Topic: For Caryl: What we DO like about Spore

[Tr0n]

What do I like?  Let me count the ways!

1)  The graphics are bold and entertaining.  It offers an entirely new experience to the gritty side some of us expected.  I feel that it's not so much of a change as it is another paradigm.  It's kind of halfway between Gears of War and Viva Pinata.  I can dig it.

2)  The pure concept of the game is revolutionary.  The engine that Spore is built on may be the catalyst that brings back original ideas in gaming.

3)  The sound in the game is beautiful if one takes the time to listen to it.

4)  Space is darn near endless.  There is so much to explore (quantity-wise).

5)  The creators are genius and so easy to use, dare I say a bit too easy?  Looking at the Sporepedia offers an incredible amount of content... so much so that users may miss the true gems sifting through the millions of crap creations.

6)  The gameplay is accessible to darn near anyone.  My fiancee, who isn't bad with games, is a constant question asker.  She will look at a situation, turn around and ask "how do I do this?"  In Spore, no sooner does she do that, then the game shows her how to do a specific action.  It keeps her in the game, which is an honor unto itself... she normall has a 1ms attention span for things she doesn't understand.

7)  Badges and achievements... Bravo!  I have never really been and XBOX 360 achievement whore, but Spore turns me into one (for the PC of course).  It's freaking great hopping onto the galaxy save you've already been playing for 25 hours knowing that there's so much more to do.

 The range of machines that Spore will run on is admirable.  Especially with the techologies involved, Spore will run on many systems.  Not to mention the initially small storage footprint of the game.  It's only like 4 gigs in size, which is refreshing compared to the 9 gig behemoths coming out now.

That's all I can think of right now, but there's a lot to like here.  Notice that I tried to cull all of my ideas for improving the game, as they belong elsewhere.

[econundrum]

Some more things I like about spore.

1. The breadth of taking a species from Tidal pool creature to space.

2. All the cut scenes are funny

3. The planets all look cool

4. Terraforming Tools

5. The technical achievements of the procedural animation of the creatures and the possibilities it opens up.

6. The sense of scale in the space stage, no other space based game has got that sense of scale as well, except maybe Eve online.

Anyway as a final point for this thread, while there are a few things I think could have been done better in Spore, I still consider it a great game and well worth the money.

[Jaleho]

1. The cell phase is such a fluid and fun version of Pacman, it's no wonder this level alone has been released as its own game and remakles are successful indie games!

2. I love creature stage. Other than a couple bugs, I could play this for hours -- it seems so real how you can explore the entire world or deal with nearby species however you want!

3. I like how you can take a creature you built, then give it clothes and hear it talk -- the sense of evolution really comes to life between creature and tribal.

4. LOVE the cutscenes -- would like to see even more of them!

5. Vehicle editors -- I don't feel like I do them justice!

6. The ability to spread throughout the galaxy or methodically improve every planet and moon in your home starsystem one by one.

7. The content sharing. Specifically, finding planet after planet of Parkaboy's awesome creations.

[emmet]

I loved making a creature with one huge round eye, then seeing the babies do tumbles. It looked just like a big rolling ball of cute.

[CosmicD]

Yes, THis thread is great. I don't dislike anything in spore. And whenever I see the trolls DRM-phobics and hardcore schmardcore gamers complain, I see Jenna sitting in front of me explaining enthousiasticly how we can be more social in spore while those people are berating her achievements in the game (allong with all the maxis team who put their heart in this).

1. I like the panic attacks i have in cell phase because i can't swim fast enough and then escape barely after getting a new part and after I crushed another cell without knowing it and having some more dna points in the process but I didn't notice all this because i was busy swimming away from this big cell.
2. In creature: I like the way you feel involved with the progress you make with all these little cutscenes noting that your brain is increasing, or your nest is migrating
3. I like how you sometimes come acros a nest of creatures that are acting all bad ass, and when you switch to attack stance: they all run away barking or screaming across the hills
4. I like how you can start doing the social route as a carnivore, pointing your posse to attack but backing off yourself and eating the body
4. I like how tribe makes you feel when you start performing music for another tribe and they give you a 10. I feel kinda proud.
6. In civ, i like the way all your vehicles convert on a battle to convert other cities into your belief system.
7. In civ: I like the typical american gospel style being used to annoucne the new agreement between religious cities. It's funny and hilarious.
8. If all these things I summed up wasnt enough, it's just a whole new game , the terraforming of planets and try,iung to get the t score exactly in the center, hopping from one planet to another to gather a creature that's missing in the foodweb or creating silly useless creatures in the creator to fill the foodweb.
9. I like the feeling that I can - over a long period of time - destroy all these empires who respectlessly take over my colonies.
10. All those achievemetns you can earn and cutscenes you'll get when achieving something reminds me very much of the reason why people woul gave zelda , ocarina of time a perfect 10 because there's so much stuff going on and rewards being given while still spore gives you that idea that you arn't 100% in control.
11. I like those weird sounds every colony leader makes when you talk to them.
12: I love the DRM in spore !
12. I like that you can group creatures together in a sporecast and make any theme you like.
13. I like the way you get involved with your buddie's achievements and know what your creatures are doing in other people's games
14. I like the excitement you have from suddenly seeing yoru creature as epic, (or somebody else's)
15. I like that after playing spore for more than 50 hours: I havn't seen any possible combination of superpowers or social/nonsocial pathways yet.
16. I like discovering those artefacts on barren planets
17. I like terraforming an entire planet in chocolat seas and chocolate hills..
18. I like the possibility of coming acros another savegame planet in your game
19. I like the balance of punishment in spore. You can die easily sometimes but you're never really truely punished for it, you an always go on. In creature as in space stage.
(list will increase in time )

