Essays
These are full-blown essays, papers, and articles.
Presentations
Slideshows and presentation materials from conferences.
Interviews and Panels
Reprints of non-game-specific interviews, and transcripts of panels and roundtables.
Snippets
Excerpts from blog, newsgroup, and forum posts.
Laws
The "Laws of Online World Design" in various forms.
Timeline
A timeline of developments in online worlds.
A Theory of Fun for Game Design
My book on why games matter and what fun is.
Insubstantial Pageants
A book I started and never finished outlining the basics of online world design.
Links
Links to resources on online world design.
All contents of this site are
© Copyright 1998-2010
Raphael Koster.
All rights reserved.
The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily endorsed by any former or current employer.
Life as We Know It is not a perfect show. Some episodes feel padded, and the parents’ storylines sometimes strain for relevance. But it is a brave one. For those who watched it live—mostly teenage girls and a handful of boys grateful to see their own confusion reflected—it was a revelation. And for anyone discovering it today on YouTube or forgotten streaming archives, it offers a bracing alternative to the glossy, problem-free teen worlds that still dominate the screen.
In retrospect, Life as We Know It feels like a prototype. Its direct-to-camera confessions would appear again in Sex Education on Netflix. Its willingness to portray boys as emotionally complex, scared, and sexually confused would become a hallmark of better-received shows like Skins (UK) and Big Mouth . And its cast? Faris found a career in the Fast & Furious franchise, Foster became a respected indie actor, and Lowell became a television mainstay. life as we know it tv show
Why did it fail? Timing and tone. It premiered against The Apprentice and Navy NCIS in an era when reality TV was king. ABC promoted it as a raunchy teen comedy, but the actual show was a melancholy drama about male vulnerability. The title itself, a pun on the phrase “life as we know it,” was too generic, failing to convey its daring interiority. After low ratings, ABC pulled it after 10 episodes; the remaining three eventually aired on ABC Family (now Freeform) in 2005. Life as We Know It is not a perfect show
