Raph coster knows a thing about making an enduring mmo, as he helped create one of the longest lasting mmos of all time with ultimate online.
Ultima online is uniformly considered an early pioneer of the MMO space, releasing back in 1997 and becoming big enough that it’s widely credited with popularizing the genre before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before before it World of Warcraft Became the Standard-Bearer According to Koster. Point is, if there’s one person to ask about how to make a long-latter mmo, it’s koster, so we did exactly that. The Answer? The friends we make along the way.
“The number one predictor of people standing in an mmo is the friends they make, and whether their friends are there – it’s the biggest thing that makes a difference,” Koster say. “And if you don’t design towards having social development and community in your game, it will suffer over time. Content does not last forever, right?
“People go back to the same public park not because there’s more park to see, but because they want to enjoy it with their friends. And it’s the same thing for a great mmo. means you have to do an awful lot of design work around enabling and supporting that. “
As someone who’s made liver friends in Ultima online specifically and prepared much stopped playing when they stop playing, I am uniquely unqualified to argue with koster here. I still go back from time to time to mine some of that sweet, sweet nostalgia, but yeah, it feels kind of empty.
Koster’s New Studio, Playable Worlds, is working on a new sci-fi game called stars reach, which he’s hoping will modernize the MMO Genre. Koster and Fellow RPG Veteran Eric Goldberg Bill the game as a “Sandbox science-fantasy mmo where you explore Deeply simulated living worlds in a shardless galaxy”, with “a fully player-driven economy full of peace ways to play.” I’m definitely getting modern space ultima online vibes from it, which sounds great.
