Will Wright on Gaming

Will Wright, creator of The Sims and the Sim City series, has just written an incredible essay on gaming, creativity, and play. Here is an excerpt:

Society, however, notices only the negative. Most people on the far side of the generational divide - elders - look at games and see a list of ills (they're violent, addictive, childish, worthless). Some of these labels may be deserved. But the positive aspects of gaming - creativity, community, self-esteem, problem-solving - are somehow less visible to nongamers.

I think part of this stems from the fact that watching someone play a game is a different experience than actually holding the controller and playing it yourself. Vastly different. Imagine that all you knew about movies was gleaned through observing the audience in a theater - but that you had never watched a film. You would conclude that movies induce lethargy and junk-food binges. That may be true, but you're missing the big picture.

Wow! He has hit the proverbial nail on the head with that comparison. Also, on the future of gaming, he says this:

Games are evolving to entertain, educate, and engage us individually. These personalized games will reflect who we are and what we enjoy, much as our choice of books and music does now. They will allow us to express ourselves, meet others, and create things that we can only dimly imagine. They will enable us to share and combine these creations, to build vast playgrounds. And more than ever, games will be a visible, external amplification of the human imagination.

I love this vision. Its probably a little more utopian than the way things will actually work out (almost sounds like something Disney would have said), but its refreshing to hear a sensible, positive, thoughtful voice such as this coming from the game development community.

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