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Raph Koster

What Raph Koster thinks about video games

@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.

5 dated positions, 2015 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

  2. 2 years earlier

  3. Our readingA puzzle that invites guessing and then punishes wrong guesses stops the player learning the very method it could have taught.

    Their wordsFundamentally, the game invites you to make guesses, but punishes you for them — and a missed guess doesn’t help you prune the logic space, only the trivia space.

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

  4. 5 years earlier

  5. Our readingA service business in games rests entirely on retention: a genre that cannot hold people across sessions cannot be sold as a service.

    Their wordsThere is no ongoing service without retention.

    ↗What drives retentionraphkoster.com 1st of 2 in this piece

  7. Our readingA profit motive inside a game holds players there long past the point where they are still enjoying it.

    Their wordsThe profit motive is incredibly powerful and will keep players engaging in your experience well past the point of actual enjoyment.

    ↗What drives retentionraphkoster.com 2nd of 2 in this piece

  8. 4 years earlier

  9. Our readingDenying that games can affect the people who play them is a way of calling games a lesser medium.

    Their wordsSaying games can’t affect people is to denigrate them.

    ↗Games affecting peopleraphkoster.com 2nd of 2 in this piece