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By: Geoff Keighley
Design: James Cheung Select Photography: Michael Mordler
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The 2002 Microsoft E3 party took place at Los Angeles' Park Plaza hotel. |
The partygoers were growing agitated. With complimentary beverages flowing, techno music thumping, and stoplight-green Klieg lights illuminating the art deco-inspired Park Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, the 2002 Microsoft Xbox party was supposed to be E3 revelry at its finest. Yet by 10:15 in the evening, the cavernous room set to host a performance by the band Garbage was packed to capacity. Outside the room, hundreds of restless E3ers were relegated to pushing and shoving at the door, hopelessly trying to sneak in for the night's big event. The line, however, was hardly moving, and two bulking bodyguards in fitted black suits ensured just as much. As the seconds ticked by, the horde of Xbox-philes at the door just kept multiplying.
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Game designer Will Wright. |
Twenty feet behind the crowd, game designer Will Wright stood in awe of the sight before him. Clad in his favorite Levi's black jeans and his customary solid-colored button-up shirt (tonight was the olive green selection), he wasn't about to start elbowing his way into the auditorium. Instead, Wright--the perpetual observer that he is--was fascinated by the dynamics of the crowd waiting at the door. "It's really interesting," he said, as he usually does before making an observation. "As soon as they let one person into the room, the entire group gets their hopes up and starts pushing. But when they stop letting people in," he continues, "everyone begins to slowly disperse. Then the cycle repeats itself only a few minutes later when they let another person in."
Even if his subjects are drunken partygoers trying to crowd into a room, Wright always enjoys searching for the patterns in everyday life. That, in essence, is what makes him different. No matter the setting or the subject, there's a childlike wonderment to Wright as he tries to take the chaos of a situation and extract some kind of observation out of it. Even at age 41, the guy's still wildly curious about how the world fits together. Every moment is a chance to fit another piece into the never-ending puzzle of life.
It's just that eyebrows-raised demeanor--that ceaseless anthropological mindset--that has led Wright to create so many of his classic games. From SimCity to SimAnt to The Sims, the biggest selling game of all time, Wright is constantly turning his everyday inquisitiveness into games that let players make their own observations about everything from city planning (SimCity) to daily life planning (The Sims). Could the Microsoft E3 party simulator be next?
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While eating lunch, Will Wright begins to open up about the development of The Sims Online. |
It's five months later--the day before Halloween--and Will Wright is having lunch at an Italian bistro in Walnut Creek, California, the home of the company he cofounded, Maxis. Today his hair is a little longer than usual, and his aviator glasses have a few more smudges on them than normal. Even his beard is a bit uneven. Wright's still as amiable as ever, but he's clearly stressed out. It's understandable. On December 17, he will launch his most ambitious game ever: The Sims Online, the massively multiplayer follow-up to The Sims, the blockbuster game that has sold more than 8 million copies and is still at the top of the charts. With a team of more than a hundred working on The Sims Online, a budget rumored to be north of $25 million, and more than 3 million lines of code to make it all work, Wright sums up his new game's scope with an apt analogy: "In many ways, building The Sims Online compared to The Sims is like the difference between building the space shuttle and a Chevrolet. It's easily 10 times more complicated than The Sims."
It's also a powerful new type of game for Wright. As EverQuest and Ultima Online have shown, you can become deeply immersed in these virtual worlds and forge real-life bonds with your online comrades. "That's never been an issue in any of my games before. Most of the time I'm dealing with little simulated AI people that pee on the floor all the time," jokes Wright. But beyond the humor, it's clear that Wright is deeply puzzled and worried about his next game. "The idea that every possible personality in the real world could be in this game means that a lot of the same things that happen in reality will be happening in the game--the good and the bad," he says with a hint of bewilderment. So while outsiders see The Sims Online as a surefire blockbuster that will blow the massively multiplayer market wide open--and they're probably right--Wright, the game's creator, feels a deeper sense of obligation and responsibility. So you have to wonder: On balance, is Wright incredibly excited about the game's potential?
"I don't know," Wright says as he sits and ponders the question. There's silence for a full five seconds, as if he's unsure of exactly how to express what he's feeling. And then finally, he begins to open up about the journey this game has taken him on over the past three years. "To be honest, I now realize that this game scares me more than anything else I've ever done."
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