[Necrox]

Also this:

 

(Yeah, that was my MSN personal message for like a week from launch )

If you guys need more encouragement then read some Ctrl+Alt+Del. Tim certainly seems to be having fun with it too
A quote for Caryl:

Headline: More Spore
03:10 AM - Saturday, September 13, 2008 - by Tim

Gotta love that Sporepedia.

[Beatnuki]

Yaaaay! Happy threads are my favourite kind!

Alright then;

- The scope. There is NO other game that allows you to go from a blob in the pondscum of the universe into a being that can to an extent actually shape the universe around it. And this one actually works and has a genuine sense of connection from stage to stage.

- The Cell Phase is much deeper and more entertaining than I expected. From the Pikmin-esque squeaks of the big-eyed blobs to the way in which the slightest alteration of where you have your fins, flagella etc. can affect the way you turn and move. I also love how whenever I cross the threshold and grow a bit bigger, I can cackle and chase the big bullies that are now so small and pitiful! Until, of course, the next behemoth paddles into view and I squeal and squirm away. Oh! And I love the Proboscis part, there is truly great joy in slurping the fluids out of things. 

- At all levels, the creatures always have personality. If I come back to my nest and one of my kind is feeling, uh, 'friendly', they'll follow me around waving hopefully. I wish real life courtship worked like that, it'd simplify a lot! When your creature lays an egg, as the camera zooms in so you can design the next evolutionary step, the critter itself does a little happy dance. Bless! I also love it when creatures are scared of you and scamper away as you approach.

- The game is really, really big. Every time I pan out to the galaxy after a wormhole hop to get my bearings and see where I've ended up, I'm completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of it. Especially if my Home symbol is a little speck on the opposite spiral arm, faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar away.

- I can make anything I like, and even if I think it's awful someone else out there will enjoy it. That's an amazing accomplishment and really makes the creator-to-player dynamic more transparent and inclusive. Likewise;

- There's always something awesome I haven't discovered yet. Every time I'm in space and I get a radio signal from a fresh, new star, I'm always almost at the edge of my seat as I zoom in and open communications to see what they look like.

- Secret achievements. I'm going to try everything until I unlock one!

- I can take a bunch of big-nosed stripey space-weasels and have them act like big-nosed stripey space-weasels should, and the game will cater to my playstyle. Space empires will grin as I line their pockets with the finest spices to keep them happy, and I can knock them the odd artifact or two (usually lifted from their own planet or a planet in their system) for a hearty cash bonus. I can dash down to Civ-level species on rare-spice planets and steal their blue or purple powders to sell to unknowing customers a few systems away, and there's nothing the primitive fools can do about it! I can (and have) go wormhole-hopping, get totally lost and spend the rest of the afternoon making my way back to my home system in a grandiose Voyager/Farscape-like adventure. And, in a nice little touch, when I bring my starship down to hover over one of my colonies, crowds of Vemnix gather around and cheer enthusiastically that the great Ex Nihilo, Flagship Of The Collective has come to visit. 

- That 8-bit song some of the space empires play. It's so awesome!

- Spore's potentially the best crossover game ever, because you can have entire worlds populated by Pikmin and Yoshis and Goombas and Lemmings and Norns and anything else you can think of, and see how they interact.

- Terraforming is great, both as a weapon and as a bringer of life. I love seeding my newly habitable worlds with the creatures made by my friends at Gamingsteve. 

- Spore is actually very very funny. From the awkward silence after one of the advancing-to-Civ tribal critters suggests that their brave new world have an abundance of pie, to the fact that the other day I was hovering over an enemy tribe plotting my attack and was distracted with chuckling when one of the creatures, while his friends all stood idle with spears and grunted and the like, began dancing around in a circle, eyes merrily closed while he made, "Mmmm-ah-mmm-ah-mmmmah!!!" noises. For ages. For no reason other than he could!

