Herculoids wrote:Now we are hoping for expansions ($) to put something interesting into the game, but if the Forbes article is correct we might not see many real content expansions (parts are not content), because EA will not think it worth the money to invest in it.

However we are getting a space expansion to begin with and feedback has been requested so that we, the users can recommend what we want in it, Feedback and suggestions would I imagine also be sought for subsequent expansions. Simply repeating "its too simple" is not helping but potentially hindering the development process. You may not have received the game you expected but it isn't going to simply miraculously appear out of thin air. You may not agree that you should spend money on expansions or even agree with what is in them. That is your right as is simply not buying any expansion. It is therefore in Maxis best interest to make sure the expansions are value for money in terms of content.

I like spore as it is despite it's many flaws. I think you'll find there are an awful lot of people who enjoy it even though they realize it could have been far better.

I apologize for nothing. Hecker is still a DOUCHE.

Nice letter, to bad it really does not respond to much, in fact, you started on one thing then went off og protecting Hecker.



how about some Answers now?

midian1369 wrote:I apologize for nothing. Hecker is still a DOUCHE.

Nice letter, to bad it really does not respond to much, in fact, you started on one thing then went off og protecting Hecker.



how about some Answers now?

I think, without trying to be offensive you are a SPOREing SPORE that can SPORE my SPORE and not him. Why would Hecker still be a Douche? Willl defended Hecker, for a more than valid reason. And yet you are so ignorant to troll like that?

SPORE you!

p.s: insert any non-offensive swear where SPORE is written.
no real curses were used in this post. noting got cencored, I merely cencored my own message. Kind of...

p.s.s: don't you guys find it much cooler when SPORE is written instead of a regular swear ?


And now something more ontopic.

I believe that it indeed had to challenging to make a game that spawns through multiply genres and be really easy to play with.
However, the method used to achieve this wasn't the most smart thing to do. I would have, each stage begin very simple, a kind of tutorial walk before the real deal starts.
Remember Age of Empires I? It explained in the first set of missions of how the game exactly worked, minus a few details that the player discovered himself. Why don't do like that?
About the cute vs science stuff. I love the way the game is visually (except it needs sharper textures on buildings and antialising).
The creature in the creature mode for example, unless you created a fugly, bad creature the way the animation is done is astounding.

Menu what is a menu.... Spore has menus

Well this thread has degenerated into crap and idiocy pretty fast.

I told you it wasn't him, Lucy did first, I read her post, and had an epiphany. Hecker wasn't the lead designer, in fact he probably gave us the only flawless working in game system for skinning.

When the epiphany hits the ignorant, it should be a moment of stark realization followed by blinking.

Yes, I am guilty of scapegoating Hecker, but I also found the name of the other cute team member and was equally distraught over it - however after MaxisLucy's clarification it all became quite clear to me. Will's statement further validated what I thought.

Jackuul wrote:Well this thread has degenerated into crap and idiocy pretty fast.

I told you it wasn't him, Lucy did first, I read her post, and had an epiphany. Hecker wasn't the lead designer, in fact he probably gave us the only flawless working in game system for skinning.

When the epiphany hits the ignorant, it should be a moment of stark realization followed by blinking.

Yes, I am guilty of scapegoating Hecker, but I also found the name of the other cute team member and was equally distraught over it - however after MaxisLucy's clarification it all became quite clear to me. Will's statement further validated what I thought.

Well what did you expect from this thread? Will Wright just took away the haters favorite chew toy and now they're all standing around whining about it because they know that maxis is doing something and they're running out of things to complain about. Nothing will make these people happy so don't even try.

We did accomplish something amidst all the "EA MONEYGRUBBING" and "MAXIS LIES" and "TAR AND FEATHER" and non the least "IF YOU DON'T LIKE, IT DON'T PLAY IT, AND STOP POSTING" threads.

If a developer starts to show interest in listening to the issues raised by the players and the community, that is a very good sign in itself. We may not see a turnaround immediately, but be assured that Will Wright saw that we have an interest in supporting the Spore endeavor, but are not happy with the current state of affairs.

What we need to do, in order to turn Spore around, for the good, is to stop the personal attacks and support the community in raising and addressing issues that is related to the game.

