Will Wright

Will Wright: SimCity's launch issues "inexcusable," industry is "falling short"

Katie Williams at

Will Wright—creator of the SimCity series, The Sims, and other assorted explorations of simmery—abandoned his work in video games a few years ago, leaving his babies in the hands of EA. But how well are EA performing as adoptive parents? While Wright generally praises the mega-corporation for the way they've nurtured his unique concepts, he apparently felt the same way about SimCity's always-online DRM that the rest of us did, calling the initial unplayability at launch "inexcusable." Oh, and according to Wright, the games industry as a whole is not fulfilling its potential, either.

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Will Wright and Ocean Quigley talk about SimCity's "guilt-driven experience"

Omri Petitte at

The newest video for SimCity features franchise creator Will Wright sitting down with Designer Ocean Quigley to discuss how citizens react to player's benevolent and malicious actions. Quigley tells the sim legend that he wants the player's emotional investment with a populace to stay high throughout his or her mayoral career.

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Industry legends share their gaming inspirations

Owen Hill at

“It's not about what you show on the screen, it's what you cause to appear in the player's imagination.”

That’s what Firaxis’ Sid Meier took from The Seven Cities of Gold, a game he lists as a major inspiration. “Even today ... it's still the player's imagination that's the most powerful tool we can stimulate and use to bring the experience to life,” he says.

As reported on Gamasutra, Side Meier, John Romero, Will Wright and Cliff Bleszinski have been talking gaming inspirations at GDC.

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Will Wright says HiveMind will make "reality more interesting"

Henry Winchester at

Games savant Will Wright has spoken to VentureBeat about his upcoming game, HiveMind. The SimCity, Sims and Spore creator hasn’t gone into a huge amount of detail on the game, but it sounds equally sinister and fascinating.

"[HiveMind will] learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of game play,” Wright said. It seems to be aimed at the Facebook and mobile gaming crowd - although platform details haven’t been released yet.

HiveMind sounds a touch Googley in its approach, picking up your routines and locations and building up a profile based on what you do, and where. “It is about how we make reality more interesting to you,” Wright said, but then failed to offer any further information.

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Will Wright at BAFTA: the creator of The Sims on his influences and hints to his next game

Graham Smith at

BAFTA have been supporting computer games for years, but they're now making efforts to expand their membership and visibility into America. Which is weird, for an organisation with "British Academy of" in its name.

But their first step is a series of profiles called A Life In Pixels, looking at some of the people most important to the development of videogames. The first, with Will Wright, just took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood this Sunday evening. I was there, listening to creator of SimCity, The Sims and Spore talk about the power of obsession, the wisdom of ants, his love of hard science fiction, and just a single hint on what his next game project might be. Read on for a full report.

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E3 Liveblog: Day Zero

PC Gamer at

E3 is here, and the PC Gamer team are out in force to bring you all the news, games, and personalities from the show floor. Today, it's the calm-ish, before the storm. We're already on the ground in Los Angeles with appointments and events already lined up - most of them embargoed. But, because we're vibrating with excitement, we're going to liveblog the lot - to give you a flavour and taste of what it's like to prepare for the biggest show in gaming.

On the agenda today: lunch with Paradox CEO Fredrick Wesker, an appointment with a bald assassin, and Will Wright. And some other stuff we're really not allowed to talk about.

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