New Game from Sims Creator Turns Player’s Life into a Game
The man behind such best-selling games like "The Sims", "SimCity" and "Spore" has a new game that will place the player in the center of the action: as the main character of "Hivemind".
Unlike other RPG games where the player takes on a role, Wright's new game pulls information from the player's life to place them as elements of the game. "Hivemind" is what Wright calls the next evolution in gaming where the player's routines are incorporated into a form of game play. The game builds upon Alternate Reality Games and obtains personal information from a player's phones, tablets, social networks and computers.
In an interview with Reuters, Wright talks about how his previous games "The Sims" and "Spore" led to a realization that players are more invested in a game if it is more personal. "Hivemind" is inspired by Wright's experience in finding a group of car enthusiasts by sheer luck.
"If I knew about these events, my life would be a lot more interesting," he told Venture Beat. "How do we expose you to these events, these things? How can we make a system that understands enough about you and gives you situational awareness? It could take into account what time of day it is, where you are, how much money is in your pocket. Imagine if you could open Google Maps and it shows you things that are interesting to you on the map."
From that experience he wondered if a game could be built where the system has situational awareness of the player's location. The game will collect data so that the game can find opportunities for the player to find places where they could enjoy themselves or meet people who would be interesting to the player based on their interests.
As for privacy issues, Wright thinks that the entertainment value of sharing with friends and family will trump any apprehensions the player may have over sharing personal information. As long as the game is interesting players will share information gladly.
The game's technology and data collection system is in place but "Hivemind" doesn't have a release date yet. Wright is excited about releasing a game that no one has done before. He believes that "Hivemind" is the game that exemplifies the future of gaming where the user becomes the game.
"This has to do with where gaming is going," Wright said. "We had our eras in console gaming and social gaming. A lot of this personal gaming will happen on mobile devices. The question here is how can we learn enough about the player to create games about his or her real life."