Time Playing Times Social Relevance Equals

Notes from Will Wright’s BAFTA speech, as recorded by David Hayward.

Games could change behaviour, they could change the world.

(Slide: Time Playing x Social Relevance = World Impact)

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.

Games involve story, hobby and sports. [Slide had subcategories but moved too fast for me to record them all]

In other art forms, we find deep expression (Illustrative slides of important works in other media), but games are kind of like this (Slide of big Conan style dude with giant blade, luridly titled DEATH SWORD) (Laughter). They’re kind of a popcorn experience, disposable entertainment. I’m not saying that’s wrong, I watch action films sometimes, but games could do more.

Meaningful messages given through games could have the power to create change.

Hell is other people writing your best lines.

Our devices are extensions of ourselves, for instance a car extends our body, the telephone our ears, buildings are extensions of our skin. Computers are extensions of many things, but most of all they extend our imaginations. You have these models running and the computer does all the boring bookkeeping while allowing you to play with consistent worlds.

(How much of our brain function do we sub-contract to PCs? I don’t really have to remember anything anymore, thanks to Google. I don’t even have to remember when to do things, and indeed will regularly forget to do routine things unless reminded by my PC prompts and reminders. Scaffolding for the intellect, with corresponding atrophies.)

Also

Lately, SF has given us dystopian visions. Surprisingly, Blade Runner is often cited in city planning documents with comments on potential developments like “We don’t want this city to become like Blade Runner”.

This is true, although I recall a poll of Yanqui architects suggesting that a large percentage of them would actually like to see LA turn out out like the Ridley Scott film. Of course, some of that film really is LA.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 2nd, 2006 at 5:35 pmand is filed under People, Politics & Philosophy, Videogames. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Time Playing Times Social Relevance Equals”

  • DuBBle Says:
    September 2nd, 2006 at 11:25 pm

    Will Wright remains surprisingly modest considering his achievements, and the frequency his comments on game design ring true with a wider audience.

  • bob arctor Says:
    September 3rd, 2006 at 9:36 am

    We need more games that make you think. I have thought this for a while now.

    As well as that we need more exploration of architecture in games. Thief is the best example of where the game, for me, becomes about exploration and architecture; you can outwit the guards so easily the only reason to download a new mission is to see more architecture.