Comments on: Thoughts: Spore.

By: hentzau

hentzau — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:35:45 +0000

Now I have to try and get SimEarth and SimLife running on my computer, damn you.

By: Van S

Van S — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:47:15 +0000

I enjoy Spore occasionally, but in general I agree with your assessment. I generally run across Spore in my Steam library about once a year, recall my past experience of vague amusement, and spend about ten hours on it starting with the cell stage before moving on. The space stage is by far the best, though it’s promises of the most options and varied gameplay ultimately devolve into playing a fairly monotonous space trader in order to fund upgrades. It’s around that point that I remember that I still own SimLife and sink frightening amounts of time into that fascinating experience.

Speaking of SimLife: one of my hopes for Spore was that it would at least partly revive the experience of playing SimLife (the self-styled “Genetic Playground”). That “game” is one of my all-time favorites, and I have never found anything else like it. The real shame is that it hasn’t aged terribly well, and isn’t compatible with modern operating systems. I love it enough to have spent several hours comparing several virtual machines on which to run it, though, so I can still get my fix.

A personal dream of mine would be software that meshes the magic of Spore’s Creature Creator (at least visually) with the underlying mechanics of SimLife. Does anyone know of such a program? Anyone feel like making one?

By: Gap

Gap — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:53:05 +0000

Yes, it’s a shame how lightweight Spore was. The start of the Space stage did give me a great feeling of stepping into the unknown, and the initial confrontation was interesting, but the overall design is annoying, making you run back home to fight pirates all the time. Imagine if every other episode of Star Trek was the Enterprise going home, fighting the same pirates, then flying back out again.

I think the overall goal of making a simulation game accessible is a noble one, but somewhere along the lines they forgot to make a simulation game, and instead made a collection of “Baby’s First RTS”-alikes. Oh well.

Incidentally, if the result of this sort of thing is all the veteran designers like Peter Molyneux and Will Wright leaving the aegis of the big companies to do more interesting things, then it’s not all wasted.

By: hentzau

hentzau — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:26:04 +0000

I’m not going to call those who enjoyed Spore terrible people. If you don’t ask much from your games it’s probably fun to turn your brain off and simply dick around with the creature creator — and besides, I played WoW for a year so I can’t judge. I just expect more from Maxis than this and my sciencey predilections probably do handicap me in my enjoyment of games that deal with vaguely sciencey concepts, in the same way that I can’t watch a lot of sci-fi any more without cringing inwardly.

Also, glad you liked the Endless Space article! I’m very much looking forward to the release of the full game to see what they’ve changed.

By: wagenman

wagenman — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 23:44:11 +0000

Hmm, I actually really enjoyed Spore, the end game surprise thing was fun as well. There was the tedium at times but /shrug. Perhaps as one becomes more analytically inclined or perhaps more “scientific”, some of this simple fun simply can’t be had any more. Each game becoming more of an autopsy with an overly critical eye focused a little too closely on it’s short comings. I loved MOO, I’ve been eagerly waiting for a replacement, hopefully Endless Space right? Still, whether it’s a game or a movie, I suppose I’ve made a conscious decision to overlook the short comings when I can and just enjoy. I’m getting a little more critical every year
P.S. Your Endless Space article is what brought me here. Thank you.

By: Smurf

Smurf — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:24:26 +0000

I’ve never played Spore because at the time there was the whole SPYWARE COPY PROTECTION scandal. That and I knew there was no way it’d live up to expectations. I’d totally forgotten it existed up until you mentioned it recently but I guess I’ve not missed out on anything.