#playable worlds

[raphkoster]

Sandbox vs themepark

Here's why sandbox online worlds are the evolution of static themepark games -- and also how we often get them wrong. Come take a stroll through the history of where the terms came from, starting in primordial MUD and up through today. :)

I just watched a couple of videos about sandbox vs themepark games (in particular one by NerdSlayer and another by Josh “Strife” Hayes)… One thing that struck me about the ways players often talk about this (because at this point the history is so old) is that people think of sandbox as the older version of MMOs, and themeparks as newer. But that’s not right – sandbox is not the older…

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[tagnoob]

Ready or Not, Here Come's Stars Reach Early Access

SOON! -Stars Reach Early Access Announcement Yesterday I got notified over a variety of channels that Stars Reach was going to land in early access on Steam “SOON!” Stars Reach – Early Access “Soon!” My gut reaction… and the general vibe from responses I have seen… has been some concern as to whether or not it is ready for this level of real world exposure based on how early access tends to go…

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[tagnoob]

Stars Reach Suffers Through Layoffs

Wasn’t I just on about the Kickstarter curse the other day when news broke about Ashes of Creation getting shut down and staff being laid off?  So I was feeling a bit of that again as we got news last night that Playable World, Raph Koster’s company, which is developing the online game Stars Reach, was laying off some staff. Stars Reach – To Be Continued The announcement came at the classic “I am…

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[raphkoster]

We've been working on overhauling the visuals in STARS REACH for a while. Here's a look at what's coming up!

Stars Reach visual upgrades

[raphkoster]

I've been bad about blogging when stuff got added to my site. So here's a catalog of the last couple of years including a bunch of podcasts and talks!

New stuff on the site

[tagnoob]

Stars Reach Check-in Summer 2025

It has been a bit since I peeked in on Stars Reach.  There is always the problem of the windows of availability needing to correspond with my own free time. Stars Reach – Continued Testing I have seen some headlines about changes in the game and that maybe they are going to be able to go to longer test cycles that the current few open hours every week.  But I will admit, even following the game…

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[raphkoster]

Stars Reach doesn't look like you remember

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[tagnoob]

Checking in on Stars Reach

After quite a few weeks of joining in on testing Stars Reach I pretty much fell of the wagon and wandered off to other things.  This was, in part, due to the Kickstarter campaign, during which the team rightfully wanted to keep things in the test stable while new people piled in to see the extent of the work so far. Stars Reach – Continued Testing As I had kind of done most of the things…

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