Will Wright: 'Sequels and clones are bad'

[Kinneas]

from DIGG: http://www.360-gamer.com/news.asp?id=1166

Sims father speaking out against sequels? Surely not?

Spore developer, Sims creator and all-round industry icon Will Wright has criticised the steady flow of clones and sequels in gaming and has warned that games developers must start innovating now if they’re to avoid trouble down the line.

Speaking in an interview with Stern.de, Wright, when asked of his feelings on the number of sequels and copycat games found in the games industry, said: “Yes, this is indeed a bad development. It seems that it’s preferable to play it safe rather than be creative. At the moment, this seems to work. But for how much longer? Besides, there are simply too many games on the market. As a result of this, many great games go straight under.”

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[MarkDuffy]

Fascinating, Kinneas, thank you sooo much.

From your link: Wright also stated that he was no longer playing, or working on, The Sims: “I usually accompany my games for about five, six years. Further developments or sequels are then handled by our producers. I must then simply approach a new project.”

Before TM announced SCS, I didn't even know who Will Wright was. He would fit right in at Tilted Mill!

I'm also desperately waiting for Spore!

I agree with WW & I also blame $%^&(# reviewers who only appear to understand cloning & comparing new games to some arbitrary "slot". It appears to be mainly producers who want the sequels (whether real or imagined) & the developers who would like to make new games. Producers are doing the hiring, so developers kinda have to follow, unfortunately.

[King Faticus]

I wonder what brought that on?
It sounds like there is some implied sympathy for simcity Societies


I never really payed him much attention before this SCS fiasco TBH but now I think I like him for his statement about clone games

[MarkDuffy]

This is probably the best place to put this post (or not ).

AOE3 will be coming out with an SECOND expansion ~ Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. This is amazing in itself (TWO Expansions), but the most interesting part is that it will be done by a different developer, Big Huge Games.

< Where-o-where have we heard THIS before ~ *cough* SimCity Societies *cough* >

Gamespy Interview with Big Huge Games

Perhaps even Azeem might be interested now (if he can find this thread).

[Poetic]

Wright is definitely the type of guy that likes to explore and create new ideas. It doesn't surprise me at all that he is pretty much done with the Sims, and I don't think he'll be on The Sims 3 team. Just like he wasn't with SimCity 4. I think he misses the old days with Maxis when he was able to work on various "Sim" games, i.e. SimFarm, SimEarth, SimAnt, SimIsle, etc... he seems like the type of person that wants to retire with a lot of very unique and creative games under his belt. I really don't think he likes to only be recognized today for SimCity and the Sims. Most people, to his bewilderment I'm sure, refer to him as "the Sims guy."

I'm sure he would definitely come in defense for SCS and one of the reasons why I'm looking forward to SCS is because it'll be different. I find myself going to various gamesites hoping to find new games that will be refreshing/new, and only finding the same old rehashings of older games over and over.

As has been speculated at Simtropolis, I think Wright will one day leave EA. I think EA has been trying to stop him from making anything other than the Sims. I think he was pretty lucky to get the green light on Spore - I bet he barely got it too (now EA strongly supports the idea, of course, due to the well received attention). EA likes to use the same old formulas that guarantee a profit. To give EA credit, however, it publishing Spore & SCS has shown that EA may be somewhat willing to use new approaches.

[King Faticus]

If EA does in fact prefer the old winning formulas... then why did they hire TM to make a traditional maxis title and allow\impose the changes to it o_0
rather than just waiting for spore to come out or making Maxis produce it simultaneously?

[Poetic]

Originally Posted by King Faticus

If EA does in fact prefer the old winning formulas... then why did they hire TM to make a traditional maxis title and allow\impose the changes to it o_0
rather than just waiting for spore to come out or making Maxis produce it simultaneously?

Covered already...

Originally Posted by Poetic

To give EA credit, however, it publishing Spore & SCS has shown that EA may be somewhat willing to use new approaches.

Like I said it has been showing some signs. But if you look at the history of the company it usually destroys series that aren't earning their keep and only allowing the most successful to go by. Wright doesn't care so much about the selling points, he cares about making the new games.

[King Faticus]

heh sorry I don't know how I overlooked that last part o_0

[Poetic]

No problem, I get pretty long winded (talk a lot) at times Easy to miss things...

[Adagio]

Originally Posted by King Faticus

If EA does in fact prefer the old winning formulas... then why did they hire TM to make a traditional maxis title and allow\impose the changes to it o_0
rather than just waiting for spore to come out or making Maxis produce it simultaneously?

Because Maxis is too busy with Spore, if they forced Maxis to split up in more groups it would take much longer before Spore will be released, and they are not that willing to wait for too long. My guess is that it took a lot of persuasion to be allowed to work on Spore for that long
And EA might not be that interested in waiting much longer. If they had to wait until Spore gets released too many people might have forgotten all about SimCity, so they wanted to cash in on the name before it was too late. And by releasing a quick/cheap sequel now the SimCity name will live on for a few more years

[Sabat]

The gaming industry is becoming increasingly tough and viscious. This is a good thing, in that it's being driven by gamers who are weary of unfinished titles being released. Regardless of the console wars (i'm purely a PC gamer), the production of new titles for the PC is crazy stuff...

you have two other "big names" recently, guys who make MMO's, Brad Quaid (Everquest) with the utterly dismal horrible pathetic shocking failure of Sigil's Vanguard, and Richard Garriot (Ulitima Online), who's Tabula Rasa is off to a shaky start, at best. Of course this is a different genre than what get talked about around here, but it's still the PC gaming industry.

