Comments on: Sporadic Entertainment

By: 2008: The Year of Limits - Fleep’s Deep Thoughts

2008: The Year of Limits - Fleep’s Deep Thoughts — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:29:57 +0000

[...] have done a much better job than I in analyzing just why it was such a rotten egg, but I think what might be my biggest (most trivial) disappointment of the year. I don’t [...]

By: Ciaran Laval

Ciaran Laval — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 02:05:07 +0000

Maxis’ former marketing manager should get Will Wright to do something inside Second Life, I’ve mentioned this to her before. I also told her I didn’t think spore would cut the mustard but the sales look impressive, I just don’t fancy it at all.

However, Elite, primitive? Elite was bloody awesome. The whole idea was awesome too, which reminds me, I should checkout Eve-online at some point.

By: Ashcroft Burnham

Ashcroft Burnham — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:19:22 +0000

Spore’s main problem seems to have been that its design basis was a vague theme, rather than a gameplay idea.

By: Clubside Granville

Clubside Granville — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:22:16 +0000

Hey Gwyn, I don’t know how anyone could have taken Spore seriously as an “SL Killer” when it was known for years to have no multiplayer. While I own a copy of Spore Collector’s Edition for collecting purposes, I would never install it because of the draconian DRM it uses (which screws up things for developers like myself), but I knew enough before its release to know that even mentioning it in the same breath as Second Life would be a joke. You can share objects, but they have to be built out of supplied pieces. At least something like FarCry 2 allows you to share environments and play in them, even if they are built from pre-chosen pieces. LittleBigPlanet goes a step further as new items can be essentially painted, but it is a 2D world limited to four players (FarCry at least supports 16 with no lag, something Second Life often struggles with). But Spore has received the reviews I anticipated: big thoughts, limited execution, and one left of the shelf shortly after a little play. The real Second Life killer is ready to be made, but those with the technology look at the tens of millions playing games to the few dozen thousand on Second Life and don’t bother.

By: Extropia DaSilva

Extropia DaSilva — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:27:26 +0000

I would just like to say that Spore was awarded 7 out of 10 in ‘Edge’ magazine, probably the highest authority on videogames there is. However, LittleBigPlanet for the PS3 was awarded 10 out of 10, one of only 9 games to be awarded top marks in over 10 years of publication(the others being ‘Gran Turismo’, ‘Super Mario 64′, ‘Ocarina Of Time’, ‘Halo’, ‘Half Life 2′, ‘Halo3′ , ‘Super Mario Galaxy, ‘Grand Theft Auto 4′ and ‘Orange Box’). I have never played Spore or LBP, but from what I have read and seen in YouTube videos, LBP does seem to take user-generated content to a whole new level.

Well..maybe not if you compare it to SL;)

Extie.

By: Dizzy Banjo

Dizzy Banjo — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 06:50:28 +0000

Hey Gwyneth,

Interesting piece. Gosh that bit on Elite really took me back, I was obsessed with that game, including the little novella. David and Ian are 2 of my gaming hero’s.

In case you didn’t catch it, here is a blog post I did on the story of the music of Spore. It’s an interesting element to the makeup of the game.

http://dizzybanjo.wordpress.com/2008/09/08/spores-procedural-massively-singleplayer-online-soundtrack/

I agree Spore is flawed and lacking in many areas. I think it remains to be seen if the population of the universe through user content can change that. I keep meaning to check back in and see if the “anthem” creation really does create a huge pool of user generated music for instance.

Diz