Will Wright leaves EA to focus on Stupid Fun Club

Over ten years ago, Electronic Arts bought out developer Maxis, and with that acquisition, brought into their ranks a man who is often cited as the biggest genius working in game development today: Will Wright. After working with EA for years to bring out triple-A franchises such as The Sims and Spore, Wright announced yesterday that he will no longer be working with the massive publisher.

In a press release, Wright also announced his new job, which is already set and ready to go as of yesterday's surprise announcement. In his new position, Wright will be working full-time at the Stupid Fun Club (which has the, well, stupidest name ever), a think tank organization that he founded in 2001 as a joint project with EA. Through the Club, Wright will work on some pet interests – notably robots – and "create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms." Whether that means that the Club will be making games is currently unconfirmed, though Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw wouldn't rule out Wright's involvement in game development through the organization.

On that front, Electronic Arts, which shares ownership of the Stupid Fun Club about equally with Wright, has signed an agreement that gives them exclusive access to publishing rights on any games that might potentially come out of the Club. When speaking to MTV Multiplayer, Bradshaw was somewhat vague on the specifics of the agreement, however, explaining that EA gets the first look at all Stupid Fun Club games, but that the agreement would break down if "[Wright] was not the primary owner there." It sounds to me like EA could decide not to publish a game from the Club, and another publisher, say Activision, could pick it up from there, but Bradshaw seems to suggest that such a possibility wouldn't arise. Regardless, it's hard to think that EA would give up the lucrative chance to publish any of Wrights ideas – however stupid they may be.

[via MTV Multiplayer and USA Today Game Hunters]

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The Everygamer: Spore Faces Controversies of Evolutionary Proportions

Evan Minto writes The Everygamer, a monthly column about games from a casual perspective. This article was originally published on The Alternative Press in September.

Earlier this month, casual gamers were hit over the head with Electronic Arts'' biggest title in years, the long-awaited Spore for PC and Macintosh. Like The Sims (also created by world-reknowned designer Will Wright), Spore allows players to create characters and control their actions in a huge simulated world. Unlike The Sims, though, Spore is what some might call an "evolutionary simulator." Players will create creatures in all different shapes and sizes, guiding them through evolutionary stages like "Cell," "Creature," "Tribal," "Civilization," and eventually, "Space," in which the beings will travel the galaxy in search of new planets and rival creatures to colonize.

If that sounds amazing to you, then you understand why Spore has been such a hot topic in the minds of everyone from the gaming community to the mainstream press since its announcement three years ago. You also might understand why the game has met with some high levels of controversy surrounding its early September release.

First, let's get the strangest argument out of the way. Some orthodox religious groups have called developer Maxis and publisher Electronic Arts out on their purported goals of teaching Evolution to children through Spore. While I fully respect people''s opinions on the Evolution-Intelligent Design debate, I think most people who actually play Spore will agree: the game is more of an Intelligent Design Simulator than an Evolution Simulator. After all, the game shows that animals and plants cannot be created without an intelligent hand guiding them along the way. I don't quite see why there is even an argument here.

Second is a debate that most casual gamers planning on buying the game are unlikely to hear about. Every Spore disc has been programmed with a Sony DRM (Digital Rights Management) software called SecuROM. DRM is one of the most hotly-debated topics in computer software at the moment. Apple is the greatest champion of DRM, with their iTunes service restricting song use to up to five computers.

In similar fashion, SecuROM allows only three installs for Spore. That all sounds good if you are only using one computer, right? However, how about when that computer dies and you lose your data, or when you want to install the game on a second computer in the house? Now you've used up your other installs, and your Spore disc is, for all intents and purposes, useless.

By now, you have probably figured out why so many people have raised objections to EA's DRM "solution." Angry gamers wrote scores of negative reviews of Spore on Amazon.com, most without actually buying the game, and the saddest part is that Spore will likely sell extremely well regardless. The game''s disappointing (but still fairly lofty) review scores aside, buying into this (frankly) screwed up plan will simply convince EA that they can continue to encode their games with SecuROM, and gamers both hardcore and casual will have to deal with the repercussions of a highly-restrictive DRM plan for many games to come.

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Wright: Wii Is Only "Next-Gen" Console

In an interview with the UK's Guardian, Will Wright (creator of The Sims and the ambitious, soon-to-be-released Spore) made a bold claim about Nintendo's bestselling Wii console. In addition to some quite interesting comments on the state of the gaming industry and his opinions on video game violence and education in games, Wright talked about what next-gen meant.

"The only next gen system I've seen is the Wii – the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement. But the Wii feels like a major jump – not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that's happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while.

This is the sort of strange dichotomy we are constantly seeing with game developers' opinions on the Wii. When Spore developers are throwing around claims of duct-taped Gamecubes, its startling to see the game's director telling people that he thinks the Wii is more important than the PS3 or Xbox 360. It seems however, that almost everyone who has an opinion on the Wii, from the gamers to the game developers, has a strong opinion on it. Either they love it or they hate it.

I personally agree with Wright's statement. I own both a Wii and an Xbox 360, so I've got a bit of perspective on it. While the 360 is great, and I still love to play it (as I would love to play a PS3 if I had one), I feel that the Wii has been a much more unique experience than anything I've played on 360. The Wii doesn't have many games right now, but its ability to bring in casual and non-gamers, and its new way of controlling games, makes for a potentially industry-changing console.

While Wright's comments on the Wii were the most newsworthy, he also made some very insightful comments on his opinion of how the gaming industry needs to evolve, how education can be integrated into games, and his philosophy when it comes to game design. It's a really good read, even if you want to throw your SIXAXIS at Wright's face and then chainsaw him to death Gears-style for his mortal insults.

[via The Guardian]

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