IGN’s Gaming’s 2008 Top 10 Spotlight Hogs

IGN rounded up what they believe to be the Top 10 Spotlight Hogs of the 2008 gaming year.  Yep, turns out our favorite Will Wright made it on the list!

Will Wright
Company: Maxis
What He Worked On in 2008: Spore

Most expected Spore to be the next ‘Sims’ – a thought probably propagated more by the mainstream media than from Maxis itself. But Will Wright certainly fuelled the flames with years of public demonstrations that touted what was (paraphrased) as the most significant jump in gaming AI ever. And why not? Wright is a certified hit-maker, creating massive and lasting waves with his Sim-everything series and raking in the dough like a Vegas croupier.

Unfortunately, for some players, the experience felt disconnected and lacked that universally appealing, addictive gameplay that cemented The Sims in players’ minds. This seemingly led to some interesting comments on how the game was played and reviewed by journalists. Sour grapes? Could be. Still, for man of his profile and stature in the development scene, we’re sure he’s not going to let the opines of people like us stand in the way of forging new gameplay innovations in ’09 and beyond.

Memorable 2008 Quote:

“A lot of the reviews I’ve read have said that the Space Stage was far and away the best and they were disappointed by the earlier stages because they were too simple. Other people have said the Creature Stage is their favourite and that the Space Stage seems too complicated. We knew, since we were using different genres with every level, that everyone would have ones they really clicked with and ones they didn’t. We’ve pretty much seen that. There hasn’t been any consistent feedback.”

Fun Fact: Will has a god-complex and designs god-games to try and keep himself from slowly falling to pieces and taking down everyone at Maxis with him in a fiery blowout of doomsday-like proportions.

Who else made it on the list?  Click to find out!