Truly Interactive Journalism

Will Wright, the creator of videogame sensations SimCity and the Sims is slowly working on his next game: Spore. You can check out this amazing video that gives you a tour of Spore. Basically, you create life from a single spore, as it evolves into a galaxy.

He recently presented at the South by Southwest Interactive conference, and touched upon the value of story in videogames:

“Story causes a chain and conveys it to a viewer… a story’s all about the chain of events, very linear, unchanging, you’ve all seen the same version of Star Wars. But games are very open ended. Also, movies are primarily visual. Games are primarily interactive. So when we take away the control from a player, we’re taking away the most important thing from them. It’s like going to the movies and showing a blank screen…”

I couldn’t help but think about how this reflects the changes within journalism and media. Where once news and information flowed in a (mostly) single direction, it has now become an ever changing conversation. Stories can be aggregated, mashed-up, and commented on; sources themselves and the audience is creating content in words, audio, and video; and, overall, people are consuming much more media than ever before. We have truly become interactive.

The media buzz on Will Wright is growing each week, and he seems to be pushing the limits as to what a videogame experience can be. Highly recommended. More on Will Wright, from Gamasutra, CNET, and the New Yorker, and the New York Times

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