Taken from The Escapist:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86363-Will-Wright-Wants-to-Expand-Spore

Spore is going to see "broader" expansions than The Sims, and Will Wright will increasingly look to players to develop game content in future titles.

Amid digital right management controversy, publisher Electronic Arts is looking into milking its latest Maxis insta-classic Spore into a virtual printing press for money.

Will Wright, the lead mind behind EA's Spore, already has plans for how he will "horizontally" add onto the game and expand its reach beyond people who purchased another Wright classic, The Sims.

Wright says, "I think with Spore we have a lot of opportunities that are broader where we can create other games around the editors, for instance, or take certain levels in the game and put them on other platforms. With Spore we'll be looking at a wider range of expansion possibilities than The Sims. A lot of these may not even be things for people who didn't buy the PC game, like downloading the creature creator."

Not content to just earn a profit from a its games, the company expects to develop future games where the user plays an increasingly crucial role in how the gameplay is developed, a trend that Wright has followed from SimCity, where players managed their own metropolis, to Spore, where the entire universe is under his or her command.

"Well, I can see things going in that direction. It would depend on a lot of advances being made. I've been keeping up with advances exactly in that area in the last 20 years. I'm pretty aware of what can be done and can't be done in that area. It would be a cool path to go down," explained Wright on the topic of user-created content. "Programming was one of those things where either you give them a complete machine and they can do a lot of stuff or you really dumb it down, in which case, all the stuff looks the same. It's something I would love to do if we could think of a good way to do it. I spent a lot of time studying people's attempts to do this, primarily people in the educational community like ... Ken Perlin, who has a project in that direction right now. But that's something that's a lot harder than it sounds."

The technical challenges, Wright says, start showing themselves when players are working in a "parametric" environment (within boundaries of the game's engine), as opposed to the more complex yet largely unexplored "algorithmic" gameplay.

"Parametric means you're changing weights and variables around an existing behavior engine. When you program the Sim's personality and then they go off and behave differently because of the way you set the personality modifiers, that's parametric. That's different of getting down to the fundamental algorithmic level where you have branching and levels," says Wright in an attempt to address the programming challenges presented in such games.

He's a man who that talks a lot gaming shop due to his aggressive approach to game design. His next ideas aren't ready to be revealed, but promise to be "pretty grandiose."

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I will NOT be spending ANY MORE MONEY on any expansions for Spore. 2 weeks and I'm almost done with the game.

Already onto Witcher enhanced edition, Crysis warhead, and tomorrow, Sid Meier's Colonization.
This is exactly what we thought was going to happen. Could 2 weeks be the quickest mention of a game expansion in the history of gaming?? lol

YIPPIE!!!!

No way, I'm not buying into the expansion pack business model for a game as simplistic as this. Sorry, but by the time an expansion pack comes out we'll have new games by VALVe and Blizzard, and my interest for Spore will have long since de-evolved. It's only been a week now, and I'm already getting bored with a game I paid $50 for.

This is exactly what I was afraid of...

Hey Will, how about we turn that talk of expansions into talk of fixing the bolloxed up patch?

Oh cry about it why don't you. I personally can't wait. I'm still enjoying Spore as it is. I just wish all these people that dislike the game would just leave the forums and go gripe somewhere where people actually care... well if that existed anyways.

Everything WillWright is saying is all BS.

They PLANNED for this type of marketing model before they even released Spore.

PATHETIC.

Get a Skeleton of a game going, Spore, then release everything that should of orginal been with the game for ALOT more money then it should.


This is going to get people stealing the game more and more.

AuraOfSouls wrote:Oh cry about it why don't you. I personally can't wait. I'm still enjoying Spore as it is. I just wish all these people that dislike the game would just leave the forums and go gripe somewhere where people actually care... well if that existed anyways.

I cant wait either, but we are being SUCKED into a marketing scheme. You cant be ignorant and ignore this fact.

AuraOfSouls wrote:Oh cry about it why don't you. I personally can't wait. I'm still enjoying Spore as it is. I just wish all these people that dislike the game would just leave the forums and go gripe somewhere where people actually care... well if that existed anyways.

