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Will Wright's Spore To Release Sept. 7th
After several delays and much anticipation, Spore looks like it will finally be coming out this year. EA has announced a September 7th release date for the game. The only confirmed platforms so far are Windows PCs, Macintoshes, the Nintendo DS and various mobile phones. Wright wants the Wii, 360, and PS3 to have the game, but they're not firm 'yes'es yet. Newsweek's LevelUp blog is celebrating the announcement with a series of interviews. N'Gai Croal spoke to Will Wright, and the man himself tries to convince us why it's been worth the wait, and (oh yeah) why it has taken so long. Croal also sat down with the game's Executive Producer, Lucy Bradshaw, who explains how the game has settled onto other platforms like the DS and mobile phones.
And here I was thinking it'd be the next vaporware, if Duke Nukem actually came out this year.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Strange, they released the release date for an evolution game on Darwin Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Day
Why make a game for a platform that only Steve Jobs and one other person will ever play on?
Yes, because you would have stayed in college and avoided getting a girlfriend if they had just told you from the start that they wouldn't be releasing it until now. I'll believe that before I believe you have a girlfriend.
The Soul of The Sims, by Will Wright
Macintosh HD:XmotiveHarness:src/Motive.c
Tuesday, January 28, 1997 / 9:25 AM
This is the prototype for the soul of The Sims, which Will Wright wrote on January 23, 1997.
I had just started working at the Maxis Core Technology Group on "Project X" aka "Dollhouse", and Will Wright brought this code in one morning, to demonstrate his design for the motives, feedback loop and failure conditions of the simulated people. While going through old papers, I ran across this print-out that I had saved, so I scanned it and cleaned the images up, and got permission from Will to publish it.
This code is a interesting example of game design, programming and prototyping techniques. The Sims code has certainly changed a lot since Will wrote this original prototype code. For example, there is no longer any "stress" motive. And the game doesn't store motives in global variables, of course.
My hope is that this code will give you a glimpse of how Will Wright designs games, and what was going on in his head at the time!
Read The Soul of The Sims code here...
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Act now and it comes bundled with "White Box" at no extra charge!
So I was discussing this news with a couple of my friends as we'd all been interested in the game. Sadly, I will be in the middle of studying for PhD qualifiers instead of being able to play. This brought up joking of just getting a real job instead so I could actually play. The conversation might go something like this:
"So Dr Adviser, I was thinking about taking quals. But Spore's coming out on September 7th so I'm going to get a job instead. kthnxbye."
Sadly, I don't think my adviser or the research engineers I work with would be amused.
Anyone else think its kind of strange that they're announcing the release date 7 months out? I seriously doubt the game is done with all the testing and balancing that needs to be done with it. It's almost like they're trying to slap a ship date on it regardless of whether it will actually be ready by then. Let's hope it's complete enough when it actually does ship. I'm not holding my breath, though.
"I no longer use a PC" - What did you make your website with? A pencil and pad?
Screw you.
I care about the game. I have ever since I saw the GDC video back in 2005, before the hype even started.
Go back to playing Shoot-em-up: Blood Massacre 27
Technoli
I heard they are going to package it together with Duke Nukem Forever! Hooray!
Bring on the vaporware!
Meanwhile some kid who was too young to comprehend such a game 3 years ago is now old enough to do so.
Sorry, but the only person who will be missing out is you.
Will Wright's Spore To Release Sept. 7th ... 2026
PC == the incorrect but general term applied to a Windows computer, as opposed to a Mac. "iTunes. Available for Mac or PC," for example. I see that spore IS coming out for Mac, but smeh... its still sunny outside in September.
eric http://www.ericdfields.com/
Between news on DNF and this, I believe hell hath truly frozen over.
It's my understanding that that usually means he uses a Mac. Mac users call Windows computers PCs because of the "I'm a Mac" ads. Although... does he not realize the game is available for Mac?
A fool and his lamb are worth two in the bush.
"I no longer use a PC" - What did you make your website with? A pencil and pad?
Also known as Web 0.1...
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Ah, the game has been delayed less than a year (if Sept. 7 is the true date).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_Spore#Release_date_delays
The first release period was announced to be January to March of 2008.
The game was originally shown at the Game Developers Conference in early 2005, but other than "we hope to get the game out soon" there was nothing solid until what was stated above.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Can I say one minor thing slightly OT, I haven't seen the word Macintosh spelled out for probably 10 years, and it looks so strange.. Macintoshes *shudder*
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
The summary:
The article:
These are contradictory. I think I'll go with the story itself.