- I love when you enter a star system and one of the planets goes "wooo-wheee-wooo-wheee-wheee-whee-wheee-wooo" and has little yellow lines coming off it. The scent of treasure! It's the same kind of enticing feeling you get while you haul up a treasure chest in Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, find an unguarded chest full of loot in World of Warcraft, or accidentally discover a hidden block with Mario's head. And just to cap it off, when you beam the relic aboard it's got a funny little description. Will's Old Sword FTW!

- Even when I roll my eyes at the prospect of invading space pirates, when I zoom down to the planet and engage my weaponry I still have fun as I chase them around the globe and scream "EAT ELECTRIC VENGEANCE, SCUM OF THE MULTIVERSE!!!" at my monitor as I shoot them down. But that's just me.

- According to Spore, the centre of the Galaxy and the mysteries of life itself are guarded by small cybernetic goblin-monkeys. Never in any other game have I been so afraid of small cybernetic goblin-monkeys.

- Wormhole hopping. It's just the way to travel!

- My computer's so old it actually runs off a coal furnace in a secret basement manned by a hideous waif named Igor, but I can still run Spore really well, much more effectively than The Sims 2 in fact, and it still looks good. Rarely do I have to call down, "MORE COAL, IGOR!!!" to get the framerate back up to speed.

[SporeKevin]

My list:

1) I love that they released it in dual Win/Mac format, so I have a choice of OS environment.   I bought an iMac a year ago and was playing with bootcamp and the Win side of it until a few months back when my main Windows PC dropped dead, so the Mac became main system for games as well for the time being.  Now I finally have a contemporary large game I can play on a Mac without apparent OS specific issues.  Special grats to the OSX porting team for that!

2) I love the way they added gameplay elements to the mini-games.  They were working on the stages for years, and took an additional year to polish the stages and make more of a game out of it.   I think it shows very well as a result, and makes it easier to get others to try out.  Spore should spread... *chants

3) Related to above, I love how there are aspects of Sims games in Spore, with the way the creatures are cute and all, but that they added stronger gameplay.   But not so much gameplay that one gets stuck with a Civ-style dozen hour game.   I'd rather get suckered into playing 5-7 hours to get a new species up to space stage, and go make another species, or go on with one for many more hours as I get frequent gratification from badges and achievements in the space stage.

4) I love the philosophies and related attributes.   Without that, there would be a whole lot less reason, for game purposes, to re-run new species to the space stage.   It reminds me of MMO style gameplay, where I'm willing to put (many) hours into playing a new character just to see a new combo of archetypes, even though the basic game was seen weeks or months before.

5) I love that they actually wrapped it up and released a game on (their) schedule.   Or as some would put it (coming from a test group perspective), "pooped it out".  : )   No vaporware here, luckily.

6) and what everyone above said.  

Definitely a unique game and experience and a stand-out achievement for the gaming software industry.

*applauds*

[I Have Corn]

Aaaww... Poor Caryl

I know I've only ever posted once or twice on these forums... due to me being cyber shy

But when I read the fact that so many people are complaining and bitching over SPORE... I was surprised.

I've been following SPORE since early GDC05 days and I know of all the content that was cut, but yknow, it happens, but I still believe that its become one of, if not the best game ever, I love this game, even with all the bad publicity, I still believe it will go down in gaming history as one of the best games ever.

There is next to nothing I dislike about this game... it has pure awesomage seeping from its spores (see what I did there )

I dunno if I can make a list of all the things I liked about this game, otherwise it'll go on forever, so I'll just say a few of my favourites.

-I LOVE the editors, especially the spaceship one, I just love everything bout it aswell
-The feel of adventure when you explore the galaxy
-The feeling of being able to evolve your little cell into a space faring warlord
-The tagline of "Universe in a Box", I love the concept of it
-The whole thing with sharing is pure awesome aswell.

I THANKYOU Maxis for making an incredibally awesome game, like seriousally, thankyou, I still get a couple hours of gameplay our fo it a day, and I've had it since launch, Sep 5th.

Oh yeah, btw, I did buy the real thing and didn't pirate it , Maxis deserve every penny I speant on this game, I hope it goes towards improving SPORE and making it even more awesome than it already is , I believe the reviews were low due to what it could of been, not what it is...

P.S. I'm not a fanboy... no seriousally... I'm not, I'm just feel Maxis did a great job on a brilliant game.

[Butterfly Knight]

95% of what people already said.

That, and the addition of grabbers in Spaceship creator.

I mean come on, have you ever seen a Space Anime with a spaceship that doesnt have cool extending grabbers?