Mmm hmm. Enjoy paying $250 for the 2005 Spore they originally promised.

drish wrote:

I will NOT be spending ANY MORE MONEY on any expansions for Spore. 2 weeks and I'm almost done with the game.

Already onto Witcher enhanced edition, Crysis warhead, and tomorrow, Sid Meier's Colonization. Now there's a developer who never let me down, SID MEIER. (well, except for Railroads, but he never preached that Railroads was going to change the gaming genre!)

This is exactly what we thought was going to happen. Could 2 weeks be the quickest mention of a game expansion in the history of gaming?? lol

I have seen expansions mentioned the day of release... movies do that too :/

Oh and you are missing the point of Spore, there really is no end to it, well unless you consider taking all the planets over in the Milky Way Galaxy. *blinks* I've already broken the 10 different game mark from cell to space. Maxed out 2 space games.

if they CAN make a game like they promised back in´05 i´d paying hundreds of bucks for it....

remember: you´re not paying for a dvd in a box... you´re paying for the 5-7 years it took 100+ ppl to develop that thing...


also... this is not anything new... he spoke of expansions even before the game was released (now THAT´s gotta be a record)

You got me with Spore, but to think that I am actually going to buy an expansion for it? Well that's just plain stupid. Why would I want to buy the same (disappointing) game twice?(Albeit with some new bells and whistles)

No I much rather put my stock in the mod community (or maybe Lehman Brothers) then buy an expansion since they are much more likely to add new game play dynamics and not to mention they are free.

drish wrote:
The technical challenges, Wright says, start showing themselves when players are working in a "parametric" environment (within boundaries of the game's engine), as opposed to the more complex yet largely unexplored "algorithmic" gameplay.

"Parametric means you're changing weights and variables around an existing behavior engine. When you program the Sim's personality and then they go off and behave differently because of the way you set the personality modifiers, that's parametric. That's different of getting down to the fundamental algorithmic level where you have branching and levels," says Wright in an attempt to address the programming challenges presented in such games.

...this is what I've been harping about on these boards since the SPORE game came out. And, frankly, it should have been in the game from the beginning! If a genuine personality matrix comes out for Spore and they want to make me PAY for it, they can go bobbing for apples in a septic tank; eight flavors of Not Gonna Happen™. That's not a business model I'm willing to support: screw the customer with the base product, then milk 'em for all they're worth just to make the game complete. Nuh-uh. No way, never, no how, fuggeddaboudit.

You got me with Spore, but to think that I am actually going to buy an expansion for it? Well that's just plain stupid.

Exactly. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Shame all over me.

Everything WillWright is saying is all BS.

They PLANNED for this type of marketing model before they even released Spore.

PATHETIC.

Get a Skeleton of a game going, Spore, then release everything that should of orginal been with the game for ALOT more money then it should.


This is going to get people stealing the game more and more.

Agreed; they shot themselves in the foot with this one. I predicted a few threads back that they'll see piracy go through the roof with this business model, and now I'm hearing it from other people.
Personally, I'm not even sure I can be bothered to pirate an expansion; frankly, after all the hype, anticipation, disappointment, and kvetching, I'm tired.
Spore, Maxis, and Will Wright can bite me.

He didn't say anything really. Oh wow they're making an expansion, there is a shock.

MMM i'm not against a spore expansion perse but ....

Behavioural coding?? where is that in Spore? Ive played old DOS RTS with better AI behaviour.

People, horizontal expansions arent the kind we are asking for. I'm not sure about him anymore. Yes its nice that he has brought gaming into mainstream. Yes its nice that he has provided us with 'soft'core games that we can go 'hard'core on. But i'm afraid that he has lost his marble's.

I like Spore. But i'm feeling a little bit betrayed in the end. Don't u guys feel sold out ? W're talking a nr1 dude with brilliant ideas on how to teach us things thru gaming. That was the core idea behind Spore.
It is not today. I like Spore. But i am sad.