Will Wright making a game about players’ lives: what does it mean?
Will Wright is one of the most ambitious designers around right now. He’s famous for having made SimCity, The Sims, and Spore. These were great games that had lofty ambitions of simulating cities, lives, and even life itself. Now, the designer aims to bring “normal, everyday life” into games with his new IP.
Speaking at the Game Horizon conference in UK, Wright said that he wants to make games that are “extremely relevant to the player, and extremely unique to each individual.” This is interesting as it would involve connecting gamers’ lives with their games in an intricate manner that hasn’t been seen till now.
And that’s exactly what he intends to do: “build a game about the player, around the player’s life, around the things that they know, the places they go, the people they hang out with.” That sounds quite exciting to me, but I don’t think it’s going to be a very good one if it’s for computers and consoles.
He addresses that as well, noting that it’s going to be a “mobile-based experience” and that it’ll follow a very different economic model than SimCity, which has been plagued with EA’s irritable DRM.
The game seems like a great idea, but it also means giving up your privacy. All of your data would have to be given over to the game for it to work, and I don’t think many people are yet willing to do so unless the confidentiality of their data is guaranteed. There’s also the fact that to most people turning their life into a ‘game’ doesn’t sound appealing at all.
All that will hopefully be answered soon. Will Wright is expected to divulge more details in the coming months. His last game—Spore—was released back in 2008, so it’s about time he made a big comeback.
BDGamers 