Raph Koster: A Theory Of Fun For Game Design

[contracycle]

This is mostly an FYI/Heads Up post.  Raph Koster is the creative director behind StarWars Galaxies, and something of a Name in the world of MUD design.  He has recently produced a book with the above title, and I just read an interview with him in PCGamer which suggests it may be very interesting.  In fact, the very fact that he identifies the need to deconstruct Fun into something we can comprehend more precisely shows that his work is progressing on a path quite similar to that of RPG theory to date.

This site
http://crystaltips.typepad.com/wonderland/2005/03/raphs_keynote.html
contains an extract of a keynote speech given by Raph very recently and is worth a read; see extract below.

This means the process of game design itself is a cognitive challenge with no one right answer. It's worthy. That shame and embarrassment of playing should go the hell away. Games are saying something important. They're capable of expression, and bridging the gap between people. This may be necessary to our survival! For our art form to become mature, the cognitive schemata that games embody need to convey the same kinds of complexity as the cognitive schematic in other media. Regard them as a valid art form and take them seriously. All media are for entertainment. Art and entertainment are terms of intensity, not terms of type. The difference between Cheers, Friends, and a medieval morality play are NOT THAT BIG. They are predictable. They are for reassurance, they are building cognitive schemata through repetition - seven seasons worth - and then sometimes you get Lolita. That makes us nervous. It's challenging. Breaks the routine. As long as we as designers and developers come into the process knowing everything our games say, games will be doomed as mere entertainment. We have to make something like Lolita. Schindlers list. Catcher in the Rye. That's the sign of a mature medium, a game that makes you think 'I don't quite know what this might mean..'.

[C. Edwards]

Most excellent. Thanks for the link.

Star Wars Galaxies, while being a pale shadow of what was originally intended, still shows hints of some of the incredible innovations that Koster and crew were working towards.

-Chris