Editing Will Wright (game designer) (section)

==Early life and education==
The son of a plastics engineer and an actress, Wright was born on January 20, 1960, in Atlanta, Georgia.<ref name="Guardian2008">{{cite web|first=Ajesh|last=Partalay|title=Master of the universe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/sep/14/games|website=[[The Guardian]]|date=September 14, 2008|access-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref><ref name="SFC">{{cite news|first=Matthew|last=Yi|url=https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/PROFILE-Will-Wright-Unsimulated-success-2579300.php|title=Will Wright: Unsimulated success|work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|date=November 3, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031123165238/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fchronicle%2Farchive%2F2003%2F11%2F03%2FBUGD42O8JT1.DTL&type=business|archive-date=November 23, 2003|access-date=April 12, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> He attended a [[Montessori]] school until the age of nine.<ref name="Guardian2008"/> When his father died of leukemia the same year, Wright moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his mother and his younger sister.<ref name="Guardian2008"/> He graduated from the Baton Rouge [[Episcopal High School (Baton Rouge)|Episcopal High School]] at the age of 16.<ref name="Guardian2008"/>

Wright's interest in game design began in childhood with the Chinese [[strategy game|strategy]] board game [[Go (game)|Go]]. In his own words, the game has a "simple set of rules" yet "the strategies in it are so complex" and he was "fascinated with the idea that complexity can come out of such simplicity."<ref>{{cite news |title=Will Wright on creating 'The Sims' and 'SimCity' |url=http://edition.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/2000/12/1/wright.chat/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202194423/http://edition.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/2000/12/1/wright.chat/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 2, 2011 |access-date=30 October 2021 |work=[[CNN]] |date=November 30, 2000}}</ref> As a teenager, Wright enjoyed playing [[board wargames]] such as ''[[PanzerBlitz]]''.

After graduating high school, Wright studied architecture at [[Louisiana State University]] for two years. He then transferred to [[Louisiana Tech]] where he switched to [[mechanical engineering]], with a particular interest in robotics, space exploration, military history, and language arts.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Family tree of Will WRIGHT |url=https://en.geneastar.org/genealogy/wrightw0/will-wright |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=Geneanet |language=en}}</ref> Two years later, in the fall of 1980, he transferred again to [[The New School]] in New York City. During this time, he lived in an apartment in [[Greenwich Village]], and spent his free time "searching for spare parts in local electronics surplus stores."<ref name=":0" />

While living in New York City, he purchased an [[Apple II+]] and taught himself [[Applesoft BASIC]], [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]], and [[assembly language]] in order to implement [[Conway's Game of Life]].<ref name="wright2011" /> After one year at the New School, Wright concluded five years of collegiate study without a degree and returned to Baton Rouge.<ref name="SFC"/><ref name="YORK">{{cite news|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/06/061106fa_fact|title=Game Master|last=Seabrook|first=John|date=November 6, 2006|access-date=September 21, 2007|magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>