Stupid Fun Club
Will Wright’s next project: HiveMind
Dec 3rd
HiveMind is a game, and it’s also the name of a new Berkeley, Calif.-based startup Wright is unveiling today in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat.
The idea is a new evolution in gaming that Wright calls “personal gaming.” It is a game that can customize itself for the individual player, taking into account aspects of player’s real-life situation as elements of the game.
It’s not an easy concept to understand, particularly because Wright isn’t describing the game in detail yet.
“Rather than craft a game like FarmVille for players to learn and play, we learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of game play,” Wright said.
He noted, for instance, that there may be 50 different dimensions to a person that could be learned through data collection. Some of those dimensions could be location-based, like where you are, where your friends are, and how much money is in your wallet. It may sound like a creepy invasion of your privacy for game to know that about you, but Wright wants to emphasize the entertainment value of sharing and why people will probably share that information gladly.
So Will Wright has moved on from Bar Karma (which I don’t think we’ll be seeing a second season, sadly…onto a new project – HiveMind. Reading the lengthy article from VentureBeat, I’d have to say I wish Will the best of luck, but I don’t think I’m going to take part of it. I don’t like the idea of playing around with my personal info. Sure, I do share my info occasional on Facebook – but I don’t use any of it when it comes to gaming…especially gaming on Facebook.
I really wish he’d come back to EA and take control over the Sims franchise as well as SimCity. He’d rather move on to new things, but honestly I wish he would have stuck with what he is known for – the father of simulation.
EuroGamer – ‘The Wright’ Stuff interview
Jun 6th
New interview from Eurogamer with Will Wright popped up shortly after delivering his speech at the BAFTA Awards event. I think he goes on to share with us his thoughts in which I don’t recall ever reading below. Some highlights: He wanted to move directly to The Sims 2 (and Spore) straight after The Sims 1 – didn’t want to do any expansions, doesn’t really keep up with The Sims anymore, finds some decisions by EA on The Sims series that annoys him, and his future gaming works.
Eurogamer: Were there too many The Sims expansion packs? Are there too many The Sims games?
Will Wright: We finished the very first version of The Sims, then it was suggested, ‘Why don’t we do an expansion pack for the game?’
I was like, ‘Let’s not bother with that. That’s wasted effort. Let’s do The Sims 2. Actually, I want to go off and do Spore.’
‘No, let’s just try it. Let’s try an expansion pack…’
I was actually one of the people saying I didn’t think expansion packs were a great idea. Boy, did I turn out to be wrong. The players loved it. It was good for the development team. They were able to get these things out without spending half their life working on them. We were able to explore what players liked and didn’t like very cheaply.
So when The Sims 2 came out we had a really good sense of which expansion packs they liked, which ones they didn’t. So it turned out the expansion packs were a great idea.
Eurogamer: Now you’ve left EA, what do you think they’ve done with your baby?
Will Wright: I don’t even keep track of it. Half of the expansion packs they showed on the montage I never played. Not once.
It’s funny. I’m like that. I make a lot of art at home, paintings and sculpture. I’m the same way with my artwork. When I’m working on it I’m obsessed with it every minute of the day. As soon as it’s done it’s like, hang it on the wall or throw it away. I don’t care. If somebody comes in and says they like it, I just give it to them.
I’m always involved in what I’m working on. But once I’ve finished it… It’s interesting to learn from and observe what the community does with it. But I don’t feel any deep attachment that I have to be driving it from that point on. I want to go off and do the new thing.
Eurogamer: So you don’t care what EA does with The Sims?
Will Wright: It would be kinda nice if they didn’t totally screw it up. I’m not controlling in terms of, call me before you do that! Oh, I can’t believe you did that! Because they’ve done The Sims things I didn’t think were the greatest ideas in the world, but it didn’t really upset me. It’s more like, OK.
Bonus article – What’s inspired Will Wright’s next game?
Will Wright is making a video game inspired by a short story by science fiction author Bruce Sterling.
The game, which The Sims creator hopes to have up and running in a year, riffs off of the Sterling short story Maneki Neko.
“He describes a karmic computer that’s keeping a balance of payments between different people, and causing them to interact with each other in interesting ways to improve their lives even though they’re strangers,” Wright told Eurogamer in a new interview conducted at E3 in Los Angeles.
