Talk:Will Wright (game designer)

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An entry from Will Wright (game designer) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on October 22, 2007.
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[edit] High school

The most recent edit says "After graduating from high school at 10" I changed it back to the original 16. Technitai 16:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SimAnt

His inspiration for some of the most commercially successful games in history came from SimAnt, a game which his company produced.

what does it means? Be more specific--Alexandre Van de Sande 16:10, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think it means nothing because he designed the game himself. He didn't design many of the Sim games, most of the other notables being SimCity, SimEarth, and The Sims, but he did design SimAnt. - furrykef (Talk at me) 04:37, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I believe he was inspired more by the system behind the way ants work that he built SimAnt on. Almost all of his presentations have ants in the slides. They're an example of emergance from simple rules. --Avsa
First off, Wright did design SimCity and The Sims. He may have not designed all the Sim- games, but he definately designed those two. Unless the statment can be clarified, since we can't agree on what the statement means, I think we should remove it. It's always confused me and is sure to confuse many other readers. — Frecklefoot | Talk 15:16, Apr 8, 2005 (UTC)
I believe he said in several of his interviews that SimAnt was a major source of inspiration for the design of The Sims. --Funnykidrian 04:45, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Useful?

Coolcaesar added this bit of trivia:

Public records indicate that by 1992, Wright was doing so well financially that he was able to move himself and his family into a upscale residence in the scenic hills of Orinda, California near the San Pablo Reservoir.

While it may be true, who cares? I just assumed that as he became more successful, his lifestyle and living arrangements would go up too. Plus the statement is POV ("doing so well financially", "upscale residence"). I didn't remove it, but do we really need it? I don't think it detracts from the article. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:58, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

The reason I added it was to contrast Will Wright against the majority of game designers, who are not as wildly successful and end up working for people like him. Perhaps I should have made that underlying assumption more clear. --Coolcaesar 18:06, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I'm late to the discussion here, but I agree with Frecklefoot. I don't believe what was said is really necessary. K1Bond007 21:52, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

Speaking of usefullness, how useful is the "Games credited" section? Game designers put each other in the "thanks to" part of the credits quite a lot, sometimes even for silly or small things. I suggest that section gets cut. Technitai 14:40, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Walnut Creek

I'm pretty sure that Maxis started in Orinda, and moved to Walnut Creek, not the other way around. Note the Orinda theater in SimCity2000 or the Maxis wiki article. --Weyoun6 07:29, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

[edit] References

While editing the article I noticed there were quite a few claims about what Will Wright has said and his accomplishments that are unfounded. Can anyone add any references to this article to back up some of this? I don't doubt the authenticity of it, but it would be nice to have some sources cited to further back up these claims. K1Bond007 21:52, Jun 18, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] credits

It looked out of order until I saw the dates were backwards. It should be earliest first. DyslexicEditor 14:32, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] new genre-combining/busting/blurring game

Wright's new genre-combining/busting/blurring game called "Spore", for the PC sometime in 2007, is why I looked up this Wikipedia entry.

Not sure who wants to do it, but this entry for Wright should link to the entry for the game:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(game) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.214.18.195 (talk • contribs) 21:55, 17 March 2006

The link has been in there since March 14th 2005 Peteresch 22:40, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] In game cameos

Would it be apropriate to add something about Wrights cameo apearances in the SNES version of Sim City, and in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakining?

They probably wouldn't count; a 'cameo' is generally a live appearance by a recognizable person, and the SNES SimCity and Link's Awakening are more of a 'tribute' than a cameo. DarkMasterBob 13:17, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Monkeys With Guns Quote

I am not quite sure how to cite the source, but you can hear it for yourself by watching the GDC Spore Video on Google Video (link at bottom of article). The quote is at 30:20. Peteresch 21:29, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What game did he say?

He mentioned some game in his Spore presentation at the 2005 GDC... I'm not sure if it was a game he made or another game that influenced him. He pronounced it something like "Kiffix", "Kid Vicks", ???. It received applause from the audience when he mentioned it. There's no game in this article that looks like it resembles that pattern of enunciation. What game did he say?

edit: lol, nevermind... it was Kid Pix, mentioned in the Spore article. It doesn't look like anything special or fancy, though. Why did it receive applause when he mentioned it? --71.130.106.121 00:58, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

nostalgia, I'm guessing. --Krsont 18:27, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
I remember Kid Pix. It's a very popular program used in schools (and at home I believe) to develop the creativity of children. --Funnykidrian 04:47, 16 May 2006 (UTC)


In an interview published in February 2003, Will claims that games were absorbing so much of his time, he decided that perhaps making games was the way to go. Wright's first game was the helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984) for the Commodore 64.

^^this doesn't make sense at all. It suggests that in 2003 he decided to start making computer games! needs to be re-written in better english.

I thought he said "kimpigs" and searched a while for that. I had no idea he said Kid Picks.--William Pembroke(talk) 19:30, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Where does this fit in?

He's a chain smoker.

[edit] Does he have a Blog? He seems politically active

I'm reading this: http://www.videogamevoters.org/willwright/ Mathiastck 22:52, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "the world's most important pizza party"

Wasn't pacman based on a pizza with a slice or two missing? wouldn't that make THAT the most important pizza party ever? =)

[edit] Sporewiki and Will

Sporewiki's version of the Spore article (http://www.sporewiki.com/Will_Wright) seems to have some interesting stuff in it (though most of the biography seems to have been lifted from here) - does anyone want to see if we can incorporate some of their stuff into here? --163.1.165.116 14:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sims expansions butr no sims 2 expansions.

I am curious as to why all the sims 1 expansions have been listed while no sims 2 expansions are listed٧|Blacksmith2 01:34, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

The article says he's credited for, but did not design most of the Sims 2. I can only assume that he probably gave a few ideas to the foundation of the Sims 2, but then left to venture into Spore. On a recent article released yesterday (google "Wright" & "too many sequels") in which Wright says there are too many sequels in the gaming industry. Supposedly Wright had little to nothing to do with Sims 2 or SimCity 4 and says he usually sticks with a game series for 5-6 years then gives it over the producer. So, I can only assume he didn't have anything to do with the Sims 2 expansions. Notice that Simcity 4's only expansion pack (Rush Hour) isn't listed either - he set the foundation for SC4 then left it up to others. PoeticXcontribs 17:07, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Games which Wright received some credit for, but may not have exclusively designed.

This lists ALL of the games Will Wright has taken part in... This needs to be removed or edited... Simsarmy 15:51, 30 July 2007 (UTC)


[edit] US Express

Back in 1980, Will Wright won an illegal cross country race. I don't really know how to edit wiki so I will just link an article and hope someone who knows better can add it. I just found it an astounding tidbit about his life, and rather unexpected. http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/news/2007/10/will_wright --24.224.213.92 05:21, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

And there's a video of him discussing the subject at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmYwAi6fpME

Thank you for the tip. I actually saw the same article a day after you posted this message and thought it was worth putting into this article! --Ioeth (talk contribs friendly) 13:03, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Simcity drwright.jpg

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BetacommandBot 22:57, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Not B Class

Explicit tags (lead, unreferenced section) and other problems (reference section format) disqualify this from B class, especially in light of quality levels asserted by Georgia editors for B class. It is inconsistent and unacceptable for this article to be rated B-class while other more comprehensive, better-referenced articles such as B-52's are aggressively down-rated to Start. I will down-rate this article in 24 hours if another editor does not take the responsibility to do so. Rep07 (talk) 18:25, 27 May 2008 (UTC)