IG: Last time I spoke to you, you had clarified how, even though you’re no longer with EA, you still have a consulting agreement with them to meet with them regularly to assist with any ideas for The Sims or Spore. Do you have any updates on your input into those franchises? Are you still regularly meeting with them and helping them shape the future of those franchises?
WW: Yeah, they’re just down the street, so I see these people all the time. I’m not sure of the things that they’re working on, what’s been announced or not, so I have to be careful what I talk about there.
IG: Well, I guess more generally speaking, what would you like to see happen with those franchises? What ideas or new things are percolating in your mind for The Sims or for Spore that you’d like to have implemented as part of the game design?
WW: Well, those are the kinds of things I talk to them about. [laughs] But I think that what they’ve done with The Sims 3, they’ve really done a good job of managing that franchise in terms of how they expand it, how they’ve catered to what the people have been wanting without ruining the core experience. I think each franchise has its own community, its own territory that they’ve staked out and they’re all exploratory in some sense. You’re always wanting to try things where you think the fans might want to go, but maybe you’re not quite sure and sometimes you might do that with a new version and sometimes you might do that with an expansion pack, or maybe a lighter, online experience that leverages off of that franchise. I think every franchise is very different in terms of where you go with it strategically, but again, I’m not quite sure what they would like me to say about that because I’m not quite sure what they’ve publicly announced or not.