In a talk at the University of Alabama Huntsville, Raph Koster spoke extensively on the history of storytelling and on the ways video games tell stories as both traditional and untraditional storytelling vehicles.
Developers interested in the journey of storytelling in history, and how that journey has come to affect how stories are told in video games now should take a look at the video above.
Koster has been working in the games industry for over twenty years and has worked on games like Ultima Online, Everquest, and Star Wars Galaxies.
He currently works as an independent designer and consultant and serves on the Board of Advisors for companies like PullString, Gamxing, ArtCraft, and Bit Fry.
At GDC earlier this year, Koster spoke about how the virtual worlds of the 70’s have evolved to games like World of Warcraft today. He also published a blog post during the height of Pokemon Go, comparing and contrasting the difficulties faced by AR games to virtual worlds and MMOs.
The full talk comes in at around an hour long, with the second hour of the video covering a Q&A session Koster held with the English and Game Design students in attendance.