Will Wright, creator of the Sims franchise and founder of Stupid Fun Club, revealed his next project to VentureBeat today. Wright is moving beyond social gaming into something he calls “personal gaming”. He outlines a game that automatically customizes itself to the player, even going so far as to use real-life elements in that customization.
“Rather than craft a game like FarmVille for players to learn and play, we learn about you and your routines and incorporate that into a form of gameplay,” Wright said.
Wright explained that there are 50 different “dimensions” that could be collected. These variables include location, friends’ locations, and even the amount of money in your wallet. Wright believes the benefits to gameplay will have players wanting to give information like that gladly.
“It blurs entertainment, lifestyle, and personal tools,” Wright said. “With that data, the world and the opportunities for entertainment within it become more visible to you. If we can learn enough about the player, we can create games about their real life. How do we get you more engaged in reality rather than distract you from it?”
Wright believes Hivemind marks the next step in a continuing gaming evolution.
“This has to do with where gaming is going,” Wright said. “We had our eras in console gaming and social gaming. A lot of this personal gaming will happen on mobile devices. The question here is how can we learn enough about the player to create games about his or her real life.”
Wright remained quiet on the other details about the game and the company, but he did reveal Hivemind’s three founders: Wright himself, entrepreneur Raj Parekh, and game finance expert Jawad Ansari. Wright intends to grow the Hivemind business into a larger opportunity, but everything is still very early.
“We want to do this in a very big way,” Wright said.
