The New Yorker on Will Wright and Spore

May 25th, 2007 by tim finin

The New Yorker has an article by John Seabrook on Wiil Wright and his new game, Spore.

Game Master

Will Wright changed the concept of video games with the Sims. Can he do it again with Spore?
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For the past six years, Wright has been working on a new game, which will be released in 2007. It is anticipated with something like the interest with which writers in Paris in the early twenties awaited Joyce’s “Ulysses.” At first, Wright called the project Sim Everything, but a few years ago he settled on the name Spore. The game draws on the theory of natural selection. It seeks to replicate algorithmically the conditions by which evolution works, and render the process as a game. Conceptually, Spore is radical: at a time when most game makers are offering ever more dazzling graphics and scenarios and stories, Wright and his backer, Electronic Arts, are betting that players want to create the environments and stories themselves—that what players really like about games is exploring what Wright calls “possibility space.”
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In addition to covering Will Wright and Spore, the long article covers this history of computer games, the evolution of game genres, the workings of EA, and life in the game industry.

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Related posts:

• Will Wright on Spore
• EA releases Spore Creature Creator
• Sims creator Will Wright: Video games do no harm to children

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