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Why Spore Is Special
The New York Times is running a long piece by Steven Johnson, author of "Everything Bad Is Good For You." In 'The Long Zoom', Johnson describes just what is so special about Will Wright's Spore . From the article: "Despite the fictions, many of the themes of Spore are immensely valuable ones, particularly in an age of environmental crisis: the fragility of life, the connection between micro- and macro- scales, the complex networks of ecosystems and food webs, the impact of new technology on social systems. Spore's players will get to experience firsthand how choices made on a local scale -- a single creature's decision to, say, adopt an omnivorous lifestyle -- can end up having global repercussions. They will detect similarities between one level of the game and another, the complex balancing act of global trade mirroring the complex balancing act of building a sustainable environment. And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well."
"Despite the fictions, many of the themes of Spore are immensely valuable ones, particularly in an age of environmental crisis: the fragility of life, the connection between micro- and macro- scales, the complex networks of ecosystems and food webs, the impact of new technology on social systems. Spore's players will get to experience firsthand how choices made on a local scale -- a single creature's decision to, say, adopt an omnivorous lifestyle -- can end up having global repercussions. They will detect similarities between one level of the game and another, the complex balancing act of global trade mirroring the complex balancing act of building a sustainable environment. And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well."
With such simple, easy to obtain, objective like that I'm sure they will have absolutely no problem living up to people's expectations. After all claiming a compeletly open gameplay experience was easily obtained by Diakatana, and Black and White certainly lived up to people's expectations of a trainable, inteligent agent.
Ok, I admit that the premise is working on me I've heard about this thing so much my brain just screams to play it...but come on already when is this thing gonna get delivered! Its approaching DNF proportions of Ok great, but where the hell is it!
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
What's with all the dupe fuss over a seemingly mediocre game that isn't even out yet? Wow. Procedural, repetitive gameplay. Does anyone care anymore?
Just curious.
And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well.
Yeah.. sure.. Let's get real..
Spore looks really cool and I'll be more than happy to play it for a few hours (assuming it truly is as engaging as it looks), but the first thing going through my mind was now "Wow, this has taught me that I can shape the universe," but something more along the lines of "Whoa.. I wonder if I can make a creature that kills everything on sight."
Hrm.. maybe there is something to this video games promotes violence thing...
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
Come on enough with the hype. Now Spore has the power to enlighten the masses to everything from global trade to the wonders of life, and allow us simpletons to grasp the scope and scale of all existance. This may be the greatest game ever created, past, present, or future, but the hype is up to biblical purportions.
I'm as optimistic as the next guy, but to think a videogame will make us more aware and caring about our environment is just pure shit. We have a plethora of other mediums all telling us this and we're still not listening, what makes him think a game can do it?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I've been waiting a long time for a game that lets me create creatures.
I played Star Wars Galaxies and i was a bioengineer for a while, creating critters such as a bearded jax (basically a housecat) that could spit acid and was immune to fire. I told myself I'd eventually go back to SWG and play my bioengineer again, but they went and DELETED the class.
Spore looks to be pretty fun though, and I can't wait to play around with the critter creator.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
What amazes me about Spore (quite apart from it looking like a FANTASTIC game) is that it seems to have developed so rapidly, to be able to demonstrate such deep quality so soon, to have such enthusiastic support from all corners. There are many games that have managed one or two of the above, but how many manage all three?
I'm pretty sure this will be out next year, and will be one of those games that forevermore gets mentioned in the biannual "best games in history" articles that somehow get posted. And I'll probably agree.
Meta will eat itself
Spore has all the appearance of an amazing single player game. Single being the opertune word. Single player games are great, but they are by definition limited. The only possible competition is between the player, and the PC. The reward level is greatly reduced.
Think about it, how many (geeks) people talk about the great fight they had in Morrowind? Compare that to the number of people who boast about frags and kill:death ratios, complete with dramatic reinactment.
Spore will do well, I'm planning on buying it, and playing it (for a while). But in the long term, with out some form of multi-player competition, cooperation, and communication, it'll be nothing more than a nice single player game.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
There's a serious possbility this game is going to suck harder than almost any game in hsitory (the exception being E.T. from the 80s). Why? Because it's more about creation than it is about playing. All past Maxis games, including The Sims, had SOME game component to it.
Dear Will Wright,
Don't be that jackass that hypes his game, Will Wright. We saw it with Romero, We see it with Molyneux, we see it over and over, but Will, you and Sid Meier are rocks, we can expect good games from you. It's true you falter a bit, Civ 3 wasn't great, Sims got too many expansions, though the final ones were good, but don't become the new industry asshole.
