虛擬游戲開發天才回歸現實世界

????威爾?萊特曾經開發過史上最成功的一些游戲作品，包括藝電公司（Electronic Arts）出品的《模擬城市》（SimCity ）和《模擬人生》（The Sims），全球總銷量超過1.5億套。2008年，萊特主持開發了很久的游戲《競技》（Sport）終于面世。《競技》上市前進行了大張旗鼓的炒作，上市后卻反響平平。其后不久，2009年，這位游戲開發大師離開了藝電公司旗下由他親手創立的馬克西斯工作室（Maxis studio）。最近，萊特和技術專家阿維?巴澤維及笨樂俱樂部（Stupid Fun Club）的成員共同成立了一家名為Syntertainment的新公司。笨樂俱樂部是萊特的智囊團，嘗試開發過從機器人到延時攝影線性娛樂（stop-motion linear entertainment）等各種項目。這家新公司正在加緊開發一個全新的跨平臺游戲，它將首先在手機上推出，然后再轉戰其他平臺。最近《財富》采訪了萊特，下面是采訪實錄。

????嘗試開發手機游戲是什么感覺？

????我沒覺得開發手機游戲有什么不同。有了云之后，現在很多游戲變得更有互動性了。游戲已不再局限于傳統的臺式機和電子游戲機了。我本人，還有我認識的人，都會更多地在手機、而不是其他設備上花很多時間瀏覽網絡、和他人交流或是玩各種游戲。在某種意義上，手機將是今后占據主導地位的平臺。

????手機對啟發你的創造性起到了什么作用？

????最大的因素是手機隨時隨地都能用。它總是在我口袋里，不論我在哪兒，都能通過手機和他人互動。對我來說尤其有意思的一點是，從個人數據的角度來說，如果人們同意的話，我們可以通過手機了解到用戶的大量信息。

????您的新游戲是什么主題？

????去年11月，我創建了一家名叫Syntertainment的新公司。我們正在致力于開發一個非常特別的創意，它可能會在手機上引領潮流。我只能大致說它是一個和人們的現實生活及生活中的角色相關的游戲，而不再是虛構或虛擬的世界。

????不久前您曾談起過自己最近推出的游戲HiveMind，說它將現實生活游戲化。您現在開發的新游戲和它類似嗎？

????這個領域很困難，我們還在開發階段。我們正在逐漸弄明白應該采用怎樣什么樣的手段。將現實生活游戲化并不是只有一條道路，而是有多種可能，所以當我們深入到細節之中時，發現這個領域發展空間巨大。因此，關于呈現給玩家什么內容、玩家在想什么等問題，我們必須非常專注和具體。我還是對開發以現實為基礎的游戲有著濃厚的興趣。

????現實生活游戲化，比如從信用卡到停車場都能獲得積分這種現象，對您開發這個項目產生了什么樣的影響？

????現在有很多來自游戲的象征和結構被用于生活類應用軟件。游戲正在成為一種語言，游戲的結構已經成為我們今天現實生活的一部分。

????Will Wright has created some of the most successful video games of all time, including Electronic Arts' SimCity and The Sims, which has sold over 150 million copies worldwide. The game developer left EA and the Maxis studio he founded back in 2009, shortly after his long-in-development Sport launched in 2008 and failed to connect with gamers after years of hype. Wright recently formed a new company, Syntertainment, with technologist Avi Bar-Zeev and members of The Stupid Fun Club, Wright's think tank that has explored everything from robots to stop-motion linear entertainment. Syntertainment is gearing up development of a new cross-platform game experience that will debut on mobile and grow into additional platforms. A transcript of a conversation with Wright follows.

????What's it been like exploring mobile games?

????I don't even think of it as is a separate thing because so much of this stuff is getting interactive now because of the cloud. Games are headed beyond the traditional desktop or console experiences. My own habits and the people I know spend a lot more time interacting with the web, with other people and even other games on my phone than any other device. Mobile is going to be the dominant platform in some sense.

????What does mobile open up to you creatively?

????The biggest factor is that it's always accessible to me. It's always in my pocket, and I can be out in the world doing things and still interacting. On the personal metrics side, which is extremely interesting to me, you have the ability to gather huge amounts of data about a person through their mobile devices, if they allow it.

????What's your new game about?

????I started a new startup back in November called Syntertainment, and we are focused on a very specific idea which is probably going to lead on mobile. I can broadly say it's something that will connect to people and reality and the gameplay of their life and not so much on fictions or virtual worlds.

????You had previously talked about your last game, Hivemind, as a gamification of people's lives. Is this new game similar?

????That's still a rough area we're working in. We're just getting more specific about how we approach that. It's a pretty open-ended charter -- gamification -- so as we get down to the details of it there's a huge opportunity in this space. That's why you need to focus on something very specific in terms of what you're presenting to the player and what they're thinking. I am still extremely interested in making games where reality is the playing field.

????How has the gamification of life, when you look at everything from credit cards to parking lots offering points, impacted what you're doing with this project?

????A lot of gaming metaphors and structures are now being applied to things lifestyle apps. Gaming is becoming a language and all of these structures are metrics within the way we live today.