The New Yorker's latest profile is about our very own lovable Will Wright.

The four-page profile is, at times, quite interesting, though it leans on too many references for my personal taste. It's almost as if the writer has something to prove when he calls Will Wright the Zola of video games or cites Paris artists' breathless anticipation of Joyce's Ulysses in an analogy about the build-up to Spore's release.

We get it Seabrook, you have cultural depth, now get on with the story. Oddly, the meetings for the interview used in this story seems to have taken place much earlier this year, likely before last year's Game Developers Conference, since during the interview Wright is in the process of putting together a speech about both the development of Spore and Astrobiology, a speech he famously delivered at GDC06, much to the delight and bafflement of everyone in attendance.

The article also talks about getting a chance to play The Godfather game. Way to be timely.

Once you wade through the culture babble and get past the extremely dated visit to EA's offices, the story shapes up to offer some interesting insight into a man many people know of, but few rarely know. Though I think there is, perhaps, too much attention placed on the man's products rather than the man himself.

At a certain point in the performance, the crazy ambition of Spore became clear: Wright was proposing to simulate the limitless possibility of life itself. The simulation falls between Darwinism and intelligent design, into new conceptual territory. Wright had worked out the algorithm for life, as described by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett, in "Darwin's Dangerous Idea." Dennett writes, "Here, then, is Darwin's dangerous idea: the algorithmic level is the level that best accounts for the speed of the antelope, the wing of the eagle, the shape of the orchid, the diversity of species, and all the other occasions for wonder in the world of nature. . . . Can it really be the outcome of nothing but a cascade of algorithmic processes feeding on chance?"

It sounds like his work on Spore has changed Wright a bit. Over the years, I've had several interview with the developer and he always came off as personable and... well, human. In this article he comes off as more of a anti-social savant. Brian Crecente

Game Master [The New Yorker]