[quote=“Markus_Persson,post:11,topic:26434”]
And yet that is the plot of pretty much EVERY successful real-time strategy game I can think of. 
simtower! yes!
[quote=“swpalmer,post:21,topic:26434”]
You seriously think spore has a plot? :-o
Spore is a selection of different games, with a scope linking them never before seen (don’t forget the multiplayer dimension), and some wonderfully clever programming and nice graphics. I hope they manage to make it fun. It doesn’t have to be about points. Sometimes it’s just fun to Make Stuff.
Cas
I always thought evolution was about the survival of the fittest, is there a more compatative game around?
It looks like you are missing a lot of what spore gameplay is and also what people are arguing in this thread. If you enjoyed SimCity then you will probably enjoy Spore too without the over-management of SimEarth.
It’s very different than just another SimEarth with clever ai. Its much more like a mix of all his previous games with an added bonus that you can experiment and build new life forms and new structures. It’s very well described in the presentation video.
Actualy he said a plot similar to every successful classic simulator game that is zero plot. ;D
Oh, I disagree. Compared to spore, they were frigging nobel prize winning novels.
In populous, I knew why I was fighting. There was a POINT to the fighting.
The same goes for dungeon keeper, black and white, transport tycoon… heck, even pizza tycoon.
Sim City is the only game I can think of that didn’t really have a plot or a point… But instead it focused on one thing and made it diverse and challenging enough to be interesting.
Now kids, repeat after me:
Omnipotence is not fun.
Oh, besides, he said it had the same amount of plot as every other successful real time strategy game.
You know, like Command and Conquer, StarCraft, Dune 2, Warcraft and Total Annihilation. ALL of them totally devoid of plot and sense of purpose. 
What do you know about Spore that indicates that the point is not the same as any of the above? You fight to stay alive. You fight to see what’s next. You fight to see what you can achieve… Setting things up and seeing how well they work out can be fun even if there was little more to it. It depends on the scope of the variables and the possible outcomes.
They can make it fun. The question is will they succeed?
what i really like about spores is that they are trying something new and innovative not just remaking a game like everyone else. Whether its fun or not is another question.
Spore seems to be, at this time, the ultimate sandbox game. No point yet other than experimentation. However, their experiment will lay the foundation for techniques and elements that will make their way into other games.
-Chris
Sure some simulator games have a plot others don’t and can be very fun the same way like SimCity. Honestly i don’t see what kind of a plot could be attached to a game like spore. It seems that Spore would work better with random events like the ones seen in SimCity. Stuff like earthquakes, sun flares, meteorite collisions, alien invasions. Spore doesn’t mess with stuff like trading and diplomatic alliances between races, even if there are other races in the spore galaxy to dominate and each one will have its own characteristic behavior. Thats the stuff Galatic Civilizations II expands upon and that game even has a simple plot.
I bought Galactic Civilizations II today, by the way.
and how is it? does it have some 3d action like battles etc or just 2d ? on screenshoots it is not looking intresting…
Heh
Of course I didnt mention them, they were crap! I played SimEarth and Ant and I didnt like them. I did like SimCity and the various railroad games. Its still yet to be proved whether Spore will be a good game. Its a fine line sometimes between a good and bad game. Fiddling with a city, fiddling with ants, both could have been good but only one was.
I wrote a letter to Maxis after they made SimCity but before Ant came out. I suggested that they should make zones in SimCity like army bases etc… so two sim cities could battle it out for land. They actually wrote back and indicated that they were working on a strategy game, which turned out to be ant, I was rather disappointed. The concept of battling ants was good but it just didnt play well.
I’m with Chris on this, I think it will alter the way games are made.
Oh, I also bought Galactic Civ II a few days ago. I played MOO and liked that. I havent played GCII enough, seems ok so far, I’m about to invade Earth.
whats GC2 like? game looks really good, but not heard much about it
I think “Game” is likely a bit misleading when applied to Spore. Hobby, pastime, craft might be closer. What I got from the video was that it is a creative game in which you create a world and upload it the server for others to visit. You can then visit their worlds with your ufo, and use some of their stuff if you like. This a common ‘game’ mechanism in the model building, gardening and crafts worlds. Create stuff and show it off, browse other peoples stuff for ideas.
The name of the game in the creative world is “fame”. Who is using my stuff? Spore measures that. So it has the structure needed for a creative game. Nothing like the structure of an RTS though.
I hope its not long lasting. Most MMOGs put enough grind in there that people will play for years. But that takes it out of range of most casual players. Asynchronous creative multi-player is inherently far cheaper than synchronous competitive multi-player. So EA should be able to make money off quite casual, short term play. Hopefully, a whole new audience for multi-player games.
I’m not sure if this has been suggested (too lazy to read all the posts) but I don’t think UFO = God Mode.
I’m guessing you need to build up a certain number of resources and research certain technologies to be able to perform such an action as terraforming. The game is just in a very pre-alpha state. The game mechanics aren’t there. I think (hope) that it’s just showing off the power of their universe creation system. Random conflicts will probably be introduced and substantive competition should come into play. One can’t just go blowing up entire solar systems.
I’m sure that, if they aren’t aware already, they will realize it’s better to put in certain limitations and increases in difficulty because it makes it that much more fun when you actually pull off these incredible tasks. What we saw was probably just a tech demo of sorts.
I’m not sure they need to go beyond God Mode to provide things to do. The “game” in God Mode is creating stuff. Its what gods do. And some people like doing it to. Plus, in some respects, its a good business proposition. The server load in a creation MMOG is a lot less than in a competition one. The “score” in a creative world is fame. And that is cheap to track. In Spore as currently described, you just need to track who uploaded which civilization when. That’s saves a lot of hassle at the server end.
Introduce substantive competition between civilizations though, and validating a score becomes much more difficult. Not only do you have to track the outcome of a battle, you have to check that neither side cheated. And that means validating the detail transactions that made up the war. Tough in a game which mostly happens asynchronously on players desktops.
Be interesting to see which way they go with it.