The biggest gripe on these boards is that SC:S is so different from the franchise, it makes people want to kill babies. In the case of these other two games, the product was pushed out waaaay too early, massive changes/optimizing was needed to both titles, basic gameplay was being redesigned after release, and the customers paid retail plus a subscription for half-baked beta loaf.

Games make more money than Movies, so do publishers/developers even give a sh*t about releasing stuff that shouldn't be? Are they just counting on us to snatch up unfinished releases based on hype, while they take the booty, put the support and development on the back burner, throw out a patch every few months and call it a career?

hmm. actually...BRB, going to Dev School.....


add this concept to this astute observation...

Speaking in an interview with Stern.de, Wright, when asked of his feelings on the number of sequels and copycat games found in the games industry, said: “Yes, this is indeed a bad development. It seems that it’s preferable to play it safe rather than be creative. At the moment, this seems to work. But for how much longer? Besides, there are simply too many games on the market. As a result of this, many great games go straight under.”

....And the near future of PC game development looks kinda bleak for the gamer. I would also add that in addition to alot of great games going straight under, alot of crappy games are hyped and released as well. I for one, am starting to wise up to the sleazy way the industry works sometimes. I'm sure alot of others are thinking the same.

[tobing]

If you don't like clones and sequels, don't buy them. It's that simple! In fact, I believe it's the only way to give fedback to producers about any crap they make. Don't buy it, don't give them your money. Money is what counts in bigger producer companies like EA, Vivendi, you name it, all the same. So as long as people do buy all those sequels and clones, producers will continue to produce them. End of story.

To me it seems that the games market as a whole shifts towards consoles. This does not necessarily mean that PC game(r)s are doomed, but many new titels will be released for consoles, and probably more than for PC. This also puts some competition on PC gaming. For a console, a game can't crash. If a game does, players will demand refund. For PC games, it should be the same, really, and though it's much more difficult to achieve that quality level on the PC, it's a must.

But also here, it's the same rule as above: If you don't like games that are not working stable, don't buy them. If you can't try it out because there's no demo out, don't buy the game. As long as people continue to buy games with poor quality, publishers will continue to make games like that. Example? I really would love to play Gothic 3, but I have so far withstood buying that game because I know there are so many bugs in there.

Well, and the other big advantage of PCs is that it's open for developers, much more than consoles. You don't need to spend a single cent to turn your PC into a game programming, drawing and rendering machine, there's some free program for all your developers needs. Put in some bits of creativity, and everybody can make games. In fact, there are many interesting and innovative games out there, and quite a few of them stunning in their appearance, originality and/or gameplay.

Do you play them? If you're really looking for creative gameplay, there a rich source for that in the freeware, shareware or open source games scene. But I guess that most of you prefer playing something which is not entirely new, most of you, deep in your hearts, want more of the same. I can understand this, but then don't cry about sequels and clones... they are just what people want, i.e. more of the same.

Are we really better? I don't think so. Most of the people here do have some favorite city builder, and most of us would play anything of that kind of game, as long as it is more of the same. And why not, it's perfectly OK... just don't lament on all those sequels and addons and clones, and don't lament on the lack of creativity, many players out there do not really appriciate the really new things...

[Kuplo]

Originally Posted by tobing

If you don't like clones and sequels, don't buy them. It's that simple! In fact, I believe it's the only way to give fedback to producers about any crap they make. Don't buy it, don't give them your money. Money is what counts in bigger producer companies like EA, Vivendi, you name it, all the same. So as long as people do buy all those sequels and clones, producers will continue to produce them. End of story.

To me it seems that the games market as a whole shifts towards consoles. This does not necessarily mean that PC game(r)s are doomed, but many new titels will be released for consoles, and probably more than for PC. ..

There are some exceptions, by not buying certain smaller genre games such as CB style games the message that the publishers might be getting is that the genre is dead and they need to go make more FPS rehashes which is not what we need to tell the publishers. When they put out a game in a genre we like to play and the game is utter crap then we need to tell them specifically that the game is crap and we are not buying it. But just not buying it only sends the messages that perhaps all those old CB gamers are dead or moved onto other genres.

To see how large console games have become (and I believe they've been creating more consoled games than pc games for quite a few years now) one only need to visit any large retailer, or go on down to the local EB games store in your town, you'll find wall after wall with console titles and a measly couple of shelves for PC games. Yeah, they are making a heck of a lot more console games than PC games this year, and they are selling better as well.

I went into the local best buy store about a week before christmas. The PC games aisles were packed with PC title, both old and new. The console game aisles (and there are many many more aisles for console titles) were barren. Just 3 years ago I could go into the same best buy store at the same period in time and the PC aisles would be barren of titles too, now they are not.

All these companies are in it for the profit, Wright is no different than anybody else, he has to pay his mortgages, his light bills his food bills etc. My personal feelings on Spore is that it's less of a game and more of an experiment, but I'll have to reserve final judgement for when the game is actually released. But my point was that all these companies are in it for the profits so if it's more profitable to make games for consoles then that is the direction they will head. They will continue to throw out a couple PC titles in between console titles as there is still a market for that, but when that market drys up then there will only be smaller independant development houses's games to play with on the PC and even those developers are only trying to break into the market and catch a break and will eventually move onto console titles once they get recognized for a quality game, after all they have electric bills and college tuition to pay for as well.