Column: 'Blogged Out: Grinding Evil Sausages'

Author: by Beth A.

This week's edition of 'Blogged Out', the news report that looks at the world of developer blogging and the conversations being had with the community at large, takes a look at Raph Koster's recently flooded blog on use-based skill systems and continues on with user experiential games. Koster has faced recent assessment from the game blog community, as seen in the following extract: "Elsewhere in the MMO community Koster's name has been sounded alongside the rumours of demise for the beleaguered Star Wars Galaxies. Italian blogger 'Abalieno', who sees the continued development of an online world as responsibility of its progenitor, writes: 'It was your own game and there was no-one in the world who could run it beside you. That's the only real truth. You killed it the moment you accepted to pass the duty. It's your own responsibility.' Harsh words indeed. Koster meanwhile had something of his own to say over on The Escapist, in a wide range piece that's definitely worth a read. 'On the other hand, in terms of what I expected players to do with it, I think [UO] exceeded every wildest expectation. The players don't care about what you wanted there, about what the dreams were - they only care about what they have in front of them, and then they proceed to do things you never imagined.'" You can now read the full Gamasutra column on the subject, including more on what game developers have been blogging about recently (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).