Messages posted by: theultimateend

Absolutely; I'd buy/play that! 77% [ 485 ]
No; I wouldn't buy/play that. 7% [ 45 ]
Undecided or Don't Care 16% [ 103 ]
Total Votes : 633

Well that seals it.

EA Maxis made the right decision in making a childlike version of spore. Almost nobody said they would like a Science one.

*re reads the results*

Oh...nevermind then.

avmf8 wrote:

manictiger wrote:

avmf8 wrote:

klawz wrote:avmf8, it seems that you like spore, because of what you have in your sig.

I don't I only use the editors for the bit of fun they provide and it is far from 50 dollars worth. I mean if it were not for the editors spore would be a total loss. I have not actually played it in a month. Not good when you think of this games release date. Spore is still a failure any way you look at it.

After much research, I have found alternatives that everyone who felt disappointed, may turn to. I don't mean to bash Spore or Maxis anymore than they've been between September and November of 2008, I am merely offering other games to people who read this as a substitute to displaying disappointment on the Spore website.

Personally, I was disappointed by the game play, but enjoyed the editors and diversity of the creations. I can share with you, what I consider the best in game play depth and fun. Mind you, these are simply my tastes (and are mainly 4X and RPG) and you should read the reviews before purchasing anything.

In priority order from the greatest at the top.

1. Heroes of the Might and Magic 5: Tribes of the East
(Super-fun, gorgeous graphics, very deep, intuitive, super-replayable)

2. Fallout 3
(Super-fun, gorgeous graphics, deep, very intuitive, very replayable)

3. Fable: The Lost Chapters
(Super-fun, great graphics, deep, super-intuitive, very replayable)

4. Sins of a Solar Empire
(Very fun, excellent graphics, very deep, super-intuitive, very replayable)

5. Galactic Civilizations 2: Ultimate Edition
(Fun, great graphics, super-deep and customizable, unintuitive, very replayable)

6. Civilization 4: Gold Edition
(Fun, excellent graphics, deep, super-intuitive, very replayable)

7. Spore (I know you already have it, it's in the list anyway )
(Fun, gorgeous graphics, mildly deep but customizable, super-intuitive, mildly replayable)

8. Mass Effect
(Fun, gorgeous graphics, deep, very intuitive, mildly replayable)

Have not played, is not out for PC yet, but recommended from past experience:
Fable 2

Has not come out, but looks promising:
Diablo 3

PS: For all that is joyous and beautiful, please bring back the real Sim City Series, so that I may add it to my collection of favorite "modern" games.

You forgot to mention with galactic civilizations you can make you're own spaceships by putting different parts together for the ships to do certain tasks.

Stardock has another epic game coming out soon that'll have a swanky building editor on it

.

Check it out when it hits I'm certain it'll be as top quality as everything else they've ever made.

Crayon wrote:Maxis could release the perfect game, patch it frequently, give out free expansions, have everything you guys suggest become reality...but you'd still complain.

That's already a flawed logic considering up until SPORE I've never once complained about an actual Maxis product.

Basically you are saying "Maxis could do what they didn't do and you'd complain." to which I'd respond "Your evidence is what?" and you would retort "Well they completely SPORE up a simple idea and produced instead a simple (IE. Stupid) product which by no means should be leaving you any space for complaining. I mean come on, since when did consumers expect quality in their purchases? Oh did I mention I am selling Shamwows?"

readywhip wrote:I lol at the new poll option

I like to please

.

With that I'm back to studying. Only 30 pages to go and I'm done for the night.

On a fun sidenote I plan to write a paper soon on how to make (easily) the most advanced and pleasing AI possible. It's actually remarkably simple and works off the concept of Operant Conditioning

. So far I've only thought of it in the context of a FPS but I imagine with a little imagination I could mold it to work with any game design.

When I finish the write-up I'll likely link it on the forums here since there are still people here I actually enjoy listening to the opinions of.

thefrostman2 wrote:

theultimateend wrote:

readywhip wrote:Niether poll option No C&C or comic creator for me. You need a poll option for every possability.

I added a poll option for every possability... >_> <_<

i thought you left the sporum

I'm sort of like a professional wrestler. I retire 9-10 times before I eventually just die. I'm only back because I keep getting drilled with new products for SPORE. I don't think a single month has gone by since release where at least one new product wasn't mentioned or planned for release. I suspect another SPORE addon-pack will be made and released in December too.

readywhip wrote:Niether poll option No C&C or comic creator for me. You need a poll option for every possability.

I added a poll option for every possability... >_> <_<

I figured I'd pop in again since I noticed something interesting in my E-Mail related to SPORE.

