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Wendy家电脑“寿终正寝”的时候，2008年最受玩家期待的游戏正式出来了，忍不住傻笑着对装机的人说：“至少要能玩《孢子》啊～”如果操纵一个人从生到死（甚至复活！）的感觉不够过瘾，如果操纵一家公司、一座城市乃至一个帝国的兴衰成败还让你意犹未尽，现在整个地球都可以掌控在你一人的手里！对于游戏迷来说，只要机子赶得上升级，由《孢子》掀起的08-09年度“大牌游戏潮”是多么美好的事情啊……
Will Wright is literally[确实] interested in everything. Based on his conversation, he might be a biologist or an economist. In fact, he designs video games for a living. Wright is the inventor of The Sims, the revolutionary[革命性的] game in which actual humans control the lives of little simulated[模拟的] humans, making them go to work or fall in love or swim around in virtual[虚拟的]
swimming pools till they drown. The Sims is the
best-selling computer game of all time. Among game designers, Wright is considered a living god. Now he wants to make you a god too.
For the past seven years, Wright has been working on one of the most ambitious video games ever conceived[构想出]. The basic idea is to blow out The Sims to the horizon in all directions: this time you create and control an entire species. Guys, here comes the generation of Spore.
A comet crashes into Earth bearing organic[有机的] material from outer space. This represents an actual hypothesis[假设] of how life on Earth began, called panspermia[胚种论], which Wright considers to be fairly plausible[可信的]. But that’s not why he put it in Spore. He put it in because it’s more fun than other hypotheses.
God rested after he created life, but you’re just getting started. Next you take care of your new life-form through its single-celled stage until it’s ready to crawl[爬] onto land, at which time you decide where its various eyes and ears and limbs and less easily identifiable[易于辨认的]
appendages[附属肢体] go. Then it must learn to feed itself and reproduce. Eventually, it forms tribes and builds cities. Finally it achieves spaceflight, whereupon you guide it off into the galaxy to meet other species.
“A game like this can actually generate interesting, meaningful conversations between people,” Wright says. “I think that’s the best thing it can do.”
In The Sims, people told stories about their private lives. Spore should lend itself to very different kinds of narratives[叙述]. “I think Spore is going to be closer to Tolkien or Lucas or Kubrick注,” Wright says, “in terms of these very epic stories about the meaning of life and its destination.” What’s interesting about Wright is that he doesn’t have to be Tolkien or Lucas or Kubrick. He wants you to be. “I’m a little different from a lot of other game designers in that I’m never interested in trying to tell a story,” he explains.
“I’m much more interested in the players being able to tell stories.”
Q&A with Wright
Q: It’s been almost 20 years since you brought us SimCity. When did you realize that you were able to create something as vast as Spore?
A: I think it was The Sims that showed us the value of having the players in a more creative role [in the game], able to create their own characters, their own houses. They got very emotionally connected to these experiences. With Spore, we went about giving players the next level of creative control. Almost everything that you see on screen in Spore at some point in the game the players will create and manipulate[操纵].
Q: What is your advice to people who sit down to the game and suddenly it’s seven hours later?
A: (laughs) You always hope eventually [the game] sparks someone to get off the computer and go find out more about global climate, or the history of civilization, or evolution, or astronomy[天文学]. Really, you’re playing with the toy version of something that’s a much deeper subject.
