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What Raph Koster thinks about design

@raph-koster · 18 positions · 0 changes of mind

Game designer and theorist. Lead designer of Ultima Online and creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design, and founder of Playable Worlds. Has written about game design, virtual worlds and online communities at raphkoster.com since 1998.

Raph Koster did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

8 dated positions, 2014 to 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Raph Koster has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingA game is a machine built around uncertainty.

    Their wordsGames are machines built around uncertainty.

    ↗Game design is simple, actuallyraphkoster.com 1st of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  3. Our readingLavish feedback wrapped around no real problem is shallow entertainment at best and exploitation at worst.

    Their wordsAt minimum you’re making shallow entertainment. At worst, you are building exploitative entertainment.

    ↗Game design is simple, actuallyraphkoster.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

    Interesting
  4. 2 years earlier

  5. Our readingA puzzle whose categories can only be seen by the broadly educated is elitist by construction.

    Their wordsBut it’s fundamentally elitist — it basically requires you to have a broad education to find the categories in the first place.

    ↗Why NYT’s Connections makes you feel badraphkoster.com 1st of 2 in this piece

    education

    Interesting
  6. 8 years earlier

  7. Our readingDesigning a game imprints behaviour on the people who play it, including behaviour the designer never intended to teach.

    Their wordsknow in your bones that game design is a powerful way of imprinting behaviors on people, and that it is entirely possible to imprint behaviors you didn’t want.

    ↗Games affecting peopleraphkoster.com 1st of 2 in this piece

    Interesting
  8. 1 day earlier

  9. Our readingUser-interface design and game design are opposites: one takes problems away from the person using it, the other hands problems to them.

    Their wordsShort form: UX design is about removing problems from the user. Game design is about giving problems to the user.

    ↗Game design vs UX designraphkoster.com 1st of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  11. Our readingAn interface should give the user a useful mental model even if it is false, while a game should give the player an accurate model of its own machinery.

    Their wordsWhere UX tries to provide a likely false but useful mental model of the interior workings to the user, game design tries to guide the player towards a fairly accurate mental model.

    ↗Game design vs UX designraphkoster.com 2nd of 3 in this piece

    Interesting

  13. Our readingGood interface design uses clarity to hide complexity; good game design uses clarity to teach it.

    Their wordsUX is about clarity that hides complexity, and game design is about clarity that teaches complexity.

    ↗Game design vs UX designraphkoster.com 3rd of 3 in this piece

    Interesting
  14. 7 months earlier

  15. Our readingSocial media designers routinely ignore what online-community design already established decades ago.

    Their wordsThis matters because all of these lessons, which are well-established across many fields, are routinely ignored by social media designers.

    ↗Social media is brokenraphkoster.com 4th of 4 in this piece

    social media

    Interesting