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=72885 - Spore Comic Book Creator 29.99

So with that in mind I started wondering if they'll break 100 dollars by the end of this year (It's fast approaching but I have faith).

(Spore Creature Creator - 9.99 For those of you that did buy it back in the day...or now from misinformation)
SPORE - $49.99 or Galactic Edition - 79.99
Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack - 19.99
Spore Comic Book Creator - 29.99
Total: 99.97 (Not including CC) or 129.97 (Not Including CC)

So I realize that the GE folks will (if supporting) already have broken the 100 dollar mark. But I was curious who here thinks they'll manage that last 3 cents before this year is out?

Just finding it interesting that we are getting into rock band pricing very soon and I've still seen little in the way of enhancing the actual game. Just sort of adding in lots of distractions instead.

Alright

. Here is my monthly topic ;p. Who knows after 6-12 of these maybe I'll be posting something with the Subject Header "They've done it! SPORE is amazing!"

At any rate everyone enjoy yourselves I'm back to studying for exams.

NOTE: I will give credit where credit is due though :"Patch 3 is coming soon — make sure to download it when it arrives. We’re happy to include 24 free new limbs for your SPORE™ creatures — dial up your creepiness with insectoid and exoskeleton legs. Don’t forget to pick up the Spore™ Creepy & Cute Parts Pack on Nov 18th for the full range of creepy & cute parts and animations." - SPORE Email

YourSavior wrote:Having been sucked into the rumors of Chris Hecker simplifying the game, I'd like to apologize for blindly following baseless skepticism. I know no-one from the Spore team will probably read this, but I feel awful for having blamed Chris for many of the in-game decisions I don't agree with.

That said, my view of Spore has not changed, and I still feel a great deal of potential was not harnessed, but my respect for the team that has developed this game has grown. I know, had I been in the same situation as you folks at Maxis, I wouldn't have had the will to come out to the public and admit all of the faults I'd committed, so I congratulate not only Mr. Wright but the entire Spore team at Maxis for taking another step towards fixing Spore.

It wasn't exactly 'baseless' there were countless quotes of him promoting the 'cute hollow' version of spore. That's how most of the threads started, with a quote from Chris Hecker himself.

As it stands this actually disappoints me. I was hoping that it wasn't Will.

At any rate I find it a little manipulative to not give people links to the forums without already having an account, hiding the forums is a little sketchy when it comes to honest business practices.

OH! And ugh. I'm still gone, I just heard that there was a will wright post so I figured I'd come read ;p.

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

That's how you take simple and make it exciting. Don't assume that people are inherently interested in stupid things, it's the availability of seemingly endless possibilities in simple games that make things amazing. This flash game is a great example. Simple idea with what...6 parts? And yet you can easily do so many things (people make catapaults, bouncing tanks and the likes).

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4063509

That's just a quick example of how no limits allowed me to do something out of the ordinary (I originally closed the gap by making a fast vehicle).

http://FantasticContraption.com/?designId=4063718

I could go on but you'll get the idea as you try this thing :p. That's how you make simple engaging.

Calabi wrote:

Because he is a public figure.
Different set of rules. Thats the way it is.
And no, its totally not like spiting in someones face.

But you have a point in the sense that we are with many different opinions and as such we should try to respect all of them. Even Chris ...

I don't agree with you, but I get what you are saying. I can understand it.

He is a public figure, but he is still a person whom may get offended by insults. Throwing insults at public figures is not a good way to enamore them with the public nor increase their liability to listen. It would be a case of them having to ignore all comments or criticism just for their own piece of mind.

Your right its not really like spitting in someones face they havent made that usb device yet, but it has the same sort of intent(perhaps more like the badges in harry potter).

I guess making the assumption that I was saying it would of made it obvious that it was 'my opinion'. I'll remember that for the future . Plus he could insult me all he wants I never said he couldn't.

The only difference is that I'm mature enough not to care.

He cant insult YOU though, only your identity on the internet. Although what if he insulted something you personally enjoy doing or worked hard at. We can all try to hold to some ideal where we are not affected by what others say but it is not always as easy as that. If we werent affected by the things we say to each other there wouldnt be many reasons to communicate.

My name is Mike Walker, there take a pot shot.

People have insulted my poetry and writing on many occasions. I hold nothing else I produce to a higher level of pleasure than those things, I again generally accept that people will always disagree and move on. I also don't see how you require negativity to justify communication. I know hundreds of people over the years who's only purpose in communicating with me was for laughter and to pass the time. The desire to be moved positively by words is not non-exclusive to being moved by negativity. We choose which can affect us.

