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Raph Koster

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Website

http://www.raphkoster.com

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raphkoster

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Nonfiction

Member Since

January 2009

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https://www.goodreads.com/raphkoster

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Raph Koster is a veteran game designer who has been professionally credited in almost every area of the game industry. He's been the lead designer and director of massive titles such as Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies; and he's contributed writing, art, soundtrack music, and programming to many more titles ranging from Facebook games to single-player titles for handheld consoles.

Koster is widely recognized as one of the world's top thinkers about game design, and is an in-demand speaker at conferences all over the world. In 2012, he was named an Online Game Legend at the Game Developers Conference Online. Visit his blog at www.raphkoster.com. ...more

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Raph Koster’s books

Average rating: 4.04 · 942 ratings · 66 reviews · 8 distinct works • Similar authors

	Game Thinking: Innovate smarter & drive deep engagement with design techniques from hit games by Amy Jo Kim, Scott Kim (Illustrator), Raph Koster (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 4.09 avg rating — 148 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology by Katie Salen (Editor), Eric Zimmerman (Editor), Greg Costikyan (Contributor) 4.06 avg rating — 136 ratings — published 2005 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Postmortems: Selected Essays Volume One by Raph Koster (Goodreads Author), Richard Garriott de Cayeux (Foreword) 4.21 avg rating — 19 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Sunday Poems 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Grammar of Game Play: How Games Work liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2007	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diseño de videojuegos: Una teoría de la diversión (Diseño Web y Digital) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happy Game Design Theory (2nd edition 10th anniversary commemorative edition copy version)(Chinese Edition) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Raph Koster wrote a new blog post Recommended posts, 2017-2025 It’s been over five years since the last time I gathered up recommended posts in one place and added them to the menu above. I figured I was due.As us Read more of this blog post »
Nov 27, 2025 12:41AM · like

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Quotes by Raph Koster (?)

“That’s what games are, in the end. Teachers. Fun is just another word for learning.”
― Raph Koster, A Theory Of Fun For Game Design

tags: education, game, games, gamification, learning, teaching

10 likes

“Noise is any pattern we don't understand. [...] If we perceive something as noise, it's most likely a failure of ourselves, not a failure of the universe.”
― Raph Koster, A Theory Of Fun For Game Design

tags: communication, game, music, noise, pattern, patterns, perception

7 likes

“Consider the games that get all the attention lately: shooters,* fighting games,* and war games. They are not subtle about their love of power. The gap between these games and cops and robbers is small as far as the players are”
― Raph Koster, Theory of Fun for Game Design

2 likes

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Raph Koster’s Followers (66)

Raph Koster

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