Raph Koster Promoted at SOE
Raph Koster, known for his work on Ultima Online and most recently for heading up the team that developed Star Wars Galaxies, has been promoted to Chief Creative Officer for Sony Online Entertainment. He announced his promotion on the SWG forums. What his impact will be on the development for future SOE games like Everquest 2 is unknown. Feel free to discuss your thoughts below.
Listed below are some of the posts made by Ralph in the thread:
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So, why was Holocron absent for a month?
So, you may have noticed (and in fact, I've pointed out) that I was sort of absent from the boards for the last month or so. Throughout beta and into launch I maintained a much higher profile. So what happened?
Well, the short version is, I've been promoted. The press release goes out on Monday. I've been named SOE's Chief Creative Officer. Over the last month, I've been attending meetings related to this change in role, been trying to get my house in shape (I'll be moving to San Diego from Austin), and so on. That's why I've been a bit absent.
What does this mean for my involvement with SWG? Well, I intend to remain very involved, to be honest. I've got a lot of work to do remaining with the expansion, the upcoming addition of mount and vehicles and cities, and so on. But I will probably be a bit more erratic in terms of showing up on the boards whenever something comes up related to my new job.
To help out with this, we're actively looking for a full-time community person to be on the boards, in dev meetings, and in contact with you guys every day, all day. Still looking... but that's the plan.
I'm sure there will be lots of questions about this. We decided that you guys should be the first to know, in advance of the press release. So fire away. I'll try to answer all the questions I can.
-Raph Koster, Creative Director
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-SanGreal- wrote:
Congrats! 2 Questions:
1) You say you intend to remain directly involved in SWG. Is it still your job to remain involved or are you doing it out of your own interest in the game? Just trying to gauge how much involvement we should expect.
2) Where does this leave our correspondant answers?
1) Both, really. In my new role I'll have some degree of design involvement with every project in the company, but SWG is my baby and I intend to pay special attention to it. Most specifically, there's elements in the current design, upcoming features, and the expansion which are still only in my head, and nowhere else, so I intend to see those through.
2) Same place... you tapping your feet impatiently, us scurrying around trying to get 'em out there.
-Raph Koster, Creative Director
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Breaker-X wrote:
*poof*? Leaving? Gone? Just like that?
What exactly does a Chief Creative Officer do anyway? Get creative with the SOE offices?
Well, the nature of the job is still evolving, but I know I will be helping define pitches and milestone formats, reviewing pitches and milestones, reviewing all the game designs, and hangin' out and being creative.
-Raph Koster, Creative Director
