Topic: Maxis reacts on "science vs. cute" debate

[Pietoro]

Sometimes it seems that this forum is just kids.

*looks at all the above responses*
Wow, You know what? You're absolutely right.

Some of you guys need to grow up.

Sometimes I'm seriously tempted to submit certain threads here to FandomWank. =P

[DarkPlasma]

3. Sim City 4 gave you direct control over the terrain, and that game is far older. Both Sims also gave you detailed terrain editing, and these all came from Maxis themselves. Venture into other developers, and you'll find that direct terrain control is more than obtainable. Terrain editing is not some kind of magical, unobtainable technology. Besides, you can't expect the typical video game player to understand exactly what is and isn't possible before voicing their opinion. Figuring the technology out is the job of the developer.

Oh no, I didn't mean they wouldn't be able to program it. I meant that there's no way any computer would be able to deal with the ridiculous number of planets that could be terraformed in detail, both memory wise and loading time wise. Most other games are fine because they don't involve the player rapidly changing maps, and don't involve entire galaxies of maps.

[DaMuncha]

*I Read the first post and im just making a comment*

I've said this before

The game still fails. They made a great editor, and the whole game works well together. Its fun.. for at least 10 minutes, but then getings repedative and boring. The look doesnt bother me, I dont mind Cute, I dont mind science. Its whats IN the gameplay, or lack of, that ruins it for me. You create a few creatures, you create a few vehicles, then you play through to space and thats it. Theres nothing more to see.

Even some of the old nintendo games have side missions, and new possibilitys for you to explore.

[TDKenyon]

*I Read the first post and im just making a comment*

I've said this before

The game still fails. They made a great editor, and the whole game works well together. Its fun.. for at least 10 minutes, but then getings repedative and boring. The look doesnt bother me, I dont mind Cute, I dont mind science. Its whats IN the gameplay, or lack of, that ruins it for me. You create a few creatures, you create a few vehicles, then you play through to space and thats it. Theres nothing more to see.

Even some of the old nintendo games have side missions, and new possibilitys for you to explore.

It's about *iimaagiinaatiioon*, you silly goose! You're "supposed to" get into your races by giving them background and stuff, and play through the game by roleplaying how your creature would build and behave. If you treat it simply as a goal-driven game, you're doing it wrong . They didn't create that sort of game; yes, there are goals, but they are all means to and end, mostly to progress you through the various stages smoothly.

Also, I think you are deliberately simplifying Spore. Yes, the gameplay is rather shallow, but there was a ton of "information" to learn about how the game works and all that stuff. There are new possibilities to explore - 10 different archetypes for you to play as, a whole galaxy to explore, and the like. Like I said, if you approach Spore like a cut-and-dry get-to-the-end game, it's not going to be enjoyable. The same thing with the Sims or the Sims 2.

[Kenobro]

I whole-heartedly support TDKenyon's response to DaMuncha.  It's not about getting to the end of the game.

[Pietoro]

They need to put some actual roleplaying tools in the game then, just sayin'.

A game that expects you to pretend you can do things in it in order to be fun just missed the point of it's own existence.

[TDKenyon]

They need to put some actual roleplaying tools in the game then, just sayin'.

A game that expects you to pretend you can do things in it in order to be fun just missed the point of it's own existence.

I agree. I especially "love" how your description of a creation is so limited. There definitely need to be roleplaying tools.

[Grangan]

My opinion?  Remove all text limits except for tag limits.
Those who want to write an encyclopedia britannica for each creature should be able to.  It'll all balance out- the guy who write an EB for his creatures probably won't make many of them.  The guy who writes a few sentences each?  He'll be the sort of guy who makes lots of them.
It would work best if you actually uploaded two seperate files- the content and description- that just happen to be tied to one another in the view.

Otherwise- or also- there should be a Sporepedia section for "Books", limitless text documents.  You could then link to them from a creature.

