Interview: Spore’s Will Wright on education through gaming

When the god of god games himself speaks, the world has no choice but to listen. Will Wright, the creator behind some of the biggest “god games” like Populous and SimCity, talks about the development of his upcoming life sim, Spore (PC, Wii, DS, Mobile), as well as the changing trend on how society adapts to games in general.

As a game designer, Wright wanted his games to appeal to a wider range of people. While gamers were busy killing off each other in all manner of shooter games, he was busy making games which created stuff – thus the birth of the SimCity and The Sims franchise. With most of his games having a strong scientific element, he enjoys making and playing games which call for a lot of innovation in the gaming industry.

He said that games today need to “culturally disconnect the concepts of play and education”, only then will can we say that people as a whole have developed in an evolutionary sense. Wright said that when society gains interest and get emotionally involved with games, that’s the only time that it becomes culturally acceptable and the next phase of evolution can set in for the industry.

He had his on take on how the gaming industry can be used to focus this movement:

I think the game industry could use spokespeople that try to represent the potential of gaming. The industry hasn’t even begun to realise its potential – we’re getting there very slowly – but in the meantime we need to be educating the public as to what this can eventually become. If we have more discussion about what games could be versus what they are right now, we might get there sooner.

With the finishing touches on Spore all prepared for its debut six months from now, Wright admitted that there were so many things that he and the developers at Maxis want to include in the game. However, they’re still trying to find the “sweet spot” between what they want for both the game and the gamers. While Maxis is known for a lot of its games taking its roots on the PC, Spore will also see versions for both the handheld and console platform. Wright noted specifically that everyone will be seeing Spore on the Wii just as with their previous release, MySims.

When the god of god games himself speaks, the world has no choice but to listen. Will Wright, the creator behind some of the biggest “god games” like Populous and SimCity, talks about the development of his upcoming life sim, Spore (PC, Wii, DS, Mobile), as well as the changing trend on how society adapts to games in general.

As a game designer, Wright wanted his games to appeal to a wider range of people. While gamers were busy killing off each other in all manner of shooter games, he was busy making games which created stuff – thus the birth of the SimCity and The Sims franchise. With most of his games having a strong scientific element, he enjoys making and playing games which call for a lot of innovation in the gaming industry.

He said that games today need to “culturally disconnect the concepts of play and education”, only then will can we say that people as a whole have developed in an evolutionary sense. Wright said that when society gains interest and get emotionally involved with games, that’s the only time that it becomes culturally acceptable and the next phase of evolution can set in for the industry.

He had his on take on how the gaming industry can be used to focus this movement:

I think the game industry could use spokespeople that try to represent the potential of gaming. The industry hasn’t even begun to realise its potential – we’re getting there very slowly – but in the meantime we need to be educating the public as to what this can eventually become. If we have more discussion about what games could be versus what they are right now, we might get there sooner.

With the finishing touches on Spore all prepared for its debut six months from now, Wright admitted that there were so many things that he and the developers at Maxis want to include in the game. However, they’re still trying to find the “sweet spot” between what they want for both the game and the gamers. While Maxis is known for a lot of its games taking its roots on the PC, Spore will also see versions for both the handheld and console platform. Wright noted specifically that everyone will be seeing Spore on the Wii just as with their previous release, MySims.