Monday, September 08, 2008

The Sims was/is Dumb. Spore was/is Dumb.

did i not say this? months ago?

5 comments:

Don J. said...

I am not commenting on the content of the game. Never played it. The post is pointing out that there appears to be very invasive spyware/malware/digital-locks bundled with the game, nominally under the banner of preventing piracy.

I find it interesting that people that are pleased with the game itself are giving it bad reviews based only on the associated "Digital Rights Management."

Mr. Alex said...

I'm currently only in the 4th of Spore's 5 stages, and there are elements of Spore which are fantastic (the object editors are amazing), but at some point in development two things were stripped out of the game (or its spec) which shouldn't have been (ironically, these are the two things which make The Sims a very successful game):

1) Complexity of gameplay...

...and...

2) Player choice of gameplay/emergent gameplay.


I'll write more on this later when I'm not trying to juggle both a cat and cup of coffee at the same time, but, basically, if marketing and management still don't understand what made your flagship cash cow product (The Sims) a success after...

...10...

...fucking...

...years...

...and the Dev Team doesn't have the balls to tell them to kiss off when they try to ram their standard "race to the bottom" BS down your throat, you're in trouble, even if you're Will Wright.

Robert Martin said...

it all comes down to casual gaming vs. hardcore gaming. and right now casual gaming is coming out swinging ie. "the wii"

i think the wii is wii-tarded.

Mr. Alex said...

True, and I'd say it comes down to EA/Maxis (probably management & marketing) not understanding that The Sims, the flagship product they've sold 50 million+ copies of, is a "hardcore" game; It's a totally hardcore doll-house simulator.

Robert Martin said...

"It's a totally hardcore doll-house simulator." yah it is. well said