[Lippy]

3. Sim City 4 gave you direct control over the terrain, and that game is far older. Both Sims also gave you detailed terrain editing, and these all came from Maxis themselves. Venture into other developers, and you'll find that direct terrain control is more than obtainable. Terrain editing is not some kind of magical, unobtainable technology. Besides, you can't expect the typical video game player to understand exactly what is and isn't possible before voicing their opinion. Figuring the technology out is the job of the developer.

In Sim City 4 or the Sims, could you start zoomed in on the people, and then within 10 seconds zoom out, see the entire planet or neighborhood, and the zoom in to see another fully loaded city or lot?

Give an example of another game that allows for direct terrain control and fully loads the terrain in a matter of a few seconds, and stores the map in a matter of a few dozen kilobytes.  I'm sure they could give the user finer terrain controls, but with the system they have in place, it would cause those planets to load a lot slower as it goes through the scripts to generate the height and texture maps.  Yes, they can probably allow planets to use pre-generated height and texture maps, such as is done with the Solar system.   But again, there's the whole "delayed for 2 years and still released gutted and with bugs" argument.  They did figure out the technology.  They just didn't have time to fully implement it.

[DarkDragon]

Actually, there is a mod that allows for any terraforming tool to recharge in 0.5 seconds and it works pretty well on my computer, that together with the mod that allows for 5000+ terrain changes on each planet and you've got a pretty good terraforming system, it's just not enabled by default to save memory on slower computers.

[Snork]

I hope that when the Space Adventures Expansion pack comes out, the complaints will have died down.
_{Hey, A man can dream}

[Prathik]

*I Read the first post and im just making a comment*

I've said this before

The game still fails. They made a great editor, and the whole game works well together. Its fun.. for at least 10 minutes, but then getings repedative and boring. The look doesnt bother me, I dont mind Cute, I dont mind science. Its whats IN the gameplay, or lack of, that ruins it for me. You create a few creatures, you create a few vehicles, then you play through to space and thats it. Theres nothing more to see.

Even some of the old nintendo games have side missions, and new possibilitys for you to explore.

It's about *iimaagiinaatiioon*, you silly goose! You're "supposed to" get into your races by giving them background and stuff, and play through the game by roleplaying how your creature would build and behave. If you treat it simply as a goal-driven game, you're doing it wrong . They didn't create that sort of game; yes, there are goals, but they are all means to and end, mostly to progress you through the various stages smoothly.

Also, I think you are deliberately simplifying Spore. Yes, the gameplay is rather shallow, but there was a ton of "information" to learn about how the game works and all that stuff. There are new possibilities to explore - 10 different archetypes for you to play as, a whole galaxy to explore, and the like. Like I said, if you approach Spore like a cut-and-dry get-to-the-end game, it's not going to be enjoyable. The same thing with the Sims or the Sims 2.

First, you really cant compare Sims/Sims 2 with Spore.
Sims was open-ended.. literally, it just kept on going. Spore had STAGES, where you go through.

and secondly, use imagination to play a game? seriously? I'd rather read a book then.

[TDKenyon]

First, you really cant compare Sims/Sims 2 with Spore.
Sims was open-ended.. literally, it just kept on going. Spore had STAGES, where you go through.

That's quite a moot point. I was not comparing Sims gameplay to Spore gameplay. I was comparing how you treat the Sims to how you were "meant" to treat Spore. The Sims would quickly get boring if you didn't care about the behavior, relationships, and what-all of the Sims. It is the same thing with Spore. If you don't care about how your race is supposed to behave, interact with other races, or create buildings, it'll get pretty old.

and secondly, use imagination to play a game? seriously? I'd rather read a book then.

Then you must read a ton of books and play no video games. Just about every video game requires some imagination - whether it's accepting that there's a super-advanced alien race taking over our galaxy or accepting a little plumber can do triple jumps, backflips, and fly around because his hat has a couple Hermes wings. It's a matter of how you perceive the game that makes it fun.

[Hydromancerx]

And this is why I love Maxis. They actually ANSWER to our concerns.

Indeed.

[Snork]

It's nice to see that most of the Chris Hecker hate is pretty much gone now.