Will Wright at Inventing the Future of Games
Apr 19th
Keynote speaker Will Wright is the award-winning creator of Spore, The Sims, and SimCity. The head of the entertainment think tank Stupid Fun Club, Wright is widely acknowledged for creating the simulation video game genre.
Innovators in technology and design continually reimagine computer games. User-generated content for commercial games (Spore, Little Big Planet), social network games (Farmville), vast simulation worlds with their own economies (World of Warcraft), games using mobile phones to augment reality (Ghostwire)–ten years ago these were dreams, and now they’re part of the cultural fabric. As the imagined becomes real, the question of “what’s next?” confronts both academic researchers and the game industry.
“Inventing the Future of Games,” a day-long symposium April 15 in Silicon Valley, aims to explore the possibilities of the next decade of gaming innovation and technology. Sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media, the symposium will gather some of the brightest minds of academia and industry to discuss the advancement of game design and technology.
The inaugural symposium, which starts at 8:30 a.m. at the India Community Center in Milpitas, Calif., will feature keynote speeches by Sims creator Will Wright, Linden Lab CEO Rod Humble (Second Life), and Michael Mateas, co-creator of Facade and director of the UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media. Tickets are $100 for the general public and $30 for UC Santa Cruz students.
“We’re looking forward to starting conversations between academics and industry professionals on where the field of computer games might go,” said Mateas, an associate professor of computer science in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering. “Moving toward games that truly pay attention to the player’s actions and generate dynamic responses would allow games to create new types of experiences. It would open up new approaches in interactive storytelling. Multi-player missions and quests could be adapted to specific social play styles. A whole new world of games waits to be discovered.”
The symposium will include four sessions: exploring the relationship between games and cinema, making self-generating games, the future of games and culture, and creating new forms of character and dialogue.
Session speakers will include Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia), Emily Short (Galatea), Ian Bogost (Georgia Tech/A Slow Year), Tracey Fullerton (University of Southern California/The Night Journey), Robin Hunicke (thatgamecompany), and UC Santa Cruz game program faculty members Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Marilyn Walker, Arnav Jhala, and Jim Whitehead. UC Santa Cruz’s John Funge, Warren Sack, Soraya Murray, and Sri Kurniawan will moderate the panels.
For more information, visit games.soe.ucsc.edu
Stupid Fun Club not eligible for E3
Apr 12th
Things aren’t looking good for the Stupid Fun Club. In a tweet last month by Will Wright, he stated that the folks behind the Stupid Fun Club were not eligible to attend E3:
“So apparently the E3 folks decided my new company (The Stupid Fun Club) isn’t in the electronic entertainment industry….” Wright says E3 is refusing to let his art director attend, adding, “I guess thats what we get for having a fun (and stupid) name.” [via @StupidFunWill]
I suppose everything will be alright though, as they do have a partnership with EA. When time comes, I’m sure they’ll be able to get a special pass from them.
Via Kotaku
Bar Karma Premieres Feb. 11th
Jan 30th
Bar Karma is the love child of Will Wright’s Stupid Fun Club and the TV channel Current TV. Bar Karma is a community-created TV show that started as a small beta group about 10 months ago. Jud and I were both fortunate enough to get invites into this beta group. The beta group created ideas and then ultimately voted on the pitch for the show that they found to be the best. The final product is a show about “the bar of the universe” where there is no sense of time or location. This bar is run by James Anon, a man who has many past lives (he has “died” hundreds of times), and Dayna Rollins (I actually created this name for the character, and I was fortunate enough to have them use it in the final product). The rest of the background story of Bar Karma can be seen in the trailer below. So, can a successful TV show be created by the community in only 10 months? Find out on Friday, February 11th at 10PM Eastern on Current TV. Once the show airs please leave your comments and opinions of the show as comments on this post.
Bar Karma Trailer/Preview
Nov 4th
After many months of being in the beta stage, the filming for the pilot of The Stupid Fun Club and CurrentTV’s new tv show, Bar Karma, is complete. Here is the trailer/preview that they have put together. Sorry for not having covered this project sooner (Both Jud and I were among the first beta users).
Will Wright’s “Bar Karma” gives the audience the director chair
Oct 11th
Will, I love you, you know that. I have been a fan of your work since I was a little lad, but I don’t have high hopes for your new television series. I just can’t…
Official PR release:
CURRENT TV TO HARNESS THE CREATIVE POWER OF TELEVISION AUDIENCES WITH NEW ORGINAL SERIES
30-Minute Episodic Series to Serve as Sims Creator Will Wright’s First Launch into Television
Viewers Can Register at www.current.com/barkarma
New York, NY – October 6, 2010 – Current TV announced today that world-renowned video game designer Will Wright, creator of The Sims and SimCity, the most successful gaming franchise of all time, will bring his unique talents to television for the first time with a multi-episode series that will give audiences the ability to create and control the show’s storylines and plot developments.
Anchored by technology that Wright has developed exclusively for Current TV, the series, tentatively titled Bar Karma, will enlist viewers to join an online global community at a special web destination entitled, “Current TV’s Creation Studios.” At this virtual television studio, users will participate in the development of all creative and technical aspects of production and communicate directly with the producers of the show.
Will Wright’s TV show shooting its pilot this week
Aug 20th
I’ve been one of the early invites for Will Wright’s ‘The Creation Project’ when he launched his first Stupid Fun Club project this past spring. Sadly, I could not keep up and decided it would be best to remove myself from the group. I had my doubts that it’ll do well, and honestly, still kind of do. But it’s Will Wright – I wish him the best of luck on his work and I hope he can prove me wrong!
Anyhow, Joystiq picked up on the fact that the pilot episode of his new TV project has begun filming this past week. It’s storyline was contributed by many users from the group and will be an on-going series on CurrentTV. According to ExhibitSims, this new television show of Will’s is called “The Man, The Myth, The Legend”. Here are a few screens…
Will Wright signs deal with The Science Channel
Apr 15th
Could this be the beginning of his new television show plan or a whole new idea from the corner of his mind? Reuters reported that he signed a deal with The Science Channel to help produce programming for the network.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Video game designer Will Wright has signed a development deal with Science Channel to produce programing for the network.
Wright is co-founder of Maxis (now part of Electronic Arts) and designer of hit game series “The Sims.” He is charged with creating series and specials for Science that explore topics including time travel, different worlds and the future. Each program will have online and interÂactive components and will attempt to reflect the sensibility of Wright’s video game work.
“I want to take the way he engages an audience in gaming and bring that into a show,” Science Channel GM Debbie Myers said.
The partnership reflects Myers’ strategy to expand the network’s programing from science-based content to shows that explore creativity. Science recently made headlines by partnering with Steven Spielberg for a documentary on rebuilding the World Trade Center site.
Wright’s most recent game was 2008′s “Spore”; last year, he founded the entertainment think tank Stupid Fun Club.
IGN uncovers Will Wright’s “stupid” project – a television show
Mar 26th
Will Wright has been hiding his projects coming from his Stupid Fun Club for quite some time, but IGN was lucky enough to grab an exclusive scoop on what he’s been up to. His next project is a television show called ‘The Creation Project‘. Teaming up with producer Albie Hecht, ‘The Creation Project‘ is a tv series about the creation of a tv series. Basically users will be able to submit ideas for stories and then they’ll get voted on to see which ideas will be turned into a two-half hour episode.
In essence, The Creation Project is a TV series about the creation of a TV series. What we’ve seen suggests users will submit story ideas online and via mobile devices. This will lead to the users than discussing the submissions and voting for their favorite. Finally, the winning storyline is actually produced and will air as two half hour episodes.
There appears to be a major online/mobile device component to this series, including a “StoryMaker Engine” Wright has designed that will allow users to quickly make their own storyboards to accompany their ideas using pre-existing images or those uploaded by the users themselves.
We saw suggestions that the series could premiere by the end of the year, though presumably the online component may begin earlier. Of course, we should reiterate that this was all in the early stages and it’s likely elements of what we saw could be dramatically different by the time The Creation Project is on the air.
I have to be honest here…this does not sound interesting in the slightest bit. I’m not much for reality tv, but it’s Will so I’ll give him a chance.
Thanks to TheSidDog for the tip!
Loading ...
Master Suite Stuff
Sims 3 Showtime