Look at the president, he ignores everything but praise.

Henry Watson Fowler, in The King's English, says “any definition of irony—though hundreds might be given, and very few of them would be accepted—must include this, that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same.” - Wikipedia

It can be said that many things about SPORE incite debate, upset, creativity, and inspiration. I say inspiration separate from creativity in that it is inspiration to look at your life, the world around you, and how you feel about things. I in part have been greatly inspired by SPORE and my experiences within it (for those 150 or so hours) and of my time on the forums. I feel that SPORE has some amazing irony rapped around its structure that people continue to pick at.

We look first at the desire of SPORE. As cited from Circuit City, "•Epic Scope — No other game has come close to SPORE’s scale or ambition." It is true, in theory there is more surface area in SPORE than in any other single game that has ever been created (to my knowledge) however it can also be said that much of this surface area is hollow. It is procedurally generated and provides only the most linear room for interaction. It is actually the latter of this statement that I find most true: Ambition.

If you watch any interview all the way up to even the national geographic video that came along with the Galactic Edition (Yes I purchased it) you will find a man with incredible ambition. I have not to this day listened to any other game designer/developer that has inspired me in the ways that Will Wright has. He showed me that in a world of ever declining physical quality and ever increasing visual surface beauty that there was at least one person who 'got it'. He spoke eloquently in between sips of his coffee and explained things in terms that not only gave me hope but even sold a few hundred PC's when I worked at the pre-mentioned Circuit City. His words were on a level that most people can only find if they get 'really' high and walk into a Sunday morning church choir.

It was his attraction to one of the most fascinating parts of our universe that really caught my attention, something that I to have had a deep interest in: Evolution. Evolution itself was the first cinder block in the construction of the home that would be this digital galaxy. As he spoke with the people at NASA he made note that "While we cannot mirror reality, we will never go counter intuitively with reality in order to enhance gameplay. We want to educate and entertain." It was this statement that has stuck with me the longest. Because as I look at SPORE I see endless situations where it was not a mere omission of an incident but a complete reversal of reality.

Point A being the ability to fail. I think that all games require some level of failure, it is failure that teaches us the means to succeed. It is the very possibility of failure that gives all life meaning, something to conquer and to rise above. This is dutifully missing from SPORE. As you create your create there is no actual thought involved, there is no placement that can enhance or detract from your creation (aside from Cell Stage). You are essentially handed the keys to the car and a beer and told that nothing can possibly go wrong. While this opens the door to incredibly diverse creatures they all inevitably fall apart under scrutiny, what we sit upon in the end is millions and millions of meaningless recombinations of the same twelve or so essential components...not components for success...but components for quickest success.

I have, as I imagine a few others have, completed the entire SPORE campaign without every touching my CELL creature. It's slow, entirely possible, and in no way difficult. This tells us that in a game based around evolution that in fact evolution has no meaning, it is an unnecessary component to an ever changing world. That in fact walking upright is as meaningless as the ability to think, as these evolutionary traits are by the very definition of being evolutionary meaningless.

All the the worlds most successful games have loss, even two of Will Wrights most famous creations, Sim City and Sims had great loss within them. A Sim you had been playing with for months could burn alive in a house fire as you watch hopelessly from the sidelines. Forgetting to pause your city while exiting to the restroom could have you returning to a burning husk of a town with powerlines torn and people dying. These things helped keep the player alert and active and in turn helped make success satisfying and delightful.

Adaptation is defined by the reproductive success of a creature. The creatures who reproduce the most are the most successful in the animal kingdom. This may sound harsh but it is true. Creatures with the most beneficial mutations are the ones that spread the fastest and generally the ones with the least beneficial mutations die off entirely. Much like that SIM that you made who was too stupid to make himself a sandwich would starve on the bathroom floor whimpering in a pool of his own urine (yes you can do that in Sims). Reproduction is completely unnecessary in SPORE as is any mutation option you are given. Because from the moment you start the game you are guaranteed to succeed, it's just a matter of how long it is going to take you.

Now had this game been marketed as a feel good design program with optional game play demos for your creatures I'd of passed on it and congratulated Will Wright on entering into the 3d market of animation. However it was marketed as a game, not only that, it was marketed to the Sims players. A group of people who have been dealing with dynamic caricatures of themselves and friends for years. When you enter this game you find at first that your character has a dynamic attitude and you find incredible excitement, but with each new creation you realize you are still dealing with that first creature...except with a different mouth. After a few hundred creations you find that the brain growing in that little avatar is the same brain from the last 99, that you are entering into parallel universes across the same timeline...not a single unique galaxy (or 'universe' as they market it).