Also, something out on a cellphone before major consoles? That seems odd -- is it a first?
everything in moderation
Actually, I'm playing Aerobiz Supersonic.
You're using a template!! I've seen that EXACT post elsewhere. Not to mention that you conflate the meanings of "pirate," "stolen," and "cracked." Now I agree that people that make products should be paid by the people that use them. However, in my day I have "pirated" many, many products--a large portion of which I would never have played/used because they were too expensive.(Does ANYBODY have a legal version of Adobe Photoshop but they don't use it to make money [e.g. they use it for making sigs in forums]?) As with pretty much everything in life, it's not exactly black-and-white. Many "pirates" can come up with at least moderately compelling arguments as to why they do what they do.
A fool and his lamb are worth two in the bush.
Looking out my window, it's sunny outside in February.
Coding with assembly is like playing with Legos. Coding an application in assembly is like building a car with Legos.
How can they release something for the PS3 and DS but no mention of the PSP? Isn't the PSP much better than the DS, CPU-wise?
All Hail Discordia. Hail Eris. Fnord.
Isn't Spore DirectX-based? That should make the transition to the 360 trivial. Can't imagine why these platforms haven't jumped all over this... maybe this is anecdotal, but myself and many of my friends have resolved to quit gaming on the PC now that the consoles have more or less caught up. No reason to continue falling deeper into the gaming PC money pit.
Game utilizes Transgaming's Cider, which means a buggy, non-native piece of slow running crap like every other Cider game I've played...
Sigh. Please, bring back the 6 month waits for Aspyr & the rest to do a proper version.
Dupe.
Also, if you have the capability to track who is using a pirated copy, you have the capability to ban them from your systems, right? If it's a more decentralized model, and you can't stop them, then you don't really have the capability to track them. QED.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
...so wear a raincoat?
So, any news on the following?
* The so called "Underwater stage"? Supposedly this was cut in lieu of your creature moving from cell to the beach...
* Flying critters, or otherwise critters with wings?
* The length of each stage? In the latest interview he talks about difficulty levels and how that will affect it, so... How long will it take each stage on the average difficulty?
Sorry EA/Maxis. You missed your opportunity with me. I'm sure its a wonderful product but lets be honest with our release dates from now on.
Okay... And how exactly would honesty -- meaning they had initially told you that Spore would be out in Sept 08 -- have changed your computer-using situation in any way?
The enemies of Democracy are
Don't worry, once you have kids you will be back to being trapped at the house, hoping for a PC game to give you a bit of escape. Your moment of life is fleeting.
I think this type of game play where you can play at various levels of abstraction has a lot of potential, especially when applied to a MMOG. Don't like Civilization-type game play? Command individual wars. Don't like the micromanaging of forces? Play from the perspective of an individual squad or soldier/unit. Every different perspective of game play interacting with the other perspectives.
Ever since playing the original X-Wing, I've always thought this kind of dynamic perspective game play would be awesome when combined with online play (MMOG). I know this has been done to a certain degree with Star Wars Galaxies, or what have you, but not as flexible as it could be.
I'd love to see a Star Wars MMOG where you could slip in and out of perspectives (with some load time of course). Imagine flying as an individual tie fighter, X-Wing, gunner on a battle ship, etc. (with other players or AI). Meanwhile, other players could be controlling the sides of the battle from a Homeworld-type perspective. Above them could be other players who are controlling things at a higher "Master of Orion"-perspective. This way, communication could be facilitated between players on the same team throughout these different perspectives.
Adding a hierarchical aspect to MMOGs (and allowing players to choose what perspective they want to play at) could add a whole new dimension to MMOGs. Of course, for this to work it couldn't just be real players. You would have to have an economics engine to grant players access to AI units to fill in the gaps of forces.
As far as I've seen, there don't appear to be any MMOGs out there that provide this kind of game play. Has anyone seen something like this?
So we've got those who complain about companies releasing a product before it's ready, and then we've got those who complain that a product is taking too long to come out. I'd like to think that Spore is one of those games that's going to have playability over a large range of ages - you're not going to outgrow it. Sure, we're not getting any younger, but you gotta admit you still wanna have a crack at it, and you still will when it's finally released.
