Sims Creator Will Wright Reveals Hivemind, His Next Big Game Powered by Your Life

It looks like Will Wright might be going from manipulating tiny fake people to manipulating normal-sized real ones. VentureBeat’s got news of Hivemind, Wright’s experimental foray into what he’s calling personal gaming. As he describes it, the engines and/or algorithms that power Hivemind will learn and track events in your life and morph the game experience accordingly:

“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 game play,” Wright said.

Wright compares the in-development title to Zynga’s flagship title but it appears that there’ll be more transparency as to exactly what info players share with Hivemind. However, the game—described as living primarily in the mobile space—will also have elements where you’ll call on friends for help, like many social games. VentureBeat quotes Wright as saying Hivemind “…blurs entertainment, lifestyle, and personal tools… 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?”

It sounds like the thinking that form the core of most gamification theories. But Wright’s one of game design’s certified geniuses and he may have the chops to make this interesting, if nothing else. No word on when we’ll see or hear more about Hivemind, but it’s a safe bet that it’ll be done on a similarly grand scale to Wright’s previous creations.

Inside Will Wright’s next big game: HiveMind (exclusive)
[VentureBeat]

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