The interview starts with some compliments to Will. First GameSpy says they had fun last year, but also that Will Wright is one of the few people who makes gaming a "revolutionary humorous joy". It goes on with that the moment Will sat to the table, he had to be kept away from the computer. It's Will's nature, thanks to his mother, is the conclusion. On to the Sims: this year we'll of course get The Sims 2, which Will states once again ships 17 September. As Will says, they're trying to keep all the things from the original, but that the game should also remain very accessible and easy to get the hang of. It's far more customisable and personalities are much deeper. The huge, "vibrant" community was one of the main reasons for the success of The Sims 1, and Maxis is striving to get something similar for The Sims 2.

The next topic is TSO. It's been truly society-changing, says Lawrence, and the game has received coverage from many major newspapers. Many people are involved, not just online, but the game goes on in the real world. Many aspects from the real world can be seen in games like TSO. For instance, there are many communities and social systems in TSO, which is remarkable. David Lawrence then brings up an anecdote of a visitor who called in February, whose girlfriend broke up with him because she thought he was cheating on her in TSO (and he was). That's how much the game influences real-life, and it's happened many times already. It doesn't scare Will though, games are just a big part of our life now.TSO is more or less special, because it is all about the interaction between the players, using gestures etc. Meanwhile TSO is still updated and upgraded every month, and Maxis is learning a lot from it.

A chatroom was also open, and questions from people there were answered. The first one was about more explicit content in The Sims 2, and if it'll be possible. Will responds that it will be more graphical, but sexual content is still censored. Making a mature version would lock out many younger players, while the game isn't that much more interesting or better. It's a lot about imagination though, the player imagines what happens behind the censorship. Going on about the aspirations of The Sims 2, Will tells about how the 'wants' work. If you fulfill one, then it'll cascade into a tree of more wants. It's up to the player how the Sims' life ends. Another question is about the AI in the game, and how much better it'll be. It's much deeper and Sims are more aware of their surroundings. The hard part is to make it visible to the player why Sims take certain actions. The AI is 'just' technology, while the other 50% is psychology (which is a lot harder to create).

Some people are saying Will is trying to mimick the real world into a virtual one. Wright says it's more a charicature of the real city. Maxis makes the game so that you can play the game, but if you go back to the real world, you see your own life differently. There are also some people taking better care of Sims than themselves, which is were hardcore gamers stop.

Raid on Bungeling Bay was Will's first game ever. In that game, Will found it more interesting to design the levels and islands rather than blowing them up. The editor was taken, and that's how SimCity was more or less born - on a Commodore64. David Lawrence is also fascinated by the way Will's brain works. His career path consisted mostly of building models until he became game designer. You might know Will is much into robotics. That's also modeling for him, modeling of humans that is. In robotics, it's quite obvious to see that hardware is the easy part to create, but the software to control the hardware is hard to write.

When Will's asked about taking SimCity online, like The Sims, he says there have been some plan. There has been a network edition of SimCity 2000 once. Taking it online will be a challenge in a number of ways, especially the business model is interesting. The online space will still have to evolve a little bit more. Like the expansions for TS1 taught Maxis what to do for TS2, TSO can teach them how to get a SimCity environment going.

There will also be expansions for The Sims 2, and Maxis has already made a structure for that in The Sims 2. Expansion packs will most likely be added, but there aren't any decisions about what will be added yet. That's all up to the teams. Custom content made by players will also be installed in an easier way. A bit of that can already be seen with the Body Shop. Casual gamers won't have to know about a lot of details, they can import content directly from the game. Unlike other games, Will also welcomes the players to find out what has not yet been discovered in the game, as that's interesting. Basically his games are a set of tools, and players do all the work. Such a domain is far more interesting to explore.

During the E3, Will is more or less a Sim. The PR team of EA is the player who has Will under his control. A nice reflection of the game in the real world. Time is limited with many questions coming in from the chatroom, but Will can still stick around a little longer. Another question about the AI gets a similar response to what Will said above: the AI isn't as important as the interface of the game. The next question is about drivable vehicles in any of the Sims games. The answer to this is a vague one, between a "yes" and a "no comment". Will can't say much about it. The final part is about the Sims 2 University. Will tells how a group of fans from all over the world was flew in to EA for a couple of days. Maxis got their (our) comments and that's how the players got involved in the design process. That's another thing that makes the Sims such a success: the player is involved. Maxis doesn't just create games, but they're creating communities. That concludes the long interview.

Written at 05:40 on Friday, 14 May 2004 by ChEeTaH.

Written at 05:40 on Friday, 18 June 2004 by Christina (sims1000)

when is the next live chat and where

Christina