Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Cleverman make cleverthinks! Fresh from the Web 2.0 expo earlier this month is this entertaining and educating half-hour talk with Will Wright about everything including but not limited to his career and games to date, what’s next, lessons learned from Second Life, the intersect between games and reality and -ooh missus – Spore’s controversial DRM and the business considerations around it: “These people have paid money for a game, and you don’t want to be treating them basically as criminals”. On Spore itself, he observes that he wanted it to be almost more of a toy than a game per se – something else for the game’s many critics to chew on, then.

Also especially salient is an observation that gamers are basically narcissitic – “the more you can make the game about that person, the more interested, the more emotionally involved they will get.” A theme which, clearly, has run through a number of his games. LET THE MAN SPEAK.
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Will Wright has left EA to start up an “entertainment think tank” that EA is investing in. It’s called Stupid Fun Club. “The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Will Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms.” EA will get the right to develop any game concepts produced by the think tank. Full press blurb below.

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Blogchums Videogaming247 have spotted that a Creationist blogger has started his own campaign against the evil of Will Wright’s game. No DRM quibbles here though, it’s all about the religious implications:

You would think that as a member of the Episcopal Church, a smart man like Will Wright would not be capable of creating Spore. However, we must be reminded that the Episcopal Church is the only church in america that ordains homosexuals on a regular basis.

It makes sense that a perverted church would cause a man to make the creations he has in this game. It just may be that evolution is not the only thing to fear this game teaching your children.

Yes. For more such insights, visit Anti Spore.

The Associated Press has managed to squeeze a comment on Spornography out of Will Wright:

“When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected. Some of it’s really good for what they were shooting for. It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others.”

Which, while not approval as such, certainly isn’t damning the monstrous penis-beasts and sodomy monsters the internet seems so fond of. Good on ‘im. Unfortunately they don’t ask whether he’s made any Sporn himself, which means we’re duty bound to speculate wildy that he has, and that it was unimaginably disgusting.
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[Brandon Boyer, the author of this piece, is one of Rock, Paper, Shotgun's international agents. In 2006 he visited Spore developers Maxis at their studio on behalf of Edge magazine. The following article is an updated version of the feature that was published in that magazine last year. In it Mr Boyer talks to Wright and his team, and gets the heart of how this game came to be. Read on to discover how Spore was made of people.]

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On its influences, on scientific creativity, science as a brand, and on the amazing success of the Creature Creator. Top of the PC charts since it was released, apparently. Plus, why they released it early. Go, Will:

The second part of Will Wright’s interview with Gametrailers is up, and indeed for you to watch below. This time he talks about what’s next for games, how he enjoyed Grand Theft Auto 4, and Raid On Bungeling Bay (which bizarrely both GT and Wright name incorrectly). Toward the end GT’s questions descend into silliness, but Wright’s answers remain erudite and intelligent. Which is fun.

Again, watch the screen behind him for more Spore hints, including a screen tantalisingly titled, “Choose an Economic Land Vehicle”, and the very lovely bed-with-teddy-bear spaceship.

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There’s a new video of Will Wright explaining Spore in a bit more depth on GT today. It’s below, so click away to have a look. Make sure to keep an eye on the screen behind Wright, which shows quite a lot of footage of the spaceship creator. It is one of eight creating tools in the game, along with the Creature Creator.

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The guys over at 1up were lucky enough to get some time to sit down and talk to Will Wright at the EA3 event, and they’ve posted the video over at Game Videos. We, being repurposing blogger-types, have posted it after the jump. There’s not a whole lot of new Spore information, but it’s nonetheless satisfying to hear Wright wax about his game, and admit that the creature creator has been completely redesigned around ten times to get it to the state we find it in today.

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“”We want people to think about the world a little differently as a result of having played the game.” Hmm. Mandibley and tentacley, live together in perfect harmony? High Lord Wright talks about the scientific grounding behind his minigame-manic evolve ‘em up…