Raph has been talking about cellular automata since Ultima Online and I'm excited to finally see it come to fruition. Actual freedom in MMORPGs is extremely rare to come by, so I am definitely looking forward to Stars Reach.

I'm so glad Raph Koster is making another game. This guy gets why persistent worlds exist. MMO's over the last 20 years have catered to the type of player with a hero complex, and it's ruined them.

At 1:25 the small tree to the right PARTIALLY burned! Lost only the leaves closest to the fire! Was not expecting this level of detail.

I really want this to come to fruition.

I never knew I could allow myself to ever be hyped for an MMO again, but damn this sounds amazing.

Builders and explorers are going to love this game. Can't wait to see more.

I got burned by Crowfall, Elyria, Dual Universe, Camelot Unchained and more. But I'm still here, I'm still hopeful and I still got a few bucks. Lets go!

Intriguing! I've wanted an MMO that doesn't centre around combat for a long time. I think MMOs have focused on combat in part because combat is relatively simple. But I'm excited to see what possibilities open up in a more complex, dynamic game world! As a fan of FFXIV, I'm especially curious to see what storytelling can look like in such a setting. There are two modes of storytelling in MMOs that I've experienced before: (1) the story is on rails or (2) the developers do not really attempt to directly tell a story. But perhaps in the context of dynamic worlds - especially those that can be easily generated to meet specific criteria - a third option opens up. Namely, storytelling in which the developers introduce key story-telling ingredients to the world, and then a story emerges through player action and world simulation. There's more I could say. But for now, I'll be watching this with interest!

This is so exciting. I'm so glad to see Stars Reach is being made. I felt like the MMO scene was really in major decline these last few years.

Theres a lot of great ideas here. Looking forward to how this game evolves.

Awesome, thanks for this Raph!!

So glad to finally see Everquest Next being released.....

Great details and thank you for keeping us in the loop and actually doing a test to see where you are standing and heading in the right direction.

Awesome

This looks and sounds very promising. Hope to see it released one day.

Love you, Ralph! Keep fighting the good fight and release the best MMO you can:)

I've been working on a Cellular Automata world sim for about a year now and it's inspiring to see someone else do it so well

Stoked!

So looking forward to this.

Good video Raph, thank you for the overview.

You are a god Raph. ;)

Really looking forward to this!

Yeahhh Ralph!

well... since it's Raph.. i have high hopes... could this be really the best mmo that will be presented to us finally??? Raph.. please you are our last hope

Love it!

This is looking very interesting already. I really hope some kind of complex animal behavior is on its way, and maybe slightly differently looking creatures within one species...

Shut up and take my money...

Next gen is not really about looks. It's more about how good the engine is, about physics. Everybody is hyped for new graphics cards while i'm here waiting for new cpus. This looks and feels good. Can't wait for more

Awesome!!!

Neat! Anyone getting ECO vibes from this?

I also find the graphics quite inappropriate, but for me it is more important that PvP is optional like in SWG and that crafting is unique and complex

Being a long time SWG player, i look forward to something modern that has depth. I do like the ideas and systems and general concept...but the aestetics...no no, it looks like a kids game on a tablet, the FarmVille look is just too much. I do hope that changes by the time of release, but i doubt it. Anyway, i do hope it will succeed, it does have a few things going for it. The fact that the teams reaches out NOW to the community is a great sign that they respect players and want them involved.

hi raph! this explains so much. thank you

Only a small niche of players will be attracted by this. A niche of a niche. And then cut that number by 2/3 bcz it won’t be on PSN or XBL or any console. This game will never launch or run for 3 months and shut down. Remember the other 2/3 when you go out of business. GG

I'm sorry but this is only going to be played by a niche of players who like the sandbox type of game but also an even smaller niche of players who can afford a rig to run the game itself. They have top of the line gaming computers for development, and you can see it runs like ass meaning giant optimization is going to be needed. For those of you who are going to sit around saying "well it's still being developed" to them I say this and only this it's been in development for quite some time the scope is just not within reason. All in all it has a nice tone for a game and shows where we are going in gaming but it's going to fail because funding from sales/micro transactions what have you as we aren't sure what it's going to be but it'll dry up because again it's only going to appeal to a niche of niche of players.

I love the idea but I really dislike how whimsical it looks. I know the graphics and whatnot aren't final but if they stay similar it's going to be a deal breaker for me.

Good job, Raph. Nice video. That last trailer had Dave Georgeson written all over it. The fact that he's even a part of this game is still going to be a big nope for me.

not voxels hum

Big fan of Raph, SWG, and the ideas behind this game, but these graphics are too cartoon'ish, ala Fortnite like graphics.

Sounds like an ambitious project but I'm not a fan of the styling, I want gritty not cutesy. This project by a solo dev has better look and feel kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bqiRhaZznbyRnWw.html. The world building stuff sounds great and all but how do you deal with griefers hellbent on destruction?

Don't listen to the people complaining about PvP in the game. They've ruined so many games like New World with their obsessive whining.They just want everything to be attainable through PvE which is just as absurd as everything being attainable through PvP. Both aspects of the game should bring their own unique rewards, but the key is they should not bring vertical power gains to the characters otherwise players will feel obligated to one or the other. But there are a few things I need to know before I take part in any game with open world pvp. In no particular order: 1. Is it full loot? I do not want to PvP in a game where I lose the items I'm wearing. I'm fine with losing the gold and materials in my backpack I forgot to put in bank, but losing the stuff I'm wearing is a no no. 2. Are there stealth classes in the game? Almost every game with open world pvp I played since Ultima Online ultimately failed in the pvp department because they created permanent invisibility classes. And on top of the perma invisibility, the classes often did a ton of damage from stealth. This would lead to everyone having a stealther alt which became absurd. 3. Are there speed classes in the game? Think of the bard, the skald, and the minstrel in Dark Age of Camelot. Having speed classes like that make it impossible to be in a small group of players in pvp who do not have one of those classes in their group. This means they'll constantly get run over by larger groups with the speed classes and have no way to deal with it. The only solution is to give everyone access to the fastest mounts in the game. The only place speed should make a difference is once combat starts. Then it is alright for some classes to run faster than others. But outside combat is an absolute no no or you will end up with everyone having a speed class alt to avoid being run down all the time.

i really like the idea of this game (and i kno its still not done being made) but showing the game with a mix of smooth and then choppy/low framerate in the gameplay is not a huge game seller heh. .

Not being rude but the art style is just an absolute turn off, ideas are great but dam....

Looks extremely laggy....

Boring..ZZZZZzzz

Fix the Art style omg

With the intensive energy demands of simulation, your "living world simulation" would seem to come at expense of the actual living world (i.e., this proposal would make gaming even more culpible for climate change).