Playable Worlds: First comes the game, then comes the Metaverse
Friday June 12 2020
[Click here to view article on venturebeat.com]
Raph Koster has been a guru of online games for decades, and
he would love to build Metaverse, the universe of virtual worlds that are all
interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One. But
first, the CEO of Playable Worlds knows he has to create an outstanding game.
Playable Worlds raised $10 million from investors including
Galaxy Interactive via its Galaxy EOS VC Fund and Bitkraft Esports Fund. The
San Marcos, California-based startup is cofounded by Eric Goldberg, managing
director of Crossover Technologies and a frequent moderator of the fundraising
panels at our GamesBeat Summit events.
In an interview with GamesBeat, Koster and Goldberg said
they’re working on a cloud-native sandbox game world. It is yet another
massively multiplayer online game of the sort that Koster pioneered in the
past. He has worked on titles like Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest
II, and Metaplace.
“We’re absolutely building a game first. And you know that
that’s definitely our primary focus,” Koster said. “I think that obviously
there are technology overlaps there. We’ve all seen people comparing Fortnite
or Minecraft or Roblox to the Metaverse. It feels like a lot of the plausible
sort of metaverse candidates do come out of games. Our primary intent, as we
start, is to deliver a great entertainment experience for people. And we’ll see
how it develops.”
Cloud-based sandbox world
Koster believes that tapping the cloud will open a pathway
to brand new kinds of gameplay and game experiences in worlds that feel more
real and immersive than previously imagined. The money will go toward
developing the technology behind the game.

Above: Playable Worlds is a new online games company.
Image Credit: Playable Worlds
“We’ve gotten our core technology proven out,” Koster said.
“We’re doing some custom tech that’s going to, we believe, allow us to deliver
games as a service and online game operation better than the norm. And now that
we’ve proven out those fundamentals, we’re going to move forward with hiring
and building out the team for developing the game proper.”
Playable Worlds is developing cloud technology that delivers
richer simulations, more regular content releases, and stronger communities.
These developments confer notable advantages in operating games-as-a-service,
boost engagement and retention, and deliver compelling player experiences.
Sam Englebardt, managing partner of Galaxy Interactive,
moderated a session on the Metaverse at our recent GamesBeat Summit event.
Koster was on the panel. He said that Koster’s vision and demonstrated ability
to give players a compelling sandbox for the expression of their digital
identities makes him exactly the sort of founder that he likes to back.
Englebardt is backing companies that he believes will lay the foundation for
the metaverse.
It’s the community, stupid
“The only thing social about early social games was that if
Eric got Dean to play it, the game didn’t give a damn about you after that,”
said Goldberg in an interview. “From being online in the early 1990s to now, I
know that if you build a community, players may do things that you don’t want
them to do. They may talk about their lives and develop relationships. But you
will keep them longer.”
Goldberg added, “So if you make community first rather than
treat community simply as a revenue device, you can do better. You can give
rewards to your community and grow it organically.”
Eric Goldberg

Above: Eric Goldberg is cofounder of Playable Worlds.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
The company has 15 employees, mostly operating remotely in
the San Diego, California, area.
Koster said the team is spread across three states. It’s
been harder to hire people during the pandemic, but he said the company has
focused on hiring people “for whom we had social and professional proof,” or
those that team members already knew. But he acknowledges that future hiring
will get more difficult if the lockdown continues.
Playable Worlds wants to make games that appeal to different
kinds of players. Koster said that Richard Bartle, a computer science professor
at the University of Essex and a pioneer in research on online games, noted
that there were four archetypes of players: explorers, player killers,
socializers, and killers. It’s hard to design a game that appeals to all of
those types of players, but you can do it with deliberate thinking, Koster
said.
“If you go back to other games we’ve worked on, you’ll see
that in operation,” Koster said. “We’ll pay attention to different kinds of players
all having ways to play inside of one universe. They can find the fun the way
they like it. But there are interesting interdependencies there. If you enjoy
playing in one way, and I like playing another way, there are occasions when we
need each other.”
For example, a player could make a sword and give it or sell
it to a player who likes using swords.
“We’re very much interested in looking forward, and not
backward,” Koster said. “Communities have evolved a lot over the decades.”
Players aren’t, for instance, interested in huge downloads
and account setups before they can actually do any playing.
“We’re interested in building rich alternate worlds. This
absolutely is a game. It’s not just a social space,” he said. “We’re really
interested in long term retention. I think that one of the things that, with
the world as troubled as it is, we’re seeing is that people want to interact
online. We’ve been interested in games that are designed to build communities.
That sense of togetherness is missing today. What we are building is something
that I hope can bring people together.”