Will Wright Discusses New Game, Possibly Creates Skynet
Will Wright Discusses New Game, Possibly Creates Skynet
Posted 11/18/2011 at 12:28am
| by Nathan Grayson
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Spore may not have been the next big leap in the gaming's evolution, but you can't fault Will Wright's ambition. The man never simply settles for what works. Some people dream big. Wright dreams larger-than-life. That said, his next game – titled HiveMind – isn't turning you into the omnipotent (if a teensy bit clumsy with natural-disaster-based apocalypses) ruler of a little community, big city, or entire galaxy. This time, the god of god games has his sights set on the real world.
No, no, not The Real World – thank all that is good and right. Rather, Wright describes Hivemind as “personal gaming.” It really is, he says, all about you.
“Rather than craft a game like FarmVille for players to learn and play, we learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of game play,” Wright told VentureBeat. “If we can learn enough about the player, we can create games about their real life. How do we get you more engaged in reality rather than distract you from it?”
“It could take into account what time of day it is, where you are, how much money is in your pocket. Imagine if you could open Google Maps and it shows you things that are interesting to you on the map. This has to do with where gaming is going. We had our eras in console gaming and social gaming. A lot of this personal gaming will happen on mobile devices. The question here is how can we learn enough about the player to create games about his or her real life.”
It may sound invasive, but Wright isn't the creepy old man next door studying your every action because what is wrong with some people? Instead, he takes his inspiration from the fact that people are so willing to solve problems on the Internet. Just look at alternate reality games, Wikipedia, or even a simple gaming forum. The aim, then, is for the community to gather around the individual in his/her hour of need.
...Somehow. He's still being pretty vague about it, honestly. If you ask us, the whole thing gives off a Gamification-meets-Skynet vibe, which sounds like the best idea for a schlocky sci-fi novel ever. “Now the videogames... are playing you.” And it could be called Grand Theft Life. Yeah, OK, it's settled. We're trademarking this.
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Danthrax66
November 18, 2011 at 12:08pm
Will Wright must pay journalist a fuck ton of money to spin his games as being promising. Remember Spore? It was a piece of shit. This man isn't a "visionary" he just comes up with ideas that are completely ridiculous and the media eats the shit up. He is trying to be the Steve Jobs of videogames except he can't actually live up to Apples quality when it comes to the actual production release.
smashingpumpin
November 18, 2011 at 5:14am
Before I Googled, I thought he made Angry Birds coz he does seem to resemble the Red bird. Sorry, somebody has to say it.
h e x e n
November 18, 2011 at 3:54am
In my opinion, this is one of the dumbest idea's I think I've heard of when it comes to gaming. It's right up their with OnLive.
I play games to escape the monotony of life, not be surrounded by it.
"Will H E X E N make it to the fridge to grab himself a beer? OH NO! The stub toe chair monster is lurking around the corner. Whatever shall he do!?!?!?"
lamesauce
Gezzer
November 18, 2011 at 2:32am
Sounds interesting. What will come of it is hard to say.
I find that Mr. Wright and as well Peter Molyneux are extemely big dreamers and that is something to be commended. They have these vast visions that sound fantastical when you first hear about them. The problem is that often the technology just isn't there to really support the grand vision and compromises have to be made.
Don't get me wrong I've played the games Sims, Spore, Black & White, and Fable (and sequels) and enjoyed myself. I didn't feel cheated in any way. But still the final product wasn't anything like the first information that came to light on the next great gaming concept.
I'm not to sure if I'll buy into this latest revolution in the gaming world. But I will be watching to see how close the actual product comes to the current vision Mr. Wright is proposing.
johnny3144
November 18, 2011 at 3:32am
when you say peter molyneux is big dreamers, you mean:
- while perfectly aware of technological limation, BS to create hype and marketing advantage
- can't do what claimed, throw in gimmick to distract player hoping they wont' notice
- pertending to be daring artist, and do crap that makes no sense at all. then sell it as a feature.
if that's what you mean by big dreamers, then yes... he is the biggest dreamer of them all.
to be fair, his earlier games are quite good and were innovative, just not polished and planned too big. but now days i feel like he is just desperately attempt to be seen as the innovator of gaming industry.
Gezzer
November 18, 2011 at 4:47am
Yeah you might be right on that one. I originaly put "to a point" but decided to give him the benifit of the doubt. I think he still dreams big, but maybe more in the "it's what everyone expects from me now" vein then having true artistic vision.
While Mr. Wright has always been a big idea man and hasn't seemed to change too much. Which is quite surprising considering how EA hasn't the best track record where developers are concerned. Then again I'm sure all the Sims add-on packs made EA a sh@t load of cash. So they might consider him their resident genius and humor him when he comes up with these grand visions.
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