威尔·赖特真的对世间万物都充满兴趣。听他的谈吐，（你会觉得）他或许是位生物学家或者经济学家。事实上，他以设计游戏为生。赖特是《模拟人生》的发明者——这是一款具有革命性的游戏，人们在游戏中操控小型仿真人的生活，让他们去工作，谈恋爱，或在虚拟游泳池中尽情畅泳直到溺水为止。《模拟人生》是有史以来最畅销的电脑游戏。在游戏设计师当中，赖特被尊为活神仙。现在，他想将你也变成一位造物主。
过去的七年里，赖特一直忙于一款人们能想到的、史上最野心勃勃的游戏。其基本构想是从各方面彻底超越《模拟人生》：这次你将要创造和操控整个物种。伙计们，《孢子》时代到来了！
一颗彗星撞击地球，带来了外太空的有机物质。这体现了现实世界中关于地球生命如何诞生的一种假想学说，即“胚种论”。赖特认为这种学说非常可信。但那不是他在《孢子》中融入这个学说的原因。他之所以这样做，是因为它比其它假想更有趣。
上帝创造了生命之后就休息去了，但你的创造之旅才刚刚开始。接下来你要照看这个新生命度过其单细胞成长期，直至它做好准备爬上陆地——这个时候你就可以从各种不同的眼睛、耳朵、肢体以及其它不易辨认的附属物中选定生命体的形态。然后它必须学会喂饱自己，繁衍生息，最终学会组成部落，建造城市。最后，你的生命体实现了宇宙飞行，你便要指引它前往银河系，结识其它物种。
“这样的一款游戏确实能让人与人之间展开趣味十足、意义深远的对话，”赖特说。“我觉得这正是它最大的优点。”
在《模拟人生》中，人们讲述着自己的私生活。《孢子》则适用于截然不同的故事。“我觉得《孢子》会更接近于托尔金、卢卡斯或者库布里克的风格，”赖特说，“就这些史诗般的故事对生命的意义及其目的进行思索探求这个层面来说。”有趣的是，赖特本人不必成为托尔金、卢卡斯或者库布里克。他希望让你成为大师。“我跟很多游戏设计师有点不同，我向来不喜欢讲故事，”他说。“我更喜欢让玩家来讲述他们各自的精彩故事。”
赖特Q&A
问：距离你为我们带来《模拟城市》已经快20年了。你是什么时候意识到自己能创作出像《孢子》这样气势宏大的作品的呢？
答：我觉得是《模拟人生》让我们明白到让玩家在游戏中扮演更有创造性的角色的重要性，他们可以自行设计人物以及自己的房子。他们会对这些体验产生强烈共鸣。在《孢子》中，我们想赋予玩家进一步的创造控制权。在某种程度上，你在《孢子》的游戏画面中见到的一切，几乎都要靠玩家自行创造和操控。
问：对于那些坐下来玩游戏，然后突然发现七小时一晃而过的玩家，你有什么建议？
答：（笑）你总是希望这款游戏最终能鼓励人们离开电脑，出去了解全球气候、文明发展史、进化论或者天文学。真的，你面对的是一个玩具版的深层次问题。
注：此处指的是几位著名的魔幻大师——《指环王》的作者J·R·R·托尔金、《星球大战》系列的导演乔治·卢卡斯以及电影《闪灵》的导演斯坦利·库布里克。
Will Wright is literally[确实] interested in everything. Based on his conversation, he might be a biologist or an economist. In fact, he designs video games for a living. Wright is the inventor of The Sims, the revolutionary[革命性的] game in which actual humans control the lives of little simulated[模拟的] humans, making them go to work or fall in love or swim around in virtual[虚拟的]
swimming pools till they drown. The Sims is the
best-selling computer game of all time. Among game designers, Wright is considered a living god. Now he wants to make you a god too.
For the past seven years, Wright has been working on one of the most ambitious video games ever conceived[构想出]. The basic idea is to blow out The Sims to the horizon in all directions: this time you create and control an entire species. Guys, here comes the generation of Spore.
A comet crashes into Earth bearing organic[有机的] material from outer space. This represents an actual hypothesis[假设] of how life on Earth began, called panspermia[胚种论], which Wright considers to be fairly plausible[可信的]. But that’s not why he put it in Spore. He put it in because it’s more fun than other hypotheses.
God rested after he created life, but you’re just getting started. Next you take care of your new life-form through its single-celled stage until it’s ready to crawl[爬] onto land, at which time you decide where its various eyes and ears and limbs and less easily identifiable[易于辨认的]
appendages[附属肢体] go. Then it must learn to feed itself and reproduce. Eventually, it forms tribes and builds cities. Finally it achieves spaceflight, whereupon you guide it off into the galaxy to meet other species.
“A game like this can actually generate interesting, meaningful conversations between people,” Wright says. “I think that’s the best thing it can do.”
In The Sims, people told stories about their private lives. Spore should lend itself to very different kinds of narratives[叙述]. “I think Spore is going to be closer to Tolkien or Lucas or Kubrick注,” Wright says, “in terms of these very epic stories about the meaning of life and its destination.” What’s interesting about Wright is that he doesn’t have to be Tolkien or Lucas or Kubrick. He wants you to be. “I’m a little different from a lot of other game designers in that I’m never interested in trying to tell a story,” he explains.
