone who hosts a fan film or parody you find on youtube or star wars fan sites should be sued. Anyone who takes captured movies of a game should be sued....but last i check these are still legal, and the websites they are hosted on are making money off each potential click these items bring to them
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
Despite what the old school purists may say or believe, Pre-CU / Pre-NGE was not a great game. It had a ton of issues and was only fun for hardcores. As a matter of fact, there are more subscribers to SWG now than there were before the changes. That to me says a lot.
There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set.
Oh and as for Raph, he's nothing more than a "Brad McQuaid" of the sci-fi mmo. Old school, outdated, outmoded and generally unwanted in the genre.
prove it!
"As a matter of fact there are more subscribers to SWG than there were before the changes"
This is an assertion that is totally unsupported by reality.
"There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set."
Waiting for an articulation of the 'good reason' why they don't go back ot the old system.
As for Koster being "old school", what the hell does this mean when the most successful MMO around, WoW, is basically a throwback to the old school MMO with the noticable difference that it works and is polished?
CH, Jedi, Commando, Smuggler, BH, Scout, Doctor, Chef, BE...yeah, lots of SWG time invested.
Once a denizen of Ahazi
Anyone can sue anyone for any reason; and anyone who doesn't have the money or inclination to fight it off loses. It's not a question of what is legal; it is a question of how lawsuits work and how much they cost, no matter how little merit they may have.
I'm not supporting any of this; just explaining how things go down and why people make these hard decisions.
fishermage.blogspot.com
Oh btw, GL has explicitly stated that since he supports fan films, he will not sue over them; unless they are porn or some such. Just try and do the same thing with marvel or DC Characters.
fishermage.blogspot.com
let just call him king of the coaster makers lol
O rly?
Edit: To add to this concerning the actual OP. This could be interesting in just seeing what types of games come out of this. Haven't really checked out how it all works overall, but it could be fun. I was hoping he'd get into making another MMO. Maybe someday in the future he'll get the itch.
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What's the old math professor saying ... "This isn't right. This isn't even WRONG."
I was never close to anybody's definition of 'hardcore'. Never pursued Jedi, never even considered the awfulness of the Hologrind. Just found a niche I really liked and played it, enjoyed all the variety and depth, and went out PvP'ing with the true hardcores in our City when the alarm bell rang.
There are excellent reasons they don't offer an old server ... they're not investing anything in the game any more and they don't have anyone qualified to even code the old game.
If there are more subscribers than during my pre-CU days, I sure didn't see them in the last trial I tried a few months back, and nobody from the old days that *has* tried one of the trials has reported that to me. Ghost cities, ghost planets, ghost Galaxies is what exists today.
But you know, even if it did manage to give away enough trials and sell enough Station Passes to cook the books and claim more subscribers than pre-CU, so what? McDonald's sells more burgers than a fine restaurant, that doesn't mean I consider McDonald's better food or that I'd ever consider paying fifteen bucks for one of them.
SOE chose to take a complex sandbox and junk it for a shoddy WoW rip-off, and what a shock, most of the paying customers who wanted the complex sandbox didn't want the shoddy rip-off. If they find a group that wants that, it won't shock me, if there's one thing our economy proves over and over again, it's that you *can* find a market for cheap crap if you package it right.
All that being said ... was the pre-CU a project managed with staggering incompetence and abysmal code quality? Yep, always was. The difference is that in pre-CU they were doing a lousy job of developing a product I was interested in seeing them finish, and now they're doing an even worse job on a product that never interested me a bit.
Save us Obi-wan Koster ... you're our only hope.
I for one love Mr. Koster's concepts and designs. If I ever hear his name associated with an upcoming MMO I will be a fan boi of it no matter what.
Koster is the Sid Meyer of MMORPG's.
Sadly, unlike Sid Meyers investors, MMORPG investors don't pay for new stuff... So the guys with ideas in the MMORPG business gets scr*wed.
the nGE yes it is ripped daily...the old game..not so much :P He designed the original...not the NGE
Despite what the old school purists may say or believe, Pre-CU / Pre-NGE was not a great game. It had a ton of issues and was only fun for hardcores. As a matter of fact, there are more subscribers to SWG now than there were before the changes. That to me says a lot.
There's a good reason why they don't revert back to the old system or offer an old school server set.
Yes sir, I do believe crack prices must have dropped. And it must have been some good stuff, too."I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
I totally agree. Innovation is dead these days. Companies will not grow balls and try something different, and this is just sad
Cause there is definitely a market, whether it be 100k - 10mil, who would gladly try something different then the tried and true EQ model.