Has it taken a long time from concept to completion? Yeah, that's a pitfall they've encountered. Maybe their timing is good, though - the MMO world has calmed down a bit, the Wii isn't as brand-spanking-new, people have done Bioshock... now there's something new to anticipate and it's not competing against the "biggies" we've had lately. Granted, in the months to come we may find that new hardware and games are going to challenge it. But think of it this way - it's certainly piqued your interest, right? Controversy means people will take a look at it, just to find out what the fuss is about.
If the game is good enough, it doesn't matter when it's released - it's not going to miss the boat because it's not trying to ride a fad. In the meantime, we can still play the games we've been playing. No need to hop from one game to the next constantly, just sit back and enjoy what you're playing... when Spore comes out, you'll be ready for it, and maybe you can take the time to play it out and appreciate what it is, rather than whipping through and waiting for the next late-release game.
Had to be said.
Other than so-called Madden Gamers and Halo-fiends, nearly every gamer is looking forward to this. How do I know this?
Because unlike some other developers, when Will Wright says he is implementing some crazy idea into a game, he actually implements it and implements it well. Not to suck the man's pecker, but the possibilities of a game like Spore are quite beyond anything previuosly conceived in the interactive entertainment world. Just read through interviews with him about it, or better yet just read through the Wikipedia article about it. I don't mean skim over it, I mean sit down and truly read it and absorb everything that this game is aspiring to do (and, based on what Will Wright is saying, is doing successfully.)
When you look at what he is hoping to accomplish in this game, and what he is saying is already there and in somewhat playable form... itwould have been impossible even just a decade ago. His early description of it by calling it "Sim Everything" seems like it will be an accurate label.
Lastly, keep in mind that the ONLY thing that we have any sort of details about are when you are still in the cell-sized areas of the game. If they are putting this much detail into what is happening when you are the size of an amoeba, imagine what the rest of it could possbily be like...
I know I sound like some sniviling Will Wright fanboy who wants anything the man releases, but again...go and really read about what this game is trying to accomplish. It's mind boggling.
Living With a Nerd
No, you're playing "Troll the Slashdot Geeks." And winning handily, I might add.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I no longer use a PC, and I'm no longer in college. Most of my free time is spent away from the computer, doing errands (food, misc. real life stuff), or spending time with my wonderful girlfriend.
For some reason I suspect you drink a lot, take zoloft, or do you just enjoy the beatings your girlfriend gives when you ask if you can hang out with your friends after work?
But seriously, I don't know about you but I'm in my 30s and if my girlfriend doesn't at least tolerate my gaming and activities then she won't be for long. Luckily, the one I got loves her DS way more than I love mine. (I'm more of a computer FPS person)
Truth is... If you date someone for looks rather than interests, they are going to get on your skin real fast once they get old.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
>> Will Wright's Spore To Release Sept. 7th
If he waits that long, he's going to have a hell of a case of blue balls.
Maybe you should get a better, even more wonder girlfriend, who actually lets you play computer games, and even plays them with you, and doesn't make you spend all your time doing errands for her.
I guess the devs finally figured out a way to program a game in this title.
This game has been marketed to death as some Will Wright masterpiece. What exactly has Will Wright done other than an early 80's game about building a city, and a game who's main purpose is to wash dishes and trap people in a pool?
I'm not saying Spore will be good or bad, but I'm not buying a game who's sole reason for hype is a guy who's managed to make two franchises and milk them to death in a way that makes Nintendo jealous.
I remember the last time there was this revolutionary game coming, with wide open gameplay and everything was possible and it looked really gorgeous and you had near absolute freedom...
That was Black & White.
So tell me again why am I going to let myself be burned by this Spore?
It's amazing how many things that have been considered vaporware for so many years are coming it this year. Obviously most have still not sent he light of day but we are starting to get release dates. I always thought Spore would come out in the next 12 months but a few old friends like Duke Nuke Em Forever will have a bitter sweet edge to it. There needs to be a little mourning for some of the more long lived bits of vaporware. I just hope they both live up to expectation so it can be a positive thing them being released and not just a let's get it over with and get on with our lives event.
Will: So this is my new game, Pee. Basically I'm going to pee on every one of you, and you're going to love every second of it. That's my design. And you decide what you want to do with the pee. We're not telling you how to enjoy it. I leave that up to you guys. You're going to create your own unique experiences with my pee. You're all going to do something different. How will you react to that? This guy, he might get some pee in his eye. That's completely different from pee in your hair, and that's exciting to me as a game designer.
Fans: Will Wright! Please pee on us!
Penny Arcade, of course.
Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
uh... what? Sounds like your own life of abuse makes you automatically associate someone having a SO and not playing games with "abusive girlfriend".
You should get that problem seen to.
Some of the funniest guys out on the 'net, they are :-)
Living With a Nerd
It seems like the project took an average amount of time, and they just turned on the hype engine way too soon.
Game makers should learn that the longer the period of hype, the higher the expectations. Let's hope, for the developer's sake, that this game is really extraordinary, because after all the hype, "good", or even "great" won't be good enough.
I don't use a PC to make websites, I use the butterflies
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
I can't believe I'm seeing what is essentially relationship advice on slashdot.
What does the strangeness of the word 'Macintosh' have to do with Operating Thetans? ;)
Don't forget about Fallout 3!
Sounds like your own life of abuse makes you automatically associate someone having a SO and not playing games with "abusive girlfriend". You should get that problem seen to.
No. I'm fine... Its just that I've had many friends over the years simply loose themselves because they were in a relationship that was unhealthy for them, stopped doing the things they once enjoyed, and now are miserable.
If your the situation with your SO isn't giving you time to do things that you like (such as play computer games like Spore or even watch football with the guys) then you'll probaly start to resent them even if they aren't actively forcing you to not do those things.
What I think I'm saying is that having a life is no excuse for not doing the things you really like. On the flip side, there are people I know who work so much that they have neither time for a SO or games and are pretty miserable too.
Personally, a relationship cannot simply be about the fact you just be someone that happens to be of opposite sex, but rather you need to share some interests. If you don't play video games anymore... Fine! But don't tell people that it is because you are in a relationship, have kids, work 40 hours, and are too busy!
There are plenty of people who do all of the above and still find time to play games for their personal enjoyment.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
If you are releasing spore through your genitals...well...let's just say you need to get that checked out.
Living With a Nerd
Quickly somebody. How can we insult, degrade and belittle this new band of religious quacks.
I'd rather just wait and see what the game is like before judging it based on what he is saying. Sure, some people are more credible than others, and I have no doubt I will buy the game...but getting all ramped up over hype is a guaranteed way to get disappointed even if the game is great.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Probably, though I've never understood that convention. Given that PC stands for personal computer, and Macs are personal computers, would that not imply that both the Mac and PC guys are PC guys? (Well, unless that conspiracy theory about macs being group computers is right...dun dun dun!)
There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
I'm not. The package says "EA" on the side, so no thanks. I've suffered through enough buggy, crappy EA games to last a lifetime, I don't care which famous designer is behind it.
Comment of the year
Some IT consulting firm in the Naples/Ft. Myers, FL area was airing TV commercials a while back, and the guy used the word "Macintoshes." Quite weird indeed.
"I'm Will Wright, bitch!"
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Wow. Apparently you didn't get the memo. Vaporware is always "going to be released soon." It is the second requirement of vaporware.
Write your own Choose Your Own Adventure. http://www.freegameengines.org/gamebook-engine/
While I agree with you about EA, from what I understood when the purchase was made Maxis is more or less free to do their own thing.
Living With a Nerd
I enjoy everything I choose to do with my life, my girlfriend, and my friends. I work a lot, but its very rewarding. I spend the time I spend with my girlfriend because I want to. I spend the time I spend with friends because I want to. Thank you.
To get back on topic, I will not be playing Spore because, per initial post, my interest in it has waned after three years. Other, more (personally) interesting activities have come up. On top of that, the delayed released dates -- even if they were maybies -- just further buried my interest in the game. I'm not insulting anybody.
@Ant P. I don't drink heavily on a regular basis or take zoloft on a regular basis. Read the threads before posting, please.
eric http://www.ericdfields.com/
What I fear is that spore will end up like black and white, which is to say they will try to turn it into a game.
Most simulation games are fun because they basically let you play god. The world is your sandbox and you can do pretty much anything you want.
Black and white had this, and had a pretty cool sandbox, with people you could pickup and throw around, and a semi intelligent animal you could train to do tricks. Then they added the "game" elements.
First, they intentionally made the interface hard to use so that it would be "challenging" to learn how to use it. Everything was done with a series of mouse gestures that rarely worked. The "game" was figuring out how to do the mouse gestures well.
Second, they made you build your own cities house by house with a frustrating interface. The game offered to let you play god, but for some reason your tribe of people expected their god to construct their houses for them?
