Will Wright Talks New Sim City, 'Uncollecting'

Thanks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for its interview with Sim City and The Sims creator Will Wright, ostensibly about forthcoming title The Sims 2 - however, Wright also notes that "a new version of 'SimCity' is in early planning stages", lamenting that "'SimCity' kind of worked itself into a corner... We were still appealing to this core 'SimCity' group. It had gotten a little complicated for people who had never played 'SimCity.'" He also espouses his new hobby, 'uncollecting', as he explains, after handing out "lapel pins commemorating the Soviet space program" to the interviewer: "I buy collections on eBay, and I disperse them out to people again. I have to be like an entropic force to collectors, otherwise all of this stuff will get sorted." Update: 05/24 20:10 GMT by S : Commenters note there's a transcript of the same interview with added detail, over at GameSpy.

Plagarism?

[nkodengar]

A more or less exactly the same conversation took place on GameSpy [gamespy.com] last week (14th May).

Wright sits down at the café table and holds out a small baggy filled with old Soviet commemorative lapel pins. Wright: Take one. GameSpy: Russian pins? Wright: I'm uncollecting. I buy collections on eBay, and I disperse them out to people again. I have to be like an entropic force to collectors, otherwise all of this stuff will get sorted. It's like the opposing force, uncollectors.

Source: http://www.gamespy.com/articles/515/515914p1.html

Re:Plagarism?

[simoniker]

Interesting, and well-spotted - seems that the writer (Steve L. Kent) sold his raw interview to GameSpy, and an edited one to the Seattle P-I - getting paid twice for doing the same thing is neat!

Re:Plagarism?

[nkodengar]

Hehehe thanks

I read the original article after randomly going to the GSpy site and it was the 'uncollecting' idea that has stuck with me. Whilst Will Wright might not be the first to do it, its the sort of thing that could spread around and become another phenomenon like flash mobs.

Cool.

[mr_jrt]

Good old Will Wright. I like his style.

His robot is the bomb.

[Trejkaz]

I like his robot. In fact I think there are a few preschools which could do with licensing that robot.

uncollecting

[CrazyClimber]

I'd be happy to let you "uncollect" my old comic books. My wife would be even happier.

Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[cloudless.net]

I think there should be difficulty modes in Simcity, so beginners can start with "easy mode" with less stuff to care about. By the way, will the next Simcity be truly 3D?

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[bersl2]

I think there should be difficulty modes in Simcity,

In SC2000, there were. Though the only(?) difference was your starting money (20k, 10k, 10k in bonds).

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[Orne]

But but, I was told there's a complete three dimensional engine underneath SimCity 4...

You can move the screen up, down, left and right, and you can zoom in and out, and you can rotate... in.. 90 degree blocks... just like you can in Isometric with 2D sprites and 1/4th the hardware requirements. Err...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[suyashs]

Only if they could add the extra stuff in Sim City 4 using Sim City 2000's engine. IMO, Sim City 2000 was the pinnacle of the whole franchise. It seemed that it went downhill from there, mainly due to the shoddy graphics system (crazy amounts of RAM are needed to keep build the kinds of things that were standard in Sim City 2000)...I say they make sure that Sim City 5 is extremely optimized, perhaps by studying 64k demos etc.

Re:SimCity 4 was 3D?

[Orne]

That is not the behaviour of a 3D engine.

Well, its more like the behavior of a 3D engine with a very short Level of Detail [online.no] distance, and a new texture file to substitute in each band. Combine that with a low cache (maybe just too much texture variations), and you have constant texture swapping.

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[jafuser]

Sim City 3000 was originally planned to be 3D, and they even got pretty far into the concept. I've still got some screenshots of it on my drive somewhere.

It was abandoned because the hardware requirements were not up to par to handle the simulation and 3d rendering at the time.

I'm hoping they bring back the idea, now that we seem to have adequate hardware for the job. I remember getting so excited about it, only to be given the biggest letdown that 3000 was basically a pretty-ified and dumbed down 2000.

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[cloudless.net]

Yeah wouldn't it be nice if I can zoom into the streets and decorate the exterior of my own house? Or perhaps even integrate it with The Sims.

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[Reedo]

You might be interested to know about Children of the Nile [immortalcities.com]. It's a city building game due later this year that's being made by many of the creators of the Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus series that's completely 3D (you can zoom down into the streets and follow people around) and based in ancient Egypt.

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[Telastyn]

If I'm not mistaken, SimCity 4 is properly 3d in most places. It also runs like a dog once your city gets sufficiently large. I found it to be the least fun of the group.

[ship the game without a random map generator! for shame...]

