Boing Boing: Areae: online world startup from "Theory of Fun" Koster

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Areae: online world startup from "Theory of Fun" Koster

Areae is the just-launched multiplayer world startup from Raph Koster, the famed creator of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxy, and author of the classic "A Theory of Fun" (the "Understanding Comics" of gaming).

There's not much public about the game yet, though one of the investors has published this comment: "Areae sits at the intersection between Web 2.0 and MMOGs. If you think about it, the Web 2.0 and the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming communities have largely been pretty siloed - gamer developers go to game industry conferences and Web 2.0 folks go to Web 2.0 conferences, and there has not been enough intermingling between the two communities."

I actually know all about it, because I'm lucky enough to be on Areae's advisory board. I can't say any more than what's above, but I can note that Raph has hit on a really smart idea that combines fun, community, and user-creativity to make an entirely new kind of online world experience. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:27:14 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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Support Bloggers' Rights! HOWTO: Get a link posted to Boing Boing Boing Boing Mobile powered by Winksite Fark rules! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States [and other countries]. Stats (About our stats) defeat censorware Policies Our first five years' worth of posts in one file	Wednesday, January 3, 2007 Areae: online world startup from "Theory of Fun" Koster Areae is the just-launched multiplayer world startup from Raph Koster, the famed creator of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxy, and author of the classic "A Theory of Fun" (the "Understanding Comics" of gaming). There's not much public about the game yet, though one of the investors has published this comment: "Areae sits at the intersection between Web 2.0 and MMOGs. If you think about it, the Web 2.0 and the Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming communities have largely been pretty siloed - gamer developers go to game industry conferences and Web 2.0 folks go to Web 2.0 conferences, and there has not been enough intermingling between the two communities." I actually know all about it, because I'm lucky enough to be on Areae's advisory board. I can't say any more than what's above, but I can note that Raph has hit on a really smart idea that combines fun, community, and user-creativity to make an entirely new kind of online world experience. Link See also: Koster's keynote from Game Developers Conference Koster's amazing "What are the lessons of MMORPGs today?" Theory of Fun PDF Destiny of Games: what will become of fun? Theory of Fun: Understanding Comics for games Civil liberties in gamespace Star Wars Galaxies economy laid bare Lifecycle of a gamer posted by Cory Doctorow at 06:27:14 AM permalink \| Other blogs' comments Email this entry to: Your email address: Message (optional):	Boing Boing Sponsored by: Your Text Ad Here Get BB by email: