Raph Koster bleeds

This is an amazing read: Raph Koster revisits the fabled time of game development that lead up to the launch of Star Wars Galaxies(SWG) and it's initial game systems for attaining Jedi status.

I've never really gotten over SWG, what it could have been after launch, and its eventual collapse.  Reading this article from Raph I get the sense that he was as heartbroken as we were as initial forum goers and beat testers. Raph's words bleed a passion and intelligence that is absent in today's game design.  They are what hooked us then and what I think will let us close the book on the SWG chapter in our MMO careers.