SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 30,
2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers of the Game Developers
Conference® Online (GDC Online) have revealed that Raph Koster, a key industry veteran behind the
prodigious massively multi-player online role-playing games
(MMORPGs) Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, will
be honored with the Online Game Legend Award at the third annual
Game Developers Choice Online Awards. Blizzard Entertainment's
influential World of Warcraft® MMORPG will be
inducted into the Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame during the
ceremony, taking place Wednesday, October
10 at GDC Online in Austin,
Texas. The special awards categories recognize developers
and titles that have had significant impact in the world of online
games.
Raph Koster has led a prolific
career. As the lead designer on Ultima Online and the
creative director on Star Wars Galaxies, his contributions
helped lay the foundation for the many massively multiplayer games
that followed. Koster's professional credits span nearly every
facet of game development, including writing, art, soundtrack
music, programming and design.
Raph Koster is considered a
thought leader, as a frequent lecturer and published author on
topics of game design, community management, storytelling and
ethics in game development. His A Theory of Fun, published
in 2004, is considered seminal by educators and members of the art
game movement, as well as being one of the most popular books ever
written about games.
In his youth, Koster taught himself programming on an Atari
8-bit computer that he used to create the first game he ever sold,
to a fellow classmate. His early professional years include work on
the award-winning multi-user dungeon LegendMUD, which he
later parlayed into a position as lead designer on the seminal
MMORPG Ultima Online. Koster's varied interests in writing,
art and graphic design served him well when he joined Sony Online
Entertainment in the role of creative director on Star Wars
Galaxies, a game praised for its lush graphics, authentic
movie-based soundtrack, expansive in-game world, customization
options and sophisticated gameplay mechanics.
After serving as chief creative officer at Sony Online
Entertainment, Koster established his own firm, Metaplace, a
software platform developer for social worlds and the company
behind popular Facebook games Island Life and
My Vineyard. In 2010,
Metaplace was acquired by Disney Interactive Media Group's online
social development arm, Playdom, where Koster currently serves as
vice president of creative design.
This year's Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame inductee, Blizzard
Entertainment's World of Warcraft, was released in
November 2004, 10 years after the
launch of the company's venerable Warcraft franchise (1994's
Warcraft®: Orcs & Humans™). Now
regarded as a legacy in its own right, the game has dominated the
MMORPG landscape, setting the standard for countless other games in
the genre.
With its focus on delivering a polished player experience,
World of Warcraft propelled MMORPGs into the mainstream. The
game offered the community a reprieve from long load times and
steep learning curves, which only made the colorful graphics,
engaging gameplay, exciting quests and raids and immersive world
more impressive.
As the title nears its eighth anniversary, World of
Warcraft remains one of the top-rated PC games of all time and
continues to thrive globally with a massive and passionate
subscriber base. With three released expansion packs since
launch and a fourth, Mists of Pandaria™, around
the corner, World of Warcraft is one of the most profitable
and popular entertainment franchises in history, a pop culture
fixture that is sure to transcend generations. Members of the
Blizzard Entertainment World of Warcraft team will be on
stage to accept the Hall of Fame award.
More information about the 2012 Game Developers Choice Online
Awards is available at the official website for the GDC Online
awards, www.GDCOnlineAwards.com. GDC Online takes place at the
Austin Convention Center,
October 9-11, 2012. More information
about sessions and registration is available at
www.GDCOnline.com.
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About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of
Warcraft® and the Warcraft®,
StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, Blizzard
Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision
Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of
entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's
most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment's track
record includes fourteen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the
Year awards. The company's online-gaming service,
Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with
millions of active players.
CONTACT: Teresa Tyndorf
fortyseven communications
(323) 658-1200
teresa@fortyseven.com
Rich McCarthy / Sandra Lew
UBM TechWeb Game Network
(415) 947-6280 / (415) 947-6232
rich.mccarthy@ubm.com / sandra.lew@ubm.com
SOURCE UBM TechWeb Game Network