“I’m much more interested in the players being able to tell stories.”
Q&A with Wright
Q: It’s been almost 20 years since you brought us SimCity. When did you realize that you were able to create something as vast as Spore?
A: I think it was The Sims that showed us the value of having the players in a more creative role [in the game], able to create their own characters, their own houses. They got very emotionally connected to these experiences. With Spore, we went about giving players the next level of creative control. Almost everything that you see on screen in Spore at some point in the game the players will create and manipulate[操纵].
Q: What is your advice to people who sit down to the game and suddenly it’s seven hours later?
A: (laughs) You always hope eventually [the game] sparks someone to get off the computer and go find out more about global climate, or the history of civilization, or evolution, or astronomy[天文学]. Really, you’re playing with the toy version of something that’s a much deeper subject.
威尔·赖特真的对世间万物都充满兴趣。听他的谈吐，（你会觉得）他或许是位生物学家或者经济学家。事实上，他以设计游戏为生。赖特是《模拟人生》的发明者——这是一款具有革命性的游戏，人们在游戏中操控小型仿真人的生活，让他们去工作，谈恋爱，或在虚拟游泳池中尽情畅泳直到溺水为止。《模拟人生》是有史以来最畅销的电脑游戏。在游戏设计师当中，赖特被尊为活神仙。现在，他想将你也变成一位造物主。
过去的七年里，赖特一直忙于一款人们能想到的、史上最野心勃勃的游戏。其基本构想是从各方面彻底超越《模拟人生》：这次你将要创造和操控整个物种。伙计们，《孢子》时代到来了！
一颗彗星撞击地球，带来了外太空的有机物质。这体现了现实世界中关于地球生命如何诞生的一种假想学说，即“胚种论”。赖特认为这种学说非常可信。但那不是他在《孢子》中融入这个学说的原因。他之所以这样做，是因为它比其它假想更有趣。
上帝创造了生命之后就休息去了，但你的创造之旅才刚刚开始。接下来你要照看这个新生命度过其单细胞成长期，直至它做好准备爬上陆地——这个时候你就可以从各种不同的眼睛、耳朵、肢体以及其它不易辨认的附属物中选定生命体的形态。然后它必须学会喂饱自己，繁衍生息，最终学会组成部落，建造城市。最后，你的生命体实现了宇宙飞行，你便要指引它前往银河系，结识其它物种。
“这样的一款游戏确实能让人与人之间展开趣味十足、意义深远的对话，”赖特说。“我觉得这正是它最大的优点。”
在《模拟人生》中，人们讲述着自己的私生活。《孢子》则适用于截然不同的故事。“我觉得《孢子》会更接近于托尔金、卢卡斯或者库布里克的风格，”赖特说，“就这些史诗般的故事对生命的意义及其目的进行思索探求这个层面来说。”有趣的是，赖特本人不必成为托尔金、卢卡斯或者库布里克。他希望让你成为大师。“我跟很多游戏设计师有点不同，我向来不喜欢讲故事，”他说。“我更喜欢让玩家来讲述他们各自的精彩故事。”
赖特Q&A
问：距离你为我们带来《模拟城市》已经快20年了。你是什么时候意识到自己能创作出像《孢子》这样气势宏大的作品的呢？
答：我觉得是《模拟人生》让我们明白到让玩家在游戏中扮演更有创造性的角色的重要性，他们可以自行设计人物以及自己的房子。他们会对这些体验产生强烈共鸣。在《孢子》中，我们想赋予玩家进一步的创造控制权。在某种程度上，你在《孢子》的游戏画面中见到的一切，几乎都要靠玩家自行创造和操控。
问：对于那些坐下来玩游戏，然后突然发现七小时一晃而过的玩家，你有什么建议？
答：（笑）你总是希望这款游戏最终能鼓励人们离开电脑，出去了解全球气候、文明发展史、进化论或者天文学。真的，你面对的是一个玩具版的深层次问题。
注：此处指的是几位著名的魔幻大师——《指环王》的作者J·R·R·托尔金、《星球大战》系列的导演乔治·卢卡斯以及电影《闪灵》的导演斯坦利·库布里克。