Finally, while the game was "black and white" and advertised the ability to be good or evil, the game largely punished you if you were evil. The world and all the creatures in it started to look ugly, and your society would start to fall apart in many ways. Also, numerous highly annoying mini games were designed to punish you for evil and reward you for good.
What I fear, is that similar unfun tasks will be inserted into spore. I fear that much of the game will be spent micromanaging your creature, or in other boring tasks, like designing your city.
Let's call it Will Delay's Spore
I know someone who has two legit versions of Photoshop. She bought CS around when CS2 came out, and used it up until a few months ago when she bought a new Mac Pro and bought CS3 so she wouldn't have to keep using CS virtualized.
Oh wait, I won't buy an EA game until they fix their servers. I just got finished with a round of disconnects with Battlefield II. What fun!
* The so called "Underwater stage"? Supposedly this was cut in lieu of your creature moving from cell to the beach...
:)
* Flying critters, or otherwise critters with wings?
This is Will Wright we're talking about. These kinds of things will be reserved for expansion packs. You didn't think he was going to sell the you *whole* game for that price, did you?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I think he meant he released spoor (poopy, #2, doodoo, etc), not spore. I have bad news for you: that's NOT the same as getting laid.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Theistic evolution criticism
... by Darwinian natural selection"
Choice quote :
""the illusion of design in the living world is explained with far greater economy
"the universe would appear the same to us whether it was designed by God or not"
By Caroll and Dawkins.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
If it's good, a lot of us may end up buying it and playing it.
If it's bad, then we've lots of other shit we can be doing instead - it's really no biggie.
So give us a quick tinkle when it's out in the shops, otherwise just **BUGGER OFF** until it's ready.
Thanks for your time and understanding.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Ars Technica has more information on the three versions.
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
Having followed the game since it was first shown at the GDC, I can honestly say that all the hype was fandom-based. EA was surprisingly mum about the whole thing. Hell, for the most part of the last three years, the main website was a Flash placeholder animation with no pertinent information whatsoever. No, the hype surrounding this game came from people simply too taken with the concept to wait and see. Which is understandable, really, and I certainly belonged in that category for the first year or so.
Graduate of the LeRoy Funkified Badass School of Soul.
...and she's not using it professionally?
Interesting, but few people spend that much money on software without some return of investment.
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
They had a huge presentation and demo at E3 2006. Hyping your product to the press was the whole point of that show. If you aren't press, you weren't invited...
Why do we care about some dude's fungus? I guess he's going to have some mushrooms then or something?
If you date someone for looks rather than interests, they are going to get on your skin real fast once they get old.
I'd rather she get on my skin while she's still young. Often. Like several times a day.
As a developer interested in the workings of the game, I think that the most important change in this game is the inclusion of generated content above and beyond what has been done before.
So much time of the developers of modern games, and the reason that the damn files are so huge, is all the static data. Where are the trees, what kind of trees are they, what is the texture on that building, etc? With cpu's being what they are today, if you can figure out the statistical distribution of the trees, or create an algorithm that creates position dependent textures, then you can have a huge leap in realism, dynamic level of detail, and infinitely large (and diverse) virtual spaces.
If it's done right (and I'm crossing my fingers), it will be a great experience. And as with any other technology, it will spread to other games. In 10 years, creating a realistic game could be much easier. Today it's becoming exponentially harder and harder to create all that content.
The more people I meet, the better I like my dog.
If a sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, then a sufficiently advanced alien is indistinguishable from God. (Is this the Star Trek V argument or something?) I suppose it is moot anyhow. Occam's razor favors evolution, IMHO.
-
The point is: If your girlfriend is preventing you from playing Spore, then she's not a very good girlfriend.
My, my! We're getting pretty defensive, aren't we?
You're the one who brought up your "wonderful" girlfriend, and you keep making excuses for her again and again, how she prevents you from doing things you want to do, and makes you do errands all the time so you have no free time. Sounds like there's an underlying fundamental problem that you're tormented by, and you're trying to justify the situation you're stuck in.
Are we supposed to be impressed that your "wonderful" girlfriend uses BBEdit? My girlfriend uses Eclipse -- so what? You're being patronizing and sexist if you think we should be impressed by girl using BBEdit. For your information, not all girls are computer illiterate and refuse to play games. You should get out more, and meet more interesting people! Preferably ones who don't demand to dominate your time. Once you find a better girlfriend, you will see your current situation with a lot more perspective, and you'll actually be able to play Spore without making your girlfriend mad at you.
wow, finally. This game looked amazing a while back. I can't wait to play it.