Will Wright is a legendary game designer, and known best for his creation of The Sims. Collaborating with music icon Brian Eno (known for his avant garde experimental music with the likes of David Bowie, Roxy Music, Talkin Heads and U2), Wil Wright is in the final stages of development of his new game “Spore”. Many attended the conference to see the “sneak peak” at this highly anticipated new game. Will chose to extend the discussion beyond just “Spore” and to also talk about the role of games-and the role of stories in games?

He broke down the various ways of storytelling. Stories are dense and linear, and unchanging for the most part. Star Wars will always have the same story. Games are different-they are open-ended and allow for interaction. So they are similar to movies in that a story needs to be told, but games go to the next level and allow for control and manipulation that standard storytelling has not allowed. Another difference is the role of empathy in storytelling. Movies have actors and you feel them, but games have a different emotion: you may feel pride, accomplishment and guilt in a game. You killed a creature in a game and you feel guilty for that or proud of that-you can’t get that emotion through movies.

Will believes that the future of games will allow for more user control in the area of storytelling. As the player changes the storyline, the scenery, music, plot will change with it. Like a Truman Show for gamers. Games are a tool for self expression, and players like to make content and share it. Much of the content is bad right now, but as we give them better tools the content will also get better. This Will believes is a role gaming should encourage and build around.

As for “Spore”, well it will amaze people with the amount of content creation tools that Wright has given them. The game core is about Evolution: eat, survive, reproduce. It starts with this small organism that you have to feed and keep alive while other creatures in the game work to hurt you. The amazing part is that Spore has creation tools that allow you to build your own organism/creature anyway you want and it is 3D and customized-you have to see it to get the impact of what I am poorly describing, so check out Wil Wright explain it in his own words here:

So how does all this impact our clients’ needs…The takeaway for me was that it is not about plugging your brand logo into a marquee in the game, but providing an experience within the game that integrates with the story and possibly even assists the gamer in creation.