Will Wright, the video-game designer who created The Sims and Sim City, has some suggestions for scholars who make video games about social issues or for use in education. His advice: lighten up.
“Make them a little more playful — maybe a little more abstract,” said Mr. Wright, in a video interview with The Chronicle for the latest installment of Wired Campus TV (featured in the side column of this blog). “I think Dr. Seuss is a good example. He wrote these political books and things … and they came off as very playful, but the underlying themes he was trying to approach were very serious.”
Check out the full interview, including Mr. Wright’s views on the appropriate role of video games in the classroom:
Oh, and I did score one of Mr. Wright’s homemade business cards that he discusses in the interview. The one he gave me is printed on a one-rupee bill from Myanmar. —Jeffrey R. Young
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