Raph Koster


Raphael "Raph" Koster is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Koster is widely recognized for his work as the lead designer of Ultima Online and the creative director behind Star Wars Galaxies. From 2006 until 2013 he worked as the founder and president of Metaplace producing a Facebook game platform.

Biography

Koster attended Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, receiving a bachelor's degree in English and Spanish in 1992. The same year he became involved with MUDs as a developer of Worlds of Carnage, then in 1994 moved on to become implementor of LegendMUD, where he was known as Ptah. He also played MUME for a time. On May 10, 1992, he married Kristen who would later work alongside him at Origin Systems as a game designer.
In 1995, he received a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and joined Origin Systems as the lead designer of Ultima Online. Koster was also the lead designer of Ultima Online: The Second Age, Ultima Online Live, and an unannounced and cancelled title until 2000, when he joined Verant Interactive in Austin as the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies.
Promoted to chief creative officer in 2003, he relocated to Sony Online Entertainment in San Diego where he spent three years primarily responsible for business development. In March 2006, Koster left the company to work on Metaplace which, at the end, was a social gaming platform for Facebook games. Since 2013 he is an independent designer and consultant.
Koster is a charter member of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and a member of the IGDA, ASCAP, and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is also a frequent speaker at game industry conferences such as the GDC, DICE, State of Play, and E3. He presently lives in San Diego, California with his wife and family.
In 2019, Koster and Eric Goldberg founded a new company, Playable Worlds, focused on producing the MMORPG, Stars Reach.

Credits

Games

  • LegendMUD
  • Ultima Online
  • * Ultima Online: The Second Age
  • Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
  • * Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed
  • * Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees
  • * Star Wars Galaxies: Trials of Obi-Wan
  • EverQuest II
  • * EverQuest II: Desert of Flames
  • * EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky
  • Champions: Return to Arms
  • Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade
  • GripShift
  • Frantix
  • ''Field Commander''

    Discography

  • ''After the Flood''

    Writing

  • A Theory of Fun for Game Design — Foreword by Will Wright
  • ,, revolving around the Karyn incident
  • Koster, Raph. "Geek Fun Isn't Frivolous; Alien Swarms of Thundering, Flashing Games Hit Town This Week. They're Here to Make Us Smarter." Los Angeles Times May 15, 2005, sec. M1.

  • Awards

  • Hot 100
  • ''100 Greatest Developers''

    Interviews

  • Pham, Alex. "Game Design; Building a Community—Even a Virtual One—Takes Work." Los Angeles Times Sep 6, 2001, sec. T5.

  • Wikimania 2014

In the news

  • BBC:
Category:1971 births
Category:Living people
Category:American non-fiction writers
Category:American video game designers
Category:American game designers
Category:Metaplace
Category:MUD developers
Category:MUD scholars
Category:Origin Systems people
Category:Sony Interactive Entertainment people
Category:Washington College alumni