How Will Will Wright Help Second Life? Linden Lab Replies

So Sims creator Will Wright is now on the Board of Directors of Linden Lab, developers of Second Life, and has actually been a listed member for at least a month or two. (NWN reader Ciaran Laval reports seeing Wright's name displayed on the Linden management page as far back as August.) Curiously, the company hasn't made any fanfare about gaining one of the game industry's most admired and successful designers to a team led by new CEO and Electronic Arts veteran Rod Humble, and just declined my request to interview him about his role at Linden. However, company spokesman Peter Gray did just give me this official statement:

We are thrilled to have a leader and pioneer of creative gaming and user-generated content join the Board of Linden Lab. His experience and insight will be incredibly valuable as we look to make the creativity that makes Second Life special today more easily and widely available.

So there's that. Of course, there's always this possibility:

... but probably not. However, I have been talking with insiders who've given me a somewhat clearer idea what Will Wright will bring to this new era of Second Life. (The Humble era?) More soon.

Comments

[Kimberly Winnington (Gianna Borgnine inSL)]

Maybe I'm reading too much into what Pete said, but based on the wording of that comment I'm not convinced yet that Will Wright is there to "help Second Life," but more so this new undisclosed spin-off mentioned at SLCC.

Interested to see what your "insiders" tell you.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

Actually, I have the inside poop. He's there to improve the virtual importability and usability of individuals of the family Camelidae, mainly for purposes of transportation of goods, but also potentially as objects of cultish veneration.

In other words, Will is going to add llamas to Second Life.

[Beasil Roundfield]

Yeah, I don't think we need to worry about motives ruining our Second Life experience. Wright and Humble have worked on more than just The Sims. I'll have faith as long as the craptastic parent company they used to work for never, ever gets involved.

[Fuzzball Ortega]

He's going to bring Mrs. Crumblebottom into Second Life and she's going to go around the strip clubs and hit people over the head with her purse.

I'll wait for Hamlet to tell us what he's insider's have told him.......provided that it's not some Huge Top Secret If We Tell Ya We Have To Kill Ya type deal.

[Jo yardley]

Hurrah for Mrs. Crumblebottom!

[Cat Cotton]

SL for the wii
sl for xbox

Will has always been interested in robots and AI. Good thing too cus if this sh!t turns PG (which I see SL doing sooner than later) they will need robots and AI to make up population numbers.

[foneco zuzu]

The sims 1 and 2 are pg rated games, but some ( i would dare to say thousands) mods changed them into XXX :)
In fact the only diff between sex in sims or Sl is the graphics (much better on Sl) and the fact that there is a person behind each avatar, so is like playing with yourself against playing as yourself:)

[Arcadia Codesmith]

The Sims has always skirted the edge of "PG", with "WooHoo" (sex) being one of the best and quickest ways in the game to boost social and fun needs.

But let's forget about The Sims for a moment and look at one of Will's other titles: Spore. The game got mixed reviews for many reasons, but one aspect got a lot of favorable attention.

That aspect is the integrated toolsets. Spore allows people with no experience in 3D modeling to make unique creatures, buildings, vehicles, spaceships and landforms. It has some vexing limitations if you DO have 3D experience, but within a few weeks of launch there were millions of distinct alien species and objects in the shared database.

This is something I've been hammering on for a long time now. SL's prim construction isn't bad at all, but texturing, sculpting, and mesh all rely on importing content created with external tools. If we had an integrated toolkit that made content creation easy and fun for everybody, that would blow away a major barrier to entry.

I won't say that Will is consulting on this... but it would be wicked cool if he is.

May the llama be with you, always.

[Ignatius Onomatopoeia]

"He's going to bring Mrs. Crumblebottom into Second Life and she's going to go around the strip clubs and hit people over the head with her purse."

Check the profile for Petunia Horchester in-world.

I claim no responsibility for her...but I run fast when she shows up :P

[Harper Ganesvoort]

Forget Mrs. Crublebottom...hurrah for the LLAMAS!

[shockwave yareach]

1, make a PG continent, an M continent, and an A continent. That or make the server code refuse to pass data from A and M sims to PG accounts.

2, lower the tier prices 1/3. Stop thinking exclusive and expensive -- start thinking general and in volume.

3, simply the TOS so it states simple that "Roads are PG on M parcels; what you do in your personal property is your business so long as it violates no laws and is not visible from the road." Simple, legal, and leaves us alone to enjoy our purchases.

4, limit the number of items salable in Marketplace to 10 + the number of prims supported by the land the box sits on divided by 30. Got a 512m parcel? You can have 10+3 items in marketplace. Got a 8K parcel? You can have 10+62 items in marketplace. This ties the marketplace to inworld stores, making both assist each other. New people with nothing can still get a free start, but people with 1000 items who own/rent no land whatsoever don't get a free ride anymore.

[Alazarin]

We're got the Moth Temple at Isis in Heterocera so why not a Llamadome on one of the newer continents such as Jeogeot, Mãebaleia, Nautilus, Corsica or Gaeta?

[[email protected]]

Uhm...I can't wait to see where this takes us. It will interesting to see what does happen with "Second Life" being that Will is now involved.