This is the point where the developer has started to listen to our concerns and we need to grab this opportunity and make the best of it without resolving to putting other people down.

Vermil wrote:

While I was officially on the science side at the same time I always saw this as a crucial tension that I wanted to foster, in other words I didn’t want the science side to win, I wanted to make sure both sides were represented in the game to some degree.

... - Ooookey... - So how come science wasn't?

Exactly, the science lost and lost badly, Appears that Will raised his flag of surrender and the cute team dropped the Antimatter bomb anyway.

Sad.

i've ranted enough about shallowness, options and gameplay in the past while i certainly appreciate the creative possibilities in Spore even when some visuals turn out to be more cute or cartoony than i like.

i never saw a saint in Will Wright but now i can appreciate him as a fine human because the went through the trouble of posting a simple reply with his point of view. unfortunately that's a rare gesture in the gaming world. thank you Mr Will Wright because you're willing to face the often stormy opinions and hopefully interesting ideas from the Spore community.

Dragonseye wrote:

Jackuul wrote:Well this thread has degenerated into crap and idiocy pretty fast.

I told you it wasn't him, Lucy did first, I read her post, and had an epiphany. Hecker wasn't the lead designer, in fact he probably gave us the only flawless working in game system for skinning.

When the epiphany hits the ignorant, it should be a moment of stark realization followed by blinking.

Yes, I am guilty of scapegoating Hecker, but I also found the name of the other cute team member and was equally distraught over it - however after MaxisLucy's clarification it all became quite clear to me. Will's statement further validated what I thought.

Well what did you expect from this thread? Will Wright just took away the haters favorite chew toy and now they're all standing around whining about it because they know that maxis is doing something and they're running out of things to complain about. Nothing will make these people happy so don't even try.

Deeds not words matter in life. So far, months after the fact, we get some words, that explain nothing but tell us they are working on it. Will did what a leader is expected to do, which is make a 'the buck stops here' post and protect his team member. The post did nothing to make the game better, explain the shallow game play, or answer what happened to the science.

Words, don't impress me, I'm too old to be swayed by speeches.

Thanks for finally replying but it's too little too late.

A few points in reply to Will:
+There's hardly any science in this game, if anything, it goes AGAINST science and is a game about intelligent design.
+So sometime between the last Maxis produced Sim City/Sims and Spore, the intelligence level of the gaming market drastically reduced? The game had to be made on the lowest-common-denominator intelligence level? That's a load of bull. The game has the intelligence level of a Fisher Price toy for toddlers and pre-schoolers.
+You create a game but don't know what demographic you are creating it for?!?! Maybe that was one of your key development problems! I don't know about you, but any software development project I work on begins with working with the users and figuring out what should be done to meet their needs. Saying you created Spore with no idea who the demographic playing it would be is just pure folly... or you just don't want to admit it's a game targeted to people with their age being no more than 1 digit long.

It is revolutionary. Name me one other game which allows you to create and manipulate your own game content in such a way. Name one other that is designed to populate the game environment from other people. A lot of people's problem with the game is that it doesn't match their normal play experience.

Id like to know which single player games last you 2000 hours. Most only last me a maximum of 50hours (about 1 run through) so thats approx $1 per hour. Good value compared to other forms of entertainment.

Little Big Planet(PS3)

Well, I Play MMO's And RPG's Mostly, So Yea, Im Going To Get More Than 50 Hours From A Game, Assuming Its A Good Game, And Ive Had Spore Addict Achievement For a While Now.

Some Games Ive Got Hundreds Of Hours From Include Final Fantasy Games, Mostly 7-10-and even X2
But Mostly Bethesda Softworks Games Like Morrowind And Oblivion. And MMO's Get Years Out Of Me.
So There, Hope That Answers That Question. Not All Of Us Play Madden 08 All Day, Some Of Us Like To Customize Our Games In Ways That Make It Almost Unrecognizeable. Like My Morrowind Save "Beezy".. He Has Every Kajilt In Raven Rock, And Every Argonian In Seeyda Neen. OH, and All The Orcs In Gnaar Mok. If You Dont Know What That Means, Sorry, But If You Do, Then You Can Imagine How Long That Took, Especially Since I Usually Play RPG's on Console(Xbox). And Like Most Games, I Play Through Many Tiimes, On Many Characters. I Have 14 Chars On Morrowind, And 8 On Oblivion.

good call Drish

I'll say it and say it again. HOw the hecker did a game designer like Wright who developed Sim Earth which I remember so fondly * not for graphics* but the indepth control you had over a planets , Continential drift, Albedo Effect ,Atmosphere composition and Alix Tilt among other things make a game so simple.