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[TomGroves]

I think there should be difficulty modes in Simcity, so beginners can start with "easy mode" with less stuff to care about.

There are. Buy Simcity 4 Deluxe or Simcity 4 + Rush Hour and you can play at easy, medium or hard (hard is regular Simcity 4 difficulty)

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[prockcore]

I think there should be difficulty modes in Simcity, so beginners can start with "easy mode" with less stuff to care about.

Brilliant!

Level One: You control everything in your room.. can you make sure the clothes stay off the floor?
Level Two: You control the house, keep the weeds under control, trim that fucking tree.
Level Three: You are now the head on the neighborhood watch, make sure everyone has working lights, pass out flyers reminding people not to let people wearing prison stripes into their house

Re:Simcity 3000 is already too difficult for me

[msoya]

Level Eight: You control the country. Go buy a Civ game Level Nine: You control the planet. Luckily for gameplay, there's some nasty aliens to fight and other planets to colonise! (but I can't remember any good games along these lines, not having played many) Level Ten: You're god. Destroy the entire universe, and turn it into a game of Pac-Man.

1: Off topic

[Oncogene]

I find his 'uncollecting' activity to be far more fascinating than any information concerning another Sim City or any developments thereof.

Brings to mind ObeyGiant's [obeygiant.com] take on phenomenology. This scould certainly prove to be a fun project along the lines of GeoHunting.

Re:1: Off topic

[shunnicutt]

I immediately called my ex, who is an avid -- actually, compulsive -- collector and described this new hobby of 'uncollecting'.

His response? 'I hate him.'

Re:1: Off topic

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that so?

It sounds like a stupid idea to me. "Uncollecting" is going to make it much more likely that item will never be seen again. Individual items are going to be much more likely to be lost, misplaced, or thrown away.

Collections are meant to consolodate items so it will be easier to maintain and preserve them as a group.

uncollecting

[Anonymous Coward]

It's already a successful business model. So successful that most people are familiar with the term 'chop shop'. Take a collection and break it up because the parts are worth more than the whole.

"Uncollecting" games

[superultra]

So, I assume that if he truly feels persuaded by this vast etropic force, him and EA will be selling this new Simcity at cost right? You know, disperse funds back out to people otherwise "all this stuff will get sorted"?

I'll help uncollect!

[Torgo's Pizza]

This is a personal message to Wil Wright. I hear you have a rather large collection of small regtangular green colored pieces of paper. This collection was a result of having so many big selling games. As a friend, I'd be more than willing to help you uncollect these pieces of paper. Please email and we'll set something up!

He better watch out...

[I_Love_Pocky!]

Or the Soviets will make him an unperson.

3D? Nah...

[igrp]

I am not so sure 3D would really work that great for a "Sim City"-style game. All ressource issues aside, isn't the point of "Sim City" to be actually running a city by keeping an eye on the big picture? I always found the decision making process to be most challenging and, frankly, most fun -- just like in the real world, as you're city grows you find yourself unable to please everyone and have to prioritize.

And I am just not sure the more "The Sims"-like approach will work all that well in a "Sim City" game (remember, "Sim Tower" which was about managing just one single building complex but in reality was little more than an elevator management simulation?).

Or, maybe I am just old-fashioned and like my 2D games way too much... ;)

Re:3D? Nah...

[MBraynard]

It does work. It's called Sim City 4. Came out over a year ago.

Obligatory Game Screen

[pragma_x]

Information - MyCity4
Founded: 1900AD
Population: 103,245

Your Rating is: Poor
Your current treasury: $3
Your current debt: $-30,000
Citizens claim taxes are too high.
Citizens are demanding more roads.
Citizens are wondering why its suddenly impossible to collect things.
Will Wright is demanding more stuff to uncollect.

What? Where?

[DeadboltX]

What? Wheres the obligitory "In soviet russia..." jokes???

Re:What? Where?

[Trejkaz]

In Soviet Russia, space program lapel pins uncollect YOU?

Or... In SimSovietRussia, the country runs YOU!

I just don't know anymore.

They can't spell

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't seen it yet. I hope to get over there. My other friend, Yute Saito is working with Nintendo now. I don't know if you have met him. He did SimTower for us. He did Seaman.

It's Yoot Saito!

Re:They can't spell

[ug_rulz_all]

SimTower was ownage. Best of all, there were no suicidal plane pilots. As for the new SimCity, my suggestion would be for the user to create their own neighborhoods or vicinities where they can place multiple cities. The cities can be linked through transportation, and often times what goes on in one city could adversely affect others around it. For example, if a major disaster strikes one city, the population around the disaster area will 'repel' into nearby cities, requiring the player to act quickly in