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Comfort Through Gaming: Accomplishing Anything in SimEarth

A New Yorker article published in 2006 quoted Will Wright as being an advocate of the Montessori method of teaching. Wright argues that kids given sufficient materials and left to their own devices will educate themselves far more thoroughly than any structured program.

SimCity was apparently born from the legendary game designer's love for self-discovery:

”SimCity comes right out of Montessori—if you give people this model for building cities, they will abstract from it principles of urban design.”

Which is a valid point of view if you're a genius like Wright, but the average SimCity player is eventually just going to write “PENIS” with railroad tracks before giving up, Montessori education or no Montessori education.

I am very much an average Sim player. I did well enough with SimCity for the Super Nintendo and (gasp) Commodore 64. When I picked up SimEarth for the SNES (developed by FCI instead of Maxis), I expected the game to merely be a global re-imagining of SimCity, intuitive and easy to jump into. Instead, I was met with something almost completely different that required a bit more book learning than “Commercial zones do really well next to residential zones.” SimEarth is full of controls, dials, variables, and there is little graphic reward: you won't see massive cities bristle from the wilds as civilisation progresses, and full-scale nuclear war is disappointingly toothless. Yet, something about the SNES installment of the earth simulator is laid-back to the point of being almost therapeutic. I never developed my totalitarian Tyrannosaurus Rex empire because I largely had no idea what I was doing, but I was content to try over and over.

Posted Apr 06 2009, 11:06 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments

Filed under: simcity, will wright, retro, 16-bit, nadia oxford, simearth, comfort through gaming

Deus Ex Machiwuhuh: Where is Warren Spector?

Warren Spector is what we here at 61 Frames Per Second call “a mule of epic proportions”. His mulishness can be measured by a number of standards. For example: how many people could make a decent videogame about Mark Hammil dogfighting giant space cats? How many people could make a medieval stealth game and actually have it feel speedy and good? How many people could make Deus Ex? Precisely one person. He rules, but it's been quite a long time since we've seen him 'round these parts.

Posted Mar 25 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: disney, will wright, deus ex, thief, eidos, wing commander, deus ex3, junction point studios, pixar, david perry, mark hammil, mickey mouse, Disney interactive

The E.V.O.lution of Spore

Yahtzee recently mouthed off in his charming British way about Will Wright's Spore. Does he like it much? Short answer: "Nooooooooooooooo..."

I haven't played Spore. My computer is from the Stone Age (2002) and completely useless for gaming. It's especially useless right now because it's been infected with the digital equivalent of late-stage syphilis and I do believe it's going quite mad.

As for Spore, I might pick up the Wii version once it receives all the necessary castrations. But I have to admit that Yahtzee's weekly snark-a-thon woke up an otherwise oblivious bit of my brain that's telling me, "Hey...you played Spore. On the Super Nintendo. It was called EVO."

Now kids, don't you all yell at Granma Nadia like that. I know Spore is far more complex than the 16-bit prehistoric gorgefest that captured my heart when I was fourteen-ish. But the idea of eating and growing appendages as a result of eating (wouldn't that make the obesity crisis a lot more interesting) took me back to a happy place. When we were kids, we wanted to genetically engineer nail-studded dragons with teeth like Ginsu knives and scales like tank armour. Oh, and they had to be able to fly, of course. Completely impossible by Nature's hoity-toity standards, but typical of the animals that rattle around in a kid's imagination. When Enix made EVO, it remembered the pencil crayon drawings that adorn every boy's school binder.

Posted Sep 18 2008, 05:22 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 4 comment(s)

Filed under: snes, PC, will wright, spore, super nintendo, 16-bit, nadia oxford, evolution, evo

Spore vs. Evolution

Spore, the much anticipated life simulation game by Will Wright is upon us. I, like many, have been looking forward to seeing this game in action since it was first announced 4.5 billion years ago. The story behind Spore's creation is every bit as interesting as the game itself, involving Mr. Wright spending a great deal of time speaking with evolutionary biologists and gathering intelligence to re-imagine the entire history of life as a video game. From the start, Spore has been billed as “Evolution, the Video game”. But is it really? As a science enthusiast, I thought I'd take what I've learned about Spore and what I know about evolution and break down a brief comparison.

Posted Sep 05 2008, 10:00 AM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments

Filed under: amber ahlborn, will wright, spore, evolution

What Hath Science Wrought: Spore Freakshow Extravaganza!

What you are about to see will thrill you, chill you to the bone. We at 61 FPS braved the darkest corners of the internet to bring you this gallery of the most twisted Spore creatures.

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen for a gallery of god-forsaken abominations courtesy of those lovable scamps over at 4chan. You have to wonder if Spore creator Will Wright knew what sort of Pandora's Box he was opening when providing the creeps of the internet with the opportunity to manifest and communicate their perversions. Just wait till the furries hear about this. We've got Homer Simpson in the house, the Biting Pear of Salamanca, and a...uh...flying disembodied penis.

All this and more...after the jump.

Posted Jun 16 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, will wright, spore, 4chan, creature creation, cocks

Crush Object: 8 Ways Will Wright Owns

With Spore's release just around the corner, it's a perfect time to remember why its creator is a god among men. His visage may say "Kip from Napoleon Dynamite" more than Steve McQueen, but Will Wright is seriously a cool cat. The following videos only scratch the surface. For more proof that Will Wright is beyond you, I'd start with this interview. Check it:

1. Will Wright won an illegal cross-continental car race in 1980.

Posted Jun 13 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: cole stryker, steve colbert, brian eno, will wright, spore

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.