William Ralph Wright (born January 20, 1960) is an American video game designer and co-founder of the game development company Maxis, which later became part of Electronic Arts. In April 2009, he left EA to run Stupid Fun Club Camp, an entertainment think tank in which Wright and EA are principal shareholders.

The first computer game Wright designed was Raid on Bungeling Bay in 1984, but it was SimCity that brought him to prominence. The game was published by Maxis, which Wright co-formed with Jeff Braun. Wright continued to innovate on the game's central theme of simulation with numerous other titles including SimEarth and SimAnt.

Wright has earned many awards for his work in game design. He is best known for being the original designer of The Sims series, of which Maxis developed the first entry in 2000. The game spawned multiple sequels, including The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4 and their expansion packs. His latest work, Spore, released in September 2008 and features gameplay based upon the model of evolution and scientific advancement. The game sold 406,000 copies within three weeks of its release.

In 2007, he became the first game designer to receive the BAFTA Fellowship, which had previously only been presented to those in the film and television industries.

Early life and education

The son of a plastics engineer and an actress, Wright was born on January 20, 1960, in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended a Montessori school until the age of nine. As a teenager, Wright enjoyed playing board wargames such as PanzerBlitz.

After graduating high school, Wright studied architecture at Louisiana State University for two years. He then transferred to Louisiana Tech where he switched to mechanical engineering, with a particular interest in robotics, space exploration, military history, and language arts. Two years later, in the fall of 1980, he transferred again to The New School in New York City. During this time, he lived in an apartment in Greenwich Village, and spent his free time "searching for spare parts in local electronics surplus stores."

Career

While other game designers such as Bill Budge and Nasir Gebelli were producing Apple video games, Wright decided to develop for the newer Commodore 64. His first game was the helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984). The gameplay involves the player flying over islands while dropping bombs.

Wright found that he had more fun creating the islands with his level editor for Raid on Bungeling Bay than he had actually playing the game. He created a new game based on this idea that would later evolve into SimCity, but he had trouble finding a publisher. The structuralist dynamics of the game were in part inspired by the work of two architectural and urban theorists, Christopher Alexander and Jay Forrester.

In an interview with The Times, Wright expressed his belief that computers extend the imagination, and posits the emergence of the "metabrain", stating:

Game design

right|thumb|Wright and other game developers at a [[BAFTA event in Los Angeles in July 2011. From left: Rod Humble, Louis Castle, David Perry, Brenda Brathwaite, John Romero, Will Wright, Tim Schafer, Chris Hecker.]]In 1986, Wright met Jeff Braun— an investor interested in entering the computer game industry— at what Wright has called "the world's most important pizza party." Together they formed Maxis the following year in Orinda, California. SimCity (1989) was a hit and has been credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made. Wright himself has been widely featured in several computer magazines—particularly PC Gamer, which has listed Wright in its annual 'Game Gods' feature, alongside such notables as Roberta Williams and Peter Molyneux.

Following the success of SimCity, Wright designed SimEarth (1990) and SimAnt (1991). He co-designed SimCity 2000 (1993) with Fred Haslam and, in the meantime, Maxis produced other "Sim" games. Wright's next game was SimCopter (1996). Although none of these games were as successful as SimCity, they further cemented Wright's reputation as a designer of "software toys"—games that cannot be won or lost, but played indefinitely. In 1992, Wright moved to Walnut Creek, California.

Wright is known for his great interest in complex adaptive systems, with most of his games having been based around them or books that describe them, e.g. SimAnt: E.O. Wilson's The Ants; SimEarth: James Lovelock's Gaia Theory; SimCity: Jay Forrester's Urban Dynamics and World Dynamics; Spore: Drake's Equation and Powers of Ten. Wright's role in the development of concepts from simulations to games is to empower the players by creating what he dubs "possibility spaces", or simple rules which combine with game elements to form complex designs. All games that Wright had a hand in designing adhere to these design principles.

Maxis went public in 1995 with revenue of US$38 million. The stock reached $50 a share and then dropped as Maxis posted a loss. EA bought Maxis in June 1997.

After losing his home in the Oakland firestorm of 1991, Wright was inspired to turn the experience of rebuilding his life into a game. He began developing an idea of a virtual doll house, similar to SimCity but with focus on individual people. This idea would evolve into The Sims, which was based on Wright's firsthand experience rebuilding and furnishing his home. The game was originally conceived of as an architectural design game called Home Tactics, though Wright's idea changed when someone suggested the home should be rated on the quality-of-life experience by virtual homeowners. Themes such as carpentry, home construction, and bare ground in need of landscaping are common throughout the game.

The board at Maxis was not interested in the idea, but Wright found an unlikely publisher in Electronic Arts, who was impressed by Wright's work on SimCity and saw potential for the Sim franchise. EA published The Sims in February 2000 and it became Wright's biggest success at the time. It eventually surpassed Myst as the best-selling computer game of all time and spawned numerous expansion packs and spin-offs. He designed a massively multiplayer version of the game called The Sims Online, which was not as popular as the original. By November 2006, the Sims franchise had earned EA more than a billion dollars. He used the current work on this game to demonstrate methods that can be used to reduce the amount of content that needs to be created by the game developers. Wright hopes to inspire others to take risks in game creation.

As for his theories on interactive design, Wright has said:

Wright has said that he believes that simulations, as games, can be used to improve education by teaching children how to learn. In his own words: