Will: Over the last 20 years, we've been building little toy worlds for people to play in. These worlds have generally been very limited, small, and unrealistic. But at the same time, these worlds have had a tremendous impact on driving the underlying technology, both hardware and software.

Computer games are to the computer industry as auto racing is to the auto industry.

It seems to me that more of the substantial, practical solutions in areas such as artificial intelligence, graphics, user interface, and simulation will be coming from the game industry in the future. Computer and video games are solving pretend problems in ways that can be readily applied to real problems.

8. If you or your company had to make one new year's resolution this year, what would it be and why?

Will: Pace ourselves. It's too easy to burnout in this business.

9. Where will you be for the millennium, and what do you hope to be doing at midnight?

Will: I'll be at home, hosting probably the largest party I ever plan to throw. Each guest will be asked to recreate one event from the last millennium. We'll start at 8:40 pm in the year 1000 AD and replay history at the rate of five years for each minute of the party. As this is 200 minutes before midnight, we'll hit 2000 right then.

10. Far too often, our industry doesn't do enough to highlight up and coming designers and those who tirelessly work behind the scenes to bring games to life. Is there one person you think deserves more recognition? If so, introduce us to this person and tell us why you think he or she deserves acknowledgment.

Will: The lead artist on our internal SimCity team is a guy by the name of Ocean Quigley. He has had a tremendous impact not just on the future of the SimCity line but on all our products. He happens to be an excellent technical artist, but more importantly, he is what you might call a conceptual artist as well.

Ocean has a knack for shaping the conceptual model that the players are building in their heads during gameplay by subtle tweaking of the graphic style, presentation, and interface. He's just now beginning to use this superpower on our internal programmers and producers by producing mockups that are so compelling that the programmers can't help but to code them up, and the producers can't resist turning them into new products.

To find out more about Will Wright and Maxis, read the Behind the Games feature SIMply Divine: The Story of Maxis.

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