Spore Named One of 2008's Best Inventions

[DoctorFinger]

In these hallowed halls Spore is the source of much controversy. But outside the warming cocoon of gaming websites Will Wright's baby is seen much more as it's creator intended: as a quirky and innovative romp through creation.

In fact the game is considered innovative enough for Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1852747_1854195_1854147,00.html) to name it one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2008. They dub Spore, "The Everything Game" and call it "blasphemy, brilliance or both."

Source - Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/02/spore-honored-in-times-50-best-inventions-of-2008/).

[SilentScreams]

Spore was fun while it lasted. Unfortunately it only lasted for one play through. I can't see myself playing it again.
At least that means the DRM doesn't affect me. I can't see myself installing it again anytime soon.

[Mr. Murphy]

I only made it to the fourth section before getting distracted, and frankly I had to force myself to play it that long.

I had been so excited for Spore, but as a game, it is booooooooring. Even my girlfriend who loves the Sims and Flow thought it was boring as fuck. I wish I had never bought it. Waste of $50.

[TrackZero]

If it dealt with any attempt at actual evolution, then sure. But it doesn't. Shouldn't be on the Time list. Then again, Time is usually horrible with their lists.

[SilentScreams]

If it dealt with any attempt at actual evolution, then sure. But it doesn't. Shouldn't be on the Time list. Then again, Time is usually horrible with their lists.

That's what killed the replay value for me actually.
Player controlled advancement is not evolution. If the evolution was out of my control and depended entirely on a million different little things, then I may have played it more just to find out what would happen the next time I played through.

[kropotkin]

This headline should read:

Spore Named One of 2008's Biggest Disappointments

Just sayin!

[c0m3d14n]

i played it till the stage after tribal, quit there after 5 minutes and uninstalled ;)

[MosBen]

Spore is a classic example of dissapointment due to mile high expectations. Everyone expected/hoped it would be the game to end all games, though to be fair these feelings weren't exactly brought back to reality by EA's hype machine. Still at the end of the day Spore is a very interesting first game in what is sure to be a long franchise. It's fun but not engrossing; pretty but not beautiful; interesting but not mind blowing. I'm sure I'll get my $50 out of it, which frankly doesn't take as much as it used to both because I earn more money than I did as a teenager and because the average game length has gotten much shorter since my gaming heyday.

[Vulture]

pretty cool to see a game make the list....

but it's sad to see it for all the wrong reasons. there's not much honestly, to the game to warrant such 'prestige,' the original idea would have been.

lots of hype for this game, i wonder if the past mega-mainstream hype translated into this current incarnation.:(

[Schnoogs]

This is probably the same group that gave Al Gore a prize for inventing the internet

[KingGorilla]

If it dealt with any attempt at actual evolution, then sure. But it doesn't. Shouldn't be on the Time list. Then again, Time is usually horrible with their lists.

So you want a pet game? A "game" that seeks to operate under the myth of Darwinian natural selection would be horrible. You are talking about an abyssmal chance of progression. Just speaking of human evolution, do you want to spend most of the time with your creature as the lowest rung on the foodchain, bitch to everything, starving, walking, etc.?

Spore was never meant to be that, it was designed as an Intelligent Designer sim.

[Johan]

An invention?

And one of the best of the entire year?

:shakes head:

I do find it quite funny that evolutionary proponents talk this game up. It's actually insidious in its "intelligent design" elements. It's potentially quite obfuscatory and incredibly confusing. That makes me laugh!

[Telefrog]

Spore was never meant to be that, it was designed as an Intelligent Designer sim.

If it really was an ID sim, I'd probably actually get a lot of enjoyment out of Spore. The problem is that it's not a sim at all. It's a unit editor attached to a few mediocre minigames. :(

[National Kato]

This is probably the same group that gave Al Gore a prize for inventing the internet

I know that's a humorous meme used whenever the Internet and Gore are in the same conversation, but when one of the true inventors of the Internet gives Gore credit (http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/vint-cerf-0508), I figure I'll listen to him.

Vinton 'Vint' Cerf (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf), 64, 'father of the Internet':
Al Gore had seen what happened with the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, which his father introduced as a military bill. It was very powerful. Housing went up, suburban boom happened, everybody became mobile. Al was attuned to the power of networking much more than any of his elective colleagues. His initiatives led directly to the commercialization of the Internet. So he really does deserve credit.

