"Spore"-nography doesn't bother Will Wright

Explicit creatures are all part of the fun

29 August 2008 13:03 GMT / By Verity Burns

It was bound to happen. Give the public the chance to create their own creatures, and some were going to be pornographic. But Spore's creator, Will Wright, isn't fussed by gamers' graphic creations, adding that he thinks some are rather impressive.

"When you give players creative control, you have to expect they're going to do the unexpected."

"Some of it's really good for what they were shooting for. It's amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren't messing up the experience for others."

This means that other gamers will be able to stop walking penises and other such explicit creatures from wandering around their own user-generated universe.

At the same time, Wright discussed the idea of Spore as a "brand", rather than just a game or a franchise.

"'The Sims' felt like we tripped into it," he said. "We weren't thinking of 'The Sims' as a brand. We were thinking of it as an offbeat computer game. With 'Spore,' we had the confidence that the players would always exceed our expectations if we gave them more creative control. From day one, we've been thinking about 'Spore' as a brand."

And as for its future?

"I don't want to limit Spore to just games. There's a lot of other activities including books, movies, TV or whatever you can imagine that we could take it in if we think of it as a brand," Wright said.

"I don't think we could design a sequel to Spore until the fans showed us what they like. I think there's going to be a fair amount of learning over the next few months. What's important for me is what sort of stories the players are using the game to tell. Games that have the longest legs are the ones with the most narrative density," he added.

Full tags

Gaming, PC games, Simulation games, EA, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Racing games, Travellers Tales