We already want your game, but trying to over sell it and falling short is the worse thing you can do. Just deliver us the best game you can and we'll be happy, your demos have made fans happy, gave critics stuff to bash, and gave comics stuff to make fun of. Let's keep the status quo.
Come on, be a buddy. You're one of the last PC developers that isn't a total joke.
Sincerly,
PS. Daikatana Dikatana Daikatana... See I knew it would make you laugh.
I just had a nerdgasm.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
Exactly! The Sims and it' s sequel were also both way too limited to ever garner any universal marketable appeal because they were single player games. What idiot would ever bank on THAT idea? Nobody would ever rattle on and on about which two sims they got to make out with each other or how they got the Newbie family to set fire to their neighbors while they were visiting. ... doh.
Okay, I know that statement (see parent) wasn't overflowing with band-wagonism, but Off Topic?!? WTF, the article is about why the author thinks Spore is special, and my statement is about why I think it is not as special as it could be.
Because my post was not on the "I want to feltch Spore's crack while giving it a reach around with a happy ending" level of fanboyism it gets tagged as off topic? If you're going to mod, mod well. Overrated, Flamebait, something...
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Now if spore was built as an accurate simulation based on parameters measured out in nature, maybe one could argue that we were experiencing 'firsthand'. Otherwise this is just nonsense.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I hate to be sappy, but I think there's a point to games that make people think about the real world. Hopefully Spore will make people think about Mother Earth, the Solar System and the Universe, the same way The Sims makes people think about their Mum, Family and Society.
Here is a message about The Sims titled "No other game has done this...", posted in April 2000 (one month after The Sims was released) in the alt.family-names.sims newsgroup (the Sims fans took over the alt.family-names.sims, newsgroup because there wasn't a newsgroup for The Sims game yet).
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
You may be wondering why Steven Johnson is writing about Spore. The answer is that he wrote one of the best books ever written about swarm intelligence, Emergence.
For a para-scientific book, it is very deep. It goes over the entire history of swarm intelligence and really explains how local actions can have global consequences. It is also incredibly fluid and easy to read.
In short, you are not a true computer-geek until you have read it, so check it out.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Spore could make me into a tree-hugging hippy? ... this is supposed to make me excited about the game?
Canthros
I wonder if the "civilization level" unit of Spore studies the immeasurably more immensly valuable theme of massive governmental intrusion into a freedom-based economy and how it leads to far more miserable lives for its citizens than all those other things going haywire put together?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
What if Spore shows us that short term local concerns are more important than long term global concerns, that ecosystems are highly robust and there is little that can be done to disrupt them, and the proper way to solve all of our problems is by massive unprovoked violence? What if a highly militarist, highly aggressive and genicidal society with no goal other than destroying others turns out to be the most effective strategy in the game?
Are people willing to say, unconditionally, that Spore is a simulation which we should take broad lessons about real-life from? Even if those lessons might be in direct conflict with their current views on reality and morality?
Somehow I have a feeling that people will decide how "accurate" a model of reality that Spore is, based on how well the Spore "reality" conforms to their preconcieved model of reality. I think that Spore will probably be an amazing game, but I am a little skeptical about those who are so sure it will confirm their view of reality, or that if it does it will not be because it was designed to do so.
I don't think Will Wright is trying to make a statement about the Earth Goddess or the fragility of life or whatever. I remember some interview where he talked about how much fun it is to blow up planets in Spore. Maybe there's a P.C. option switch that allows you to change your UFO's weapon so that it distributes tofu and peace pamphlets to aggressive planets, but I doubt it. This game seems to be as much about the fun of destruction as the fun of creation.
All Sims games have had that. Who hasn't hit earthquake 10 times in a row in SimCity 2K? Or removed the ladder from the pool in the Sims and watched the little buggers swim around until they die?
What's going to be profound about Spore? The fun, man. The fun.
http://nerdcartoons.com/
One of the intentions of SimEarth was to get people thinking in this way too, given the concept of 'Gaia' within the simulation.
... because the marketers tell me so.
There's every possibility you could walk away from a session of Spore as a Fukuyama-quoting, Hegel-worshipping neocon. To quote the article:
So let me get this straight ... Hegel wrote space opera? Serves me right for never having had the stamina to read him through to the end.
I'm pretty sure Marx's Communist Manifesto doesn't end with any spaceships; but now I'm gonna have to go re-read the thing just to be certain.
Well... Better to be late than to suck. Or, as Miyamoto put it: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a bad game is bad forever."
(Well, I'm not sure he said it, but the quote is generally attributed to him).