Raph Koster has spent more than three decades shaping the way we think about games, virtual worlds, and player behavior. As the lead designer of Ultima Online and creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, he helped define the MMORPG genre and pioneered many of the systems that still influence game design today. He is also the author of the industry-defining book A Theory of Fun for Game Design, a work that has shaped generations of developers. Today, through Playable Worlds, Raph continues exploring how online worlds can become deeper, more meaningful, and more sustainable for the players who inhabit them.In this conversation, recorded in-studio at Off Base, Greg and Raph dive into the fundamentals of great game design—why games are fundamentally about learning, the psychology behind why players find systems engaging, and how timeless design principles continue to outlast every technological shift. They explore the evolution of virtual worlds, the lessons the industry has forgotten, and why building meaningful player experiences remains the hardest challenge in game development.They also tackle one of the biggest questions facing the industry today: artificial intelligence. Rather than focusing on hype, Raph explains where AI can genuinely improve game development, where it falls short, and why the future belongs to developers who understand design fundamentals first and technology second. Along the way, they discuss procedural generation, player agency, emergent gameplay, online communities, and why creating believable virtual societies remains one of the industry's greatest unsolved problems.The conversation closes with Raph's reflections on decades spent designing worlds for millions of players, the lessons he would pass on to the next generation of developers, and his re:Play picks that continue to inspire his thinking about games today.For game developers, designers, studio leaders, and anyone fascinated by the future of interactive entertainment, this is an essential conversation with one of the industry's most influential thinkers.About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry—peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off.Find Raph: https://www.raphkoster.comFind Playable Worlds: https://www.playableworlds.comFind re:Play: replaypodcast.comSubstack: gregoff1.substack.com

Jack Buser has been on the bleeding edge of the games industry for nearly 30 years. He joined Dolby Laboratories straight out of the University of Illinois and made it his mission to push Dolby surround sound out of cinema and into games, landing Dolby Digital on PlayStation 2, GameCube, and the original Xbox. In 2008 he joined Sony Interactive Entertainment to run PlayStation Home — the first console-based virtual world, which grew past 40 million users and became the first console microtransactions platform. He went on to help launch PlayStation Plus and build PlayStation Now, the original "Netflix of games." In 2014 he left Sony for a role he couldn't be told about in advance — what would become Stadia — and today he's the Global Director for Games, Strategic Industries at Google Cloud, leading Google's global games initiative with all ten of the biggest game companies in the world plus countless indies.

In this conversation, recorded in-studio at Off Base, Greg and Jack cover the full arc — the synth-engineer dream that led to Dolby, hosting Dolbycast before podcasts were a thing, the GDC 2008 call from the great Carter Lipscomb that pulled him into PlayStation Home, the 40-million-user live service that existed before the term "live service" did, the "instant game collection" aha moment behind PlayStation Plus, and the leap to Google in 2014 that Jack still calls the hardest professional decision of his life.

They also dig into where Google Cloud sits with the industry in 2026 — the Iron Man suit metaphor for AI in game development (with a shout to Adam Boyes and Mark Stanley), the Capcom + Gemini announcement about saving 30,000 hours a month in human toil debugging, the 10.6 / You vs. Zombies AI character system, Square Enix's Chatty Slammy companion in Dragon Quest Online, Sony AI's Sophie in Gran Turismo, and the term Google coined for what's coming next: the Living Game. Jack argues this is the biggest transformation in game design he has seen since the 2D-to-3D transition in the late '90s, and unpacks why "the train has left the station" for studio leadership.

The conversation closes on the retro side — the chunky game room with 22+ consoles from Fairchild Channel F to PS5 Pro (all RGB-modded or HDMI-converted, running through a Hydra SCART switcher and a RetroTink 4K into a Sony 4K projector), the original Asteroids and Ms. Pac-Man cabinets in his living room, and Jack's re:Play answer: PlayStation Home, DOOM 2016, and Espgaluda.

For game developers, studio leadership, anyone tracking AI in production, and anyone who wants the long view of the industry from someone who has been three steps ahead of it for 30 years — this one is essential listening.

About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry — peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off.

Find Jack: linkedin.com/in/jackbuser

Find Google Cloud for Games: cloud.google.com/solutions/games

Find re:Play: replaypodcast.com ·

Substack: gregoff1.substack.com

Michael Yum went to UC Santa Cruz to study film, got pulled into the games industry through EB Games, and eventually borrowed money from family to fly to South Korea alone and convince Pentavision to let him publish DJMax in North America.

Today, he's the CEO and co-founder of PM Studios — a developer, publisher, and physical distribution powerhouse behind more than 100 games a year, including the North American physical releases of Black Myth: Wukong, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero.

In this episode, Greg and Michael discuss:

• The gamble that launched PM Studios • Why Sony said yes after Nintendo said no • Building one of the biggest physical game publishing businesses in the world • The lawsuit that nearly ended everything • Why making Barbie games helped save the company • The November 2025 vault theft that stole 30% of his lifelong collection—and the incredible operation that recovered 99.9% of it • Why Michael believes physical games still have a bright future • His vision for PanX Games and the future of game discovery

Whether you're interested in game publishing, entrepreneurship, physical media, or the business behind some of gaming's biggest releases, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

Subscribe to re:Play for new episodes every week.

References & Links

• PM Studios — https://pm-studios.com
• re:Play Podcast — https://replaypodcast.com
• Greg Off's Substack — https://gregoff1.substack.com
• Black Myth: Wukong — https://www.playstation.com/games/black-myth-wukong/
• Honkai: Star Rail — https://hsr.hoyoverse.com
• Zenless Zone Zero — https://zenless.hoyoverse.com