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Will Wright - The Games Master
The New Yorker has a profile up of Will Wright, referring to the designer as 'The Games Master'. The lengthy article delves into Wright's past, and deals with the enormous venture that Wright has undertaken with the now much-hyped Spore. From the article: "At a certain point in the performance, the crazy ambition of Spore became clear: Wright was proposing to simulate the limitless possibility of life itself. The simulation falls between Darwinism and intelligent design, into new conceptual territory. Wright had worked out the algorithm for life, as described by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, in 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea.'" Mr. Dennett's book is well worth checking out, if you're interested in evolutionary thought.
Okay, it's just a game. Props to Will and all, it's a neat idea and so far it looks to be a fun exploration of the concept, but let's not get carried away.
Many games provide a limited simulacrum of deity simulation: Populous and Black & White come to mind instantly. Someone might even be influenced in thinking about their personal theological views by playing these games, which I find healthy and useful.
But there's a lot more to "the algorithm of life" than what Spore has to offer. From John Conway to Will Wright, you're not going to find 0.00001% of the algorithm in any one place. Enjoy the game for what it is.
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I'm tired of the Will Wright hype. I bought into the B&W hype and preordered the game. I was moderately interested in B&W2, but was leery from getting burned by the original. I think I'll just skip it this time around since nothing could live up to the amount of hype that Spore is generating.
I loved the initial island of black and white, doing what I wanted when I wanted etc, but step through gate and all that is gone you HAVE to build your armies, you HAVE to fight, challenging yes but much less fun (for me anyway) .
From what I have read about spore the 'freedom' will not be as free as we perhapse envisage, especially the transitions of phases.
Never the less I wait with baited breath for the WII version.
ERR 411[Max number of witty sigs reached]
There can be only one Game Master.
Ah, the good old days...
I don't know if "Game Master" is an appropriate title for Will Wright. I'd say "Toy Master" is more appropriate. Most of his games are actually little sandboxes for people to play around in. Sim City, The Sims, and now Spore. Not that there's anything wrong with this approach, but how do you win? Winning seems to be an essential key for games, IMHO.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
For your perusal: (Guessing the editors couldn't pick just one)
Wikipediad ea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin's_Dangerous_I
Video Pesentation at TEDy =d_dennett&gclid=CJvOo4LXo4gCFR4IUAodOhKBVQ&flashE nabled=1
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?ke
Booku tion-Meanings/dp/068482471X
http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Dangerous-Idea-Evol
HomePage
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/~ddennett.htm
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
I thought Captain N was the game master? Maybe I just watched too many cartoons as a kid.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
Wright also had an essay in Wired magazine in April explaining why he felt they were important and help to spur our imagination.
Whoever Has the Most Toys Wins!
They said the same about "The Sims", which as far as I know is still the best selling PC 'game' in history. They probably said the same about the original SimCity so you'd think they would have learned by now that a game doesn't need to be won to have fun. Perhaps if you can destroy all the planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, you can declare yourself the winner? Or maybe go for a galactic cultural domination, or total univeral annihilation. Or maybe just getting off earth is the big win. You can decide, and that makes it 10x more a game than any of the always-on-rails FPS games that are so prevalant these days. When I play those I'm left wondering why didn't they just make it into a movie since it plays the same every time.
Seriously, he's been sending Will emails - and apparently getting responses - trying to convince him to release Spore on the Wii sooner rather than later. Amazingly, he says that Will is going along with it.
Mind you, when he was 11, he took on a powerful city councilmember for the district endorsement and won, embarrasing him.
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Good point, except for the fact that each one of those expansion sets actually added entire consistent and novel things to the Sims and Sims 2 franchises. Except for Holiday Edition and Family Fun and Glamor Life, which are just clothes and things.
...)
For example, Open for Business added elevators, running businesses (with sales, time rentals, restaurants, and robot/toy/flower making), and more. Nightlife introduced restaurants and vampires. University added a fairly realistic 4 year college experience (even if it's severely flawed in that it has no post-grads, no community colleges, etc).
Besides, he's working on The Sims 3 right now. It's one of the most profitable EA games franchises in gaming, quite frankly. And a lot more fun than FPS - I just had Hillary Duff grow up from High School and move to college with her sorority sisters (who keep falling in love with her - hard to manage them not getting their feelings hurt
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Good point, except for the fact that each one of those expansion sets actually added entire consistent and novel things to the Sims and Sims 2 franchises.
Sure they added things, but they aren't new games. They're the same game in a different setting. Like decorating the same cookie differently.
Obviously this interpretation depends on your viewpoint. Someone who likes The Sims type games will probably see the expansions as novel and entertaining. I don't really like those games, so I see the expansions as cookie-cutter, because to me they all share the same kind of dullness.
Besides, he's working on The Sims 3 right now.
Yeah, maybe they'll use green frosting this time.
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Promoting critical thinking since 1994.
If you'd actually played all the Sims variants, you'd know that Sims 2: University is very unlike Sims 2: Night Life.
While all exist, the motivations and objects tend to make them very separate. Even Sims 2: Pets is a very different flavor.
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According to TFA, Will Wright had nothing to do with any of the expansions.
+0 Meh
Interesting. Do you have a link to that?
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I liked Popolous 1 and Magic Carpet - very simple games that gave what you expected them to give - fast-paced and simple action. Later on, expectations on a game were much higher and were often failed.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
I've been excited to see Spore, but at this point, it's been so long coming, I'm really concerned that this game is not going to live up to its hype. The early phases look interesting for about 45 seconds, then it seems to be heavily repetitive and boring for extended periods of time. The game shifts across genres, which might seem interesting at first, but could also turn off a lot of people who may enjoy games like Pac Man and Tetris and then suddenly realize they're playing Warcraft or Unreal.
I am suspecting Spore is too ambitious for its own good. It will probably sell well, but it could turn into a huge flop by trying to be too much. This game should have come out this holiday season.