[Fumanchu]

I love that it's a little too complex for my 9-year-old nephew, whom I gave the game to after less than a week of playing. I'm sure he and his younger brother will get oodles of fun out of it.

[Hydromancerx]

There are so many things i like about Spore however here are my top 5 (in no particular order).

1. References to other sc-ifi universes be it Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dune, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey, even the little creature to tribal part where he mentioned a pie reminded me of Bone where the rat creatures mention a quiche. Yes i know there is at least one Bone fan there since i saw a giant Kingdok figurine (i have it too) there at Maxis.

2. The editors! I both love it and hate them. I love that it can make things so much easier then Maya or 3D Studio Max but I do not like the limitations and lack of parts. I think this has the most potential in the game since adding more "rig-blocks" is a very doable thing. Thus i have great hope for it and have been able to make alot of things with it by using parts not normally made for that purpose.

3. I really like Sporepedia. Sure it has it bugs but man being able to share player made content without having to make them download custom content on their own or even making a really hard to construct hack or made is pure genius! As someone who has modded fro other games like the Sims, Sim City 4 and Neverwinter Nights i would like to say thank you! Also the file size! NWN hacks use to be HUGE! These even when you have a bagillion creatures, buildings and vehicles are still frick'n small! I really never through a game could do that and it was just going to get worse with file sizes for hacks in games. Hopefully Spore will inspire this change this in other games across the gaming world.

4. The game itself! I love everything that Spore is before it was Spore. All the Maxis sandbox games i loved and now they are all in one! While some stages are a bit shallower than i would like, I really like the fact they are all connected and share similar ideas throughout the game no matter what the phase. I am also excited on where Maxis will take the game in future expansions or other venues. In short Spore has become more like a way of thinking of the universe more than just a game. And hopefully it will inspire the next generation to love art and science as much as i do.

5. Feedback from Maxis. I mean what other video game actually listens to the community on a regular basis? For as much as i know that people hate EA, I have not heard anyone bashing the people at Maxis. You guys rock and really are passionate about your games. You are also very nice to meet in person and I thank you all for still making awesome games in a time where it seems like there are just remakes and dumbed down games.

[Plank of Wood]

The humour is brilliant, keep an eye out for the jokes and gags, there are some realy good one out there. My favorite is tied between a race whowm when attacked said "HELP! They don't get our sense of humour!" and domesticating a creature in the Tribal Stage.

[Bonemouse]

What I like about Spore is: My Dindu Creature.

- I like how they how evolved from tiny slimy-amphibian-chicken-things to awesome-looking-red-ostrich-things. (And seeing it in Sporepedia.)

- I like how their evolution was both influenced by my creative desires and the gameplay of the creature phase.

- I like how they survived the tribal phase by performing in 10 man band following a fireworks show.

- I like how they convinced their neighbour, a military civ, to help spread the "good word" by way of steampunk-inspired tanks and planes.

- And I like how that all made sense to me, in a cohesive narrative.

[Qwwe]

- I enjoy the community it has brought me to (this has been three years of non-stop party!)

-I love the editors, specifically vehicle and buildings - I feel like I can make almost anything in there

- I enjoy the Grox....lovely little buggers...

- The achievements are really fun, some of them just make me laugh when I accidentally unlock them, they've also given me side goals to keep playing

-I enjoy the great difference from hard to easy mode, sometimes its nice just to be able to complete the game in 2 hours (on easy) and see what you can do, while playing on hard feels like a great accomplishment when you finally get it done

-I like the eating on the cell stage, theres just something funny about being an omnivore and being able to eat everything in your path

- The zoom out on the cell stage is really cool

- I like watching the epics in the creature stage

- The time line thing is just awesome, I looked back on it today from my space-stage planet and it almost brought a tear to my eye in how far I've come

- The RTS style of the tribal is pretty fun, I like the three different types of foods, also, whats more fun than using the fireworks to completely stop an opposing tribe from killing you, just so you can decimate their hut

- The giant, singing, holographic, religious, war mongeringness of religion in civ stage is just really really funny. When I first used their finishing ability to conquer the rest of the planet, I burst out laughing from seeing a giant blob like one eyed creature preaching to the world - it was really great

- The vast expanse of the space stage is awesome. I really enjoy the badges, they make me feel like I'm accomplishing many things when I get one, I also enjoy unlocking things by getting them.

-I really like the archetype system in place, where depending on what you did in the past defines who you are in the future.

-All the different collectibles with their own lore is really fun to read, some of them  I didn't want to sell because they were just that amazing!

-The terra-forming system is nice, I'm finally starting to make some money so its becoming easier, but I enjoy picking out my own plants and animals for my planets, also... sometimes getting a tree to orbit your planet is just to awesome not to do it!

-The little cut-scenes where your ship goes beep beep, look at that! always gets me excited, I never know what I'll find!