Comments on: Will Wright On 25 Years Of Game-Making

By: Rich_P

Rich_P — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:39:35 +0000

It’s disappointing that “physics” meant “toppling crates and realistic dead bodies” for such a long time after Maxis basically did the physics of a whole planet way back in 1990.

Excellent, excellent observation. Dwarf Fortress strikes me the same way: Tarn Adams has simulated an entire fantasy world, factoring in weather and rock layers and mythology. It would be nice to see more developers focusing on these elaborate, amazing simulations than the next GOD RAY 5000-powered physics shooter, provided that the simulations have decent interfaces (one of DFs shortcomings)

If it was all Will Wright then I would not be interested in games.

To each their own I guess. SimCity 2000 is the reason why I started playing PC games.

By: terry

terry — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:31:00 +0000

DevelopersAreRegularPeopleNotGods: Try out Simant. A lot of the basic gameplay of Spore is in that game – also its a lot more fun.

By: qrter

qrter — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:04:27 +0000

Admittedly this made the game more fun for people less interested in Spore as an experiment. However, it did mean you couldn’t paint yourself into a corner – species go extinct all the time, so why shouldn’t yours if you had made bad or unlucky choices?

That’ll be the difference between a game and a toy, right there.

I’d much rather have had what you describe, but then I wasn’t looking for a toy, I wanted a game. Apparently.

By: piphil

piphil — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:51:10 +0000

If anything, Spore suffered greatly from the fact that it was more of a game than a toy. Every stage (perhaps minus the space stage, I didn’t get that far) had a very defined goal, with only minor, largely trivial, variations on how you achieved this.

This is very true. I never really felt I was evolving a single organism in the creature stage, as you could rip everything off and start again every time you mated. Admittedly this made the game more fun for people less interested in Spore as an experiment. However, it did mean you couldn’t paint yourself into a corner – species go extinct all the time, so why shouldn’t yours if you had made bad or unlucky choices?

By: Sinnerman

Sinnerman — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 11:40:40 +0000

I’m glad that people like Miyamoto and Meier exist. If it was all Will Wright then I would not be interested in games.

By: Greatdictator

Greatdictator — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 07:06:53 +0000

I always do enjoy these videos with Will Wright…for some reason they are very interesting

By: Matzerath

Matzerath — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:48:36 +0000

That picture looks like he’s reenacting the first time he got to feel-up a girlfriend.

By: Stromko

Stromko — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:18:28 +0000

I could go on for about ten-thousand words about the failings I see in Spore, but indeed that one paragraph manages to achieve about 90% of the meaning. My other complaint, or rather disappointment, would be that you can’t go back and forth between the stages, ever, it’s a completely linear experience.

You can mess around with the lower stages of life as a UFO, sure, but their simulation is no longer running, they’re just static features that can be changed, destroyed, or spread by various tools. I didn’t think it would be like that, going from that first GDC where it was announced to release day we were shown a lot of things that didn’t make it into the end game, and the game showed a dire lack of good design for that matter. Probably because Will Wright had very little to do with the implementation.

By: lumpi

lumpi — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 21:48:53 +0000

If anything, Spore suffered greatly from the fact that it was more of a game than a toy. Every stage (perhaps minus the space stage, I didn’t get that far) had a very defined goal, with only minor, largely trivial, variations on how you achieved this.

pwnd!

I have never seen a better explanation for what is wrong with Spore.

By: Sunjammer

Sunjammer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:02:20 +0000

He’s an excellent speaker.

By: mist

mist — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:56:32 +0000

The interviewer annoyed me.

But Will Wright certainly impressed me in this interview. (Relatively?) unprepared non-stop talking at high-speed, while actually making sense and managing to say some interesting stuff.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:46:20 +0000

I think Spore plays more like a potted history of various genres, at least in the first bit. Something like Sim Earth worked very well as a toy – and looking back on it, even if it wasn’t that great a game, Sim Earth was fantastically ambitious and well ahead of its time. It’s disappointing that “physics” meant “toppling crates and realistic dead bodies” for such a long time after Maxis basically did the physics of a whole planet way back in 1990.