/off-topic

[Zrikz]

I really enjoyed it for a little bit, but it just tried to do too much and fails.. I haven't touched it since the weekend after I installed it unfortunately.

[Cyndair]

I was really tempted to pick up Spore when it released. I think the message is quite clear (at least on these forums anyway) that the game doesn't hold up in the long run through multiple play-throughs. I'm glad I held off with the day one purchase.

[Cit Phil Cit]

Did it sell?

".. it must be worthy of a reward, financial gain is paramount and inseparable from success."

[MosBen]

<resists urge to pick fight over perceived dismissals of evolutionary theory and the silly "Al Gore thinks he invented the internet" meme> I *must* work...I *must* work!

[Schnoogs]

I know that's a humorous meme used whenever the Internet and Gore are in the same conversation, but when one of the true inventors of the Internet gives Gore credit (http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/vint-cerf-0508), I figure I'll listen to him.

Which is funny because even Gore himself has clarified his original comment...I think I'll listen to him. :rolleyes:

[Lint of Death]

That mention in TIME magazine is ridiculous. I agree that it is one of the great inventions of the year, but not for the game's scope. Some of the things SPORE does from a technological standpoint amaze the Hell out of me. Storing all those details in a piddly .png IMAGE?! Procedural animation, music, landscapes... In these respects, the game is mindblowing.

[SilentScreams]

That mention in TIME magazine is ridiculous. I agree that it is one of the great inventions of the year, but not for the game's scope. Some of the things SPORE does from a technological standpoint amaze the Hell out of me. Storing all those details in a piddly .png IMAGE?! Procedural animation, music, landscapes... In these respects, the game is mindblowing.

Good point. It does a lot of impressive things for sure.
It's too easy to forget those in light of the things it did wrong.

[TKO]

I think Spore is an *amazing* game in many ways. It's also a very mediocre game in others. I was totally enthralled with it the first week or two I had it. I've hardly played it since. That was mostly because I'd reached the tribal stage, which feels like C&C or Warcraft LITE - a genre I despise.

The two creature phases though, I really like those .. and the creature-building that goes on during them, that is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in gaming to date. I can build a creature with any number of limbs, eyes, mouths, and whatever electrical, poisonous, horned, or decorative bits you care to imagine ..and it will walk, dance, emote ..and child-forms will be created too. That pretty f---ing amazing if you ask me.

For me, it's well worth the money. The entertainment I've derived from it is higher than many other AAA titles I've bought recently. Sure, the middle games could be better. But there are enough other great bits to this game that I really don't care.

[Mason]

That mention in TIME magazine is ridiculous. I agree that it is one of the great inventions of the year, but not for the game's scope. Some of the things SPORE does from a technological standpoint amaze the Hell out of me. Storing all those details in a piddly .png IMAGE?! Procedural animation, music, landscapes... In these respects, the game is mindblowing.
Given that those technical achievements were clearly prioritized over making Spore fun or interesting, perhaps it would've been better off without them.

[TKO]

Given that those technical achievements were clearly prioritized over making Spore fun or interesting, perhaps it would've been better off without them.
Yeah, clearly they were concentrating on making the perfect peanut-butter sandwich when they should have been coding the 'fun' parts. Damn you, yummy spread! Damn you! :D

Seems most of the hard-core sect have forgotten the type of game this game studio usually do. It's all very main-stream, much like The Sims. And people moan that it's not like Bioshock, WoW, and COD4, with proper realistically-modelled evolution. Hello! I was never going to be that.

You try and code five or six different games, with infinitely variable avatars and NPC's, all the while making sure the end of one game can be used for the beginning of the next. Will already admits that was the main limiting factor on the sub-games, and the middle games suffered as a result. I think this is pretty damn good for a first effort of this type. I'm curious how they can improve or expand on it in the expansions.

[KingGorilla]

Not so much main stream, but I take it few of these detractors ever played a Will Wright game. Sim City, the Sims: tools that had little fun, but gave a foundation which led to games being made.

[Telefrog]

Not so much main stream, but I take it few of these detractors ever played a Will Wright game. Sim City, the Sims: tools that had little fun, but gave a foundation which led to games being made.

I think most of us Spore detractors are complaining that it wasn't enough like previous Will Wright games. Spore neglects the "tools" for fun to instead deliver a set of mediocre games.