Spore: A Failure?

[The Almighty dF]

Well the game does have a lot of creativity, and yes that is a good thing. But the logic of it is not very good. For example if you put a leg on an animals head, it would still have the same affect as putting a leg on their wast. I guess what I'm trying to say is the game is not very logical in it's approach.

It allows creativity, but being creative doesn't change anything.
It's like having the option to paint a racing stripe on a pet rock. It won't make the pet rock go faster.
It's just now, after a short while, you have to make your pet rock choose between performing music and fighting (that's all tribal stage is. Dear god. Can that even be called a gameplay stage? Unless your game is Mortal Kombat vs Jem, that's not a gameplay stage.)

 

[thenooblet22]

I think the game needs a phase between cell and creature. I mean going from a small cell to walking on land on the next phase? Needs to have a "fish"stage.

It did initially, but they removed it.

 

[Chieftess]

By the fact this is the most active thread in Spore.. i'd say YES!

You know a game is bad when the two most viewed and replied to threads are:

"SPORE: The SimEarth Game" (pre-release)
"SPORE: A failure?" (post-release)

 

[Abaddon]

So sad So sad

 

[Daftpanzer]

The thing is, for the first few days I thought it was great. Not what I was hoping for, even after hearing the first negative feedback, but still enjoyable. Caught up in the hype, I kinda role-played and filled in the blanks. I even liked the tribal stage. When I got into space, it gradually dawned on me that there would be nothing to justify this whole story that I had built up in my mind (does that make sense lol). So I tried new games, on new planets, with new creatures, expecting new things, but found it was basically the same experience again.

End result for me is no motivation for actually playing. Creating things and randomly flying through space is fun and all, but not worth £35 and the 6 gigs of HD space and SecuROM.

 

[Chiyochan]

No, The Sims 2 sold a lot more than Half-Life. So I guess he's saying he'd rather score a bit less but have much higher sales. That is, have a slightly (quite a bit, imo...) less complicated or intricate or "for hardcore gamers" game and sell to a larger audience...

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
10/10 good job will, awesome, you'd rather design dogpoop that sells than something worthwhile, You are not a game designer, get out of the industry.

 

[Methyl Orange]

Shaw's Principle:

Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.

I think that's the case in Spore.

 

[Panopticon]

How foolish that he thinks Spore was comparable in quality to The Sims 2. Spore < Star Control + MS Paint.

 

[Meatbuster]

10/10 good job will, awesome, you'd rather design dogpoop that sells than something worthwhile, You are not a game designer, get out of the industry.

That's a bit of exaggeration. He designed a moderately good game that sells, than something that ONLY hardcore gamers will find "worthwhile".

Game designers have to make a healthy balance between profit and gameplay (complexity). If profit is cut because the game is only supposed to appeal to 95% of CivFanatics forumgoers but only an insignificant percentage of the rest, then they lose and there will never be a Spore 2 or any expansion of the original thereof.

How foolish that he thinks Spore was comparable in quality to The Sims 2. Spore < Star Control + MS Paint.

A poor comparison. Star Control is far too good.
Still, I find Spore better than Sims 1 or 2. I have Sims Hatred Syndrome.

 

[W|M]

Personally, I absolutely loved the cell stage. It was awesome. The creature stage was also quite fun but also a bit disapointing. Tribal stage was too easy and really bad, as was the civilization stage (But civ stage on a smaller scale). I found the space stage pretty hard, and found keeping the colonies nice and habitable was actually surprisingly hard, especially since thanks to my creature stage aggresiveness (Creature peacefullness sucks), everyone hated me.

BTW, Spore is the only game made by Will Wright that doesn't have the word 'Sim' or 'Sims' in it.

 

[Rub'Rum]

I don't understand the love for the cell stage. I mean, it's fun and all, but it amounts to nothing more than a well done flash game.

 

[salty mud]

Precisely. A flash game is fantastic in comparison to the rest of a game what took 4+ years to make.

 

[wilebill]

http://www.spore.com/comm/prototypes is an interesting collection of small games and concept demos that are a bit entertaining. Perhaps more entertaining than Spore, and you can't beat free!

 

[Soda7777777]

Maybe the reason people loved the cell stage was because it was so simple? I personally didn't like it at all. I really only liked the graphics of the space stage.

 

[civplayah]

I barely think of spore as being a failure at all. I don't like the cell stage because it is so simple, and I don't like the space stage because it is so long, but, I do think that it achieved it's goals as well as it could. I think spore is as much as a failure as The Sims 3. They both have great graphics, and both allow freedom and creativity.

 

[moscaverde]

Freedom and creativity??
You can attack or sing, attack or dance.. again and again...
True that the creature creator give you some aesthetic freedom and are interesting to play, but this part they put for free to download.

 

[Chiyochan]

I barely think of spore as being a failure at all. I don't like the cell stage because it is so simple, and I don't like the space stage because it is so long, but, I do think that it achieved it's goals as well as it could. I think spore is as much as a failure as The Sims 3. They both have great graphics, and both allow freedom and creativity.

the fact that the 'great' graphics is the first thing you have to say about it is very telling
also, no, spore does not have great graphics, and it doesn't allow freedom or creativity, you cant even land on trees or fly across water. it gives you about as much choice as any generic MMORPG, /dance and *clickclicklickclickclick*

 

[Darthvegeta800]

It was a fun game. Not what it was hyped up to be. But people exagerate a bit. It's fun, good but not great. Most games are not 'great'.

 

[Soda7777777]

It's fun for the first few days

 

[Daftpanzer]

Guess you gotta have a little complexity, and actual divergent paths to go down and commit to, so theres actually new things to try out.