Spore.

http://www.pqhp.com/cmp/gdctv/
Video near bottom, you should probably use a spamfilter-address for the registration process.
This game looks like awesome.
Will Wright is actually funny?

At first I thought it looked cool. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were two potentially huge issues with the design that I doubt Will Wright can resolve.

The first big one is that there is not just one game here, but many different games, one for each playable scale. The idea that progressing through each stage is like a "tutorial" is kind of depressing; what reason do you have to go back to the beginning? There are some interesting things to do in some of the scales, and they have an effect on later ones, but it doesn't look anywhere near as interdependent and difficult-to-balance as what's in Simcity or the Sims, which robs it of all the intellectual charm; you can build different creatures with different attributes, but what makes one better than another? Will we see real environmental difference and adaptation? Or are all they all made "equal" by design, with the difference being only a combative one? (the latter was my impression) The numerical aspects of the Sims and SC play a big role to me; things like population or wealth or happiness are fun to measure and to try to improve on, but there seems to be a lack of those measures in Spore.

The second problem is with the endgame; it's pure sandbox, but the things you can do seem pretty limited. You can go around and invade or blow up other planets, and that's the most you'll ever do to interact with other players - and it's a one-way interaction since you're invading a local copy of their planet, not the "real thing." I can't see myself being addicted to that gameplay for very long.

But then, he might well have come up with ways to resolve these issues that I can't see from behind the press release smokescreen.

>The second problem is with the endgame; it's pure sandbox

I'm guessing it will take quite a while before you reach that point, and the difficulty level made very high. As in all games, the only way to get god-mode is after you've "beaten" the game.

the question is if those "features" presented are the whole game...
I think there is more to it than presented.
just look at the additional buttons in the menues he does not explain (not in the editors, those at the bottom)

I am a bit more concerned about the Online Singeplayer Thingie.
Eventhough it it pretty obvious that the online database of editor creations will be moderated I can't really enjoy the thought of other players crap tossed into my game.
I hope the concept works.

You probably have control over what you download. I'm guessing there will be some kind of "content browser" built into the game. That may even be what the additional buttons were for.

tl;dr version

PUSH BUTTON RECEIVE CONTENT

>>6
I hope not.  I hope you just randomly grab a whole ton of creatures and worlds.  Why?  Because if everything I create is uploaded elsewhere for someone else to stumble across, I am totally making an entire penis based society. Penis people, penis vehicles, penis buildings.  Some guy's going to buy the game, load it up, and his first enoughter with a different civilization will be my penis people.  Practical joking on a massively multiplayer scale, I can't wait.

>>2
>>The numerical aspects of the Sims and SC play a big role to me; things like population or wealth or happiness are fun to measure and to try to improve on, but there seems to be a lack of those measures in Spore.

To put your fears to rest, he's heard in the video stating that "my people's happiness is my main form of feedback".  But you're missing the point.

The beginning is a tutorial to familiarize yourself with all these menus and controls.  The end is a sandbox, where every single one of these comes together to form sort of a new genre.  You don't just invade and blow up planets:  You create new ones, new races, you cross breed, play havoc with the universe.  You also trade, use diplomacy and other things in your interactions.  Initiating first contact?  How rad.

I have about 4 billion questions though.  Someone said at some point your little creatures get clothes?  When building a tank or UFO, how do you tell the computer where stuff shoots from?  Will you be able to pick different "effects", a-la engine glows and rays instead of missiles?  Can you dictate specifically what color goes where on things?  Can you have more than 1 UFO at a time?  Will races not only interact with you, but each other?  For example, could you stumble onto the middle of a civil war?  We see that our creatures are given spears:  what about guns later on?

wwright@maxis.com - he will answer.

>>2
Anyway, I wouldn't worry about the numerical issues - in the issue you can see three bars in the upper left at all times; there are three aspects that you manage in each mode.  For instance, in the world evolution mode, it's hunger, energy, and, like, health or something; I forget the third.  Also, some creatures will not survive as well as others.  He specifically mentions the SUV tweety bird would have low survivability rate.  If they do die, then you merely get knocked back down to the last stage you were at, which I think means your last successful creature.  Survivability is largely procedurally generated based on your modifications to your creature.  For instance, if you make an animal too heavy, it won't be able to fly, only glide.

It seems like there are several "game" type aspects to the endgame sandbox - he didn't elaborate very much, but he talked about empire building, galaxy conquering, alliance forging, tending to non-sentient races on other planets and building them up, and I'm hoping this will be a fantastic part of the game.

Keep in mind that this video is many months old.  They may well have added things since then.

Q4 2006...*sigh* a loooong time

>>9
It's only about a week or two until GDC where there will be several spore presentations.  Hopefully videos online.

I had time to think about it, and I found that spore suffers from 1 major flaw:
At the city stage, you loose all control over your creatures. They become stuck inside the town, you cannot tell them to get out and explore anymore. After spending the whole game creating them, evolving them, all of a sudden they become nothing more than part of the scenery inside of your cities. That’s just plain stupid! At this point, you should be able to equip them with lazer guns and rocket launchers, and build yourself an army of infantry, to go kick the ass of those invading thanks 10 to 1. When I invade an other planet, I should be able to attack the inhabitants with lazer wielding dinosaur space marines!

>>11
Not fair, because *I* wanted to infect your pathetic army with my bacteria, and I was forced to upgrade them as well.

>>11
Who says you can't?  Wright DOES say that you can take over cities through warfare means.  I don't think he means JUST vehicles.  That's one of the questions I had earlier: You can give your early townsmen spears.  What about guns? 

I don't know how you'd do invasion on other planets if you didn't have ground troops of some kind

DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE CENTURY

I feel like a fucking time traveler.

>>14
>mfw I enjoyed the fuck out of Spore
>mfw I have no face because Moot broke 4chan

>>15
Don't get me wrong, I had fun with it, but it was nowhere near what it was hyped up to be.

I'm watching ernest scared stupid.

This thread makes me depressed.

>>17
rip ernest

>>15

>enjoying Spore

HOW

We were so young and innocet back then...

>Will Wright originally wanted to call Spore "SimEverything"

What a cunt. It has less depth than a fucking Sims IKEA furniture expansion pack.

>>22
Only because EA raped it. You should go research WW's original plans for the game, because they were fucking beautiful

First game ever with a demo more fun than the finished product?

For some reason I remembered this shitty game randomly in 20-fucking-13.

Spore is bad. The concept is bad. The creator is bad. Therefore all your arguments are invalid.

>>26 Sir, Might I advise you to visit the hospital to have that Brain Tumor of yours checked out? I thought the game was alright, But if it only came out the way Will Wright wanted it to, It would've been better. Still, It's pretty good, Sure its not Sims 2, But its good..