LECTURE: Wright on Video Games
- Scribbled on October 25th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Interviews, PC
Games Industry BIZ reported Will Wright’s fascinating lecture at BAFTA, as he talked about video games in a historical perspective. An excerpt:
Wright also addressed common concerns that are aired by non-gamers and certain sections of the mainstream media about the impact that videogames are having on society.
“We see kids playing games, and getting obsessed with them, and it’s a continual cultural concern with videogames, and I heard a story a while back, which was interesting.
“There was this guy, and he walked into a room, and he saw a person sitting on the other side of the room, absorbed in this device. And he was so fixated on this device that he didn’t even notice this fellow walking into the room – he could tell, it was like he wasn’t even there, and he’d displaced himself to another time and place.
“And it creeped him out, he thought this guy was possessed by the devil.
“What this was, it was the sixteenth century, and it was the first time he’d seen somebody reading a book.”
Imagine a televised debate between Will Wright and Jack Thompson. Butter, meet laser beam. Laser beam, butter.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Reading through his lecture transcript, I can see how he can be the next true visionary… for gaming that is…
October 26th, 2007 at 10:08 am
The next true visionary?
He isn’t already?
October 26th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Nonsense! The Sims games aren’t that popular…
October 26th, 2007 at 10:24 am
No one’s ever played the SimCity games, either.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I used to love the SimCity games as a kid.
October 26th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Wright gave a talk at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)lectures last year it was an interesting short talk about spore and gaming and education. the link is here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/146
very interesting this is why he is doing things no one else is.
Oh I play simcity, and I love it