There is no substance to SPORE above the attractive coating and two dozen or so easter eggs (yes there are quite a few). I can think of no word that describes the entire aura of SPORE better than Irony, because it is indeed an instance where the surface meaning and the underlying meaning are entirely exclusive. I have learned much from this experience and I think the reason it hurts me most is to see one of the people I respect the most on this earth has been affiliated with something that has disappointed me nearly the most. Perhaps only trumped by the actions of the American Voters, the governments of major nations, Guilty Gear: Dust Strikers, Masters of Orion 3, and the treatment of the Education system.

So with that. I'm wiping my hands of this. I'm pulling my support for the patch and other files and moving on to other things. Hopefully I'll get to work on a web based game this winter and invite many of you to help me beta test it. Otherwise this is it for me, hopefully some other hopeful will turn this into a voluntary part time job and take up my general discussion buddy list. I was hoping that a show of friendliness would spawn discussion between consumer and producer however that was a very dreary hope.

I do feel at this point that Maxis is no longer the company that it once was. I will however be hard pressed to ever put the blame of that on Mr. Wright. Because as I've said before, he's one of those people I will likely always respect.

If anyone needs to get in contact with me they can reach me through my website (http://islesofscion.net) or via ricopenguin[]@[]islesofscion[].[]net (remove the brackets). I already have a pretty malicious spam filter and delete around 500 spam mails a day, so signing me up for anything because you dislike my attitude won't effect me any.

Aristophenes wrote:"It's right to pamper the bottom which sat
plying the oar at the Battle of Salamis"

I won't say how that applies to this topic or the forums, I'll let it inspire some of you readers to think

.

Skymin wrote:

Nethellus wrote:This is how, you don't have to make your own jpgs:

Go to your achivements page.
Right click on the achvement you want and click properties.
There you have the adress for the image itself.
Copy it.
Paste it like this in your sig:

<img src="http://www.spore.com/static/war/images/achievements/0x6529e50.png">

And then you will have this in your profile:

Do this for the achievements you want to show up.

5 stars!

Your siggy made me go through Puberty.

...all over again.

8Pack wrote:

theultimateend wrote:

8Pack wrote:the games been out two months and you all think they're not going to fix. impatient?

The old addage "Don't fix what aint broken"

They are making money off the marketing so it won't be 'fixed'.

Plus anything that takes 8 years to make shouldn't require touch ups out of the box.

they're loosing more money then they're making, and yea, even if you don't believe me maxis is reading these forums.

EA never dips their toes into anything that could possibly be a loss, that's why SPORE was dumbed down to maximize sales. The irony being that dumbing games down only maximizes initial sales, they quickly lose from word of mouth and tank.

Never said they weren't reading. In fact a few maxis staff have said they are. But silence broods the most evil.

8Pack wrote:the games been out two months and you all think they're not going to fix. impatient?

The old addage "Don't fix what aint broken"

They are making money off the marketing so it won't be 'fixed'.

Plus anything that takes 8 years to make shouldn't require touch ups out of the box.

I sometimes wonder if people take the obvious impossibilities in polls and select them for the sake of a laugh?

Because all the evidence I've seen shows that not all the people owning spore are still playing. Yet 5 people have clicked 1 million+.

Guess I can't get too uppity, it is an opinion pole

.

Parvati wrote:Hehe, yes you have said it before that you think I am cryptic.

But this time I was not pulling your leg or anything
I got the Wii mixed up with the DS aparently.

The shame

I like both systems

. I've gotten what I expected from both.

Although I do have to admit i'm getting pissed with Nintendo's new "There should be no game overs or losers in any gaming situation." attitude.

Seriously...adding TRIPPING to Smash Bros...wtf...

or that goddamn Blue shell in Mario Kart.

Since when was it OK to punish people for working hard and being good at what they do? I thought the whole point of being good at something was that you'd be praised and supported then people who lie and make crappy products can be bashed to hell.

The world is inverting on itself like something from Shin Megami Tensei.

renlar wrote:^-^ Liking sweets is really only a problem now, because our society developed enough that sweets can be gotten whenever we want. Its no wonder our population has an obesity problem. But since we've also developed past natural selection for the most part it doesnt really matter... I suppose thats why liking sweets has to be mitigated by video game addiction, so that you forget to eat.

Well it's not that we have the access its our increasingly sedentary lifestyles coupled with increasingly higher calorie intakes.

It's basically like taking a balloon and continually filling it with gas and never letting any of that gas escape. It keeps getting bigger until it pops. Just in the case of people it's just your heart stopping or your arteries rupturing.