In that 1990 game you could direct the shape and direction of Tectonic plates and So many other wonderful things. It was a game that was educational and challenging.

Sim City was wonderful for creating giant cities and creative layouts.
The Sims was a Good interaction game* not great* good!

All of these games showed a greater level of repect for a players
Attention span
Intelligence

Also the notion you were targeting casual gamers is BS. By virtue of being someone who plays these sim style games I am a casual gamer. Playing Space stage is more like work. Fly here , save this , fly there, kill that, Pick up spice , sell spice. DULL

These first few mentions of Space stage expansion are interesting , However I never saw a post about people wanting an adventure creator. Its a neat Idea I'll give you that. However moviing forward how much content added will be via request of the players really. Cause if its a ratio of 10:1 10 being what Maxis thinks is cool and what players want I think I will pass. If 10 is what Maxis adds and 1 is what we want.

Planet maker or editor
Space stations
Planetary defence fleets and attack fleets
Auto aim in combat above your cities ( so I can stop nuking my own buildings)
A deus Ex Mechina for the grox
Removal of the 42 limit* unless there is good reason for that limit*
Reintorduction of water stage
Removal of travel limit near core so we can legitimately reach those currently out of reach worlds without mods.
A way to keep parts that are asthetically what we want but weak.

Insect size creatures and Other size differences.

Herbivors Get Herds 10 - 50 that must wander for food and have no set nest.
Carnivors keep packs but increase to max of 10 or so
Omnivors can form Social Circles or something like that. Since they are not a predator or complete Herbivor they can either be gathers or a nesting creature or fit into a combo of different roles.

Add True flying creatures.
Creatures that can fly
Amphibian creatures
Marsupials
Reptiles

Just give the game some MEAT.....aside from the editor. Take away the micro management to space stage and add depth to the rest of the stages.
Blend and expand the length of Tribal and Civ and give a realistic Tech tree .
And other reasource then spice. Fine spice can be like dilithium in BoTF needed for space travel.

I dont know just really listen to use and give us what we want first .. Not what you think we want.

Eekwotsthat wrote:Very quick 2d -> full 3d movement sea -> 2d movement creature (ignoring jumping and gliding) spoils the idea of progression of the interface and gameplay itself.

I dont think thats entirely the issue with the exclusion of the sea stage. In my view it reduces the immersion (no pun intended) in an "evolution" based game. Going directly from aquatic microbe to walking around on land doesnt fit with most evolutionary theories. Most land animals today are believed to have evolved from microbe to fish to land. It just feels like the game "flash-forwards" after the cell stage.

CallmePopy wrote:Little Big Planet(PS3)

Well, I Play MMO's And RPG's Mostly, So Yea, Im Going To Get More Than 50 Hours From A Game, Assuming Its A Good Game, And Ive Had Spore Addict Achievement For a While Now.

Some Games Ive Got Hundreds Of Hours From Include Final Fantasy Games, Mostly 7-10-and even X2
But Mostly Bethesda Softworks Games Like Morrowind And Oblivion. And MMO's Get Years Out Of Me.
So There, Hope That Answers That Question. Not All Of Us Play Madden 08 All Day, Some Of Us Like To Customize Our Games In Ways That Make It Almost Unrecognizeable. Like My Morrowind Save "Beezy".. He Has Every Kajilt In Raven Rock, And Every Argonian In Seeyda Neen. OH, and All The Orcs In Gnaar Mok. If You Dont Know What That Means, Sorry, But If You Do, Then You Can Imagine How Long That Took, Especially Since I Usually Play RPG's on Console(Xbox). And Like Most Games, I Play Through Many Tiimes, On Many Characters. I Have 14 Chars On Morrowind, And 8 On Oblivion.

Dude, no offense, but I think your Shift key is broken or something.