Thou shalt not mistake online worlds for games, for they encompass far more; nor shalt thou forget that play is noble, and game is no epithet.
Raph Koster, The Commandments of Online Worlds
A little over seven years ago Raph wrote his commandments post. It, and the resulting discussion in comments, feels like it is from another era. Of course, it is from before Zynga and gamification and free to play as the default revenue model, back when the idea of a virtual world had meaning to a lot more people.
I was reminded of this post because I was listening to VirginWorlds postcast #17 this morning. The show itself is a nice time capsule, having gone live back in July 2006. Brent talks about DarkFall, EA buying Mythic and what that could portend, The Burning Crusade expansion that was set to come out six months later, along with a discussion of subscription numbers and what they mean. Or meant.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 