Will Wright's london talk

David H. wrote in with the extremely welcome news that he'd managed to snag a place at Will Wright's recent BAFTA London talk, and did a liveblog run of what Will said. It's a cracking read. Will W is clearly thinking a lot about how the products he make impact the people who play them.

If we could take the time kids spend playing and multiply it by social relevance, it would have a major real world impact.

Games have a large heritage in linear media, but they’re fundamentally more like architecture, toy design, product design, art, math and even psychology.

He touches on memes, Disney, Rod Serling, Arthur C. Clarke....

Some people are very good at spreading memes. Walt Disney was one such person. He spread them first through TV shows, then presented his visions through theme parks. The Epcot Center was originally intended to be a city, though if you’ve been you’ll know it turned out as a corporate marquee.

David even grabbed the Q&A after the event. This stuff sings so loud for me, it's deafening.

(Thanks David!)

Comments

[kim]

If this kind of thing speaks to you, then you should also pick up this month's Harpers magazine, which has an article called "Grand Theft Education" in it, an interview with 4 different thinkers on the subject, one of whom is the Giant-brained Raph Koster.