Will Wright Laughing All The Way To The Bank

By Pete Haas: 2008-09-07 22:05:35

Will Wright Laughing All The Way To The Bank

The general consensus on Spore is that it's a 8 or 9, mainly because of a lack of depth in some of the stages of play. It says something about designer Will Wright's reputation when he's getting asked why the game isn't a 10. He's completely fine with the game not being perfect, though.

In an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Wright was asked whether the game had been dumbed down for a casual audience. Wright responded: "I'd say that's quite accurate. We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players. Spore has more depth than, let's say, The Sims did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for Sims 2, which was around 90, and something like Half-Life, which was 97, and we decided — quite a while back — that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of Sims 2 than the Metacritic and sales of Half-Life."

I'm not sure I agree with his example - Half-Life's not exactly some underselling, critical darling, nor is it all that complex - but I get his general point. While hardcore gamers aren't happy when a game feels streamlined and simplified for casuals, it's important to keep in mind that a game loses accessibility as it grows in complexity. Even if a game has a gentle learning curve, not all gamers want to spend much time learning a game in the first place.

I'm not sure if I'm impressed or stunned that he'd be this honest and admit that he'd rather have a great-selling, decent game than a decent-selling great game. Still, whether the lack of complexity in aspects of Spore's gameplay was a conscious design decision to court casual gamers or Wright's just making excuses for the game's flaws is up to the individual gamer to decide.

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RELATED: maxis, spore, will wright

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groogenheimer Says:
September 7th, 2008 at 23:53
well, there goes will wright's reputation. ea's too, for their crass drm. they deserve each other.

Xoaiwe Says:
September 9th, 2008 at 00:30
I actually feel a little cheated. I think this is mainly due to the promotions and demo's presented being far in excess of what the game delivered in terms of flexibility within cultural evolution (not just the beasties themselves)- with years of development after the hype began, they've taken away more features than they appear to have added (on the surface at least). I'm sure the technology behind the game is incredible, but I only get to see what is on the surface. Each game segment is just so limited/shallow in game scope – noting I have not explored the space age entirely, so this view may change).

Each game segment seemed far too simple in concept, especially if you took the easy option and went down the "violent path" - they wont make friends with me, well I'll just have to kill them; either way I get DNA points. I've just started the space stage, but have lost a lot of interest already. I'll give it another go, but after about 8 hours of such shallow play, I'm just not drawn back to it to give the game a second chance.

I don't think there is the replayability of say Sim's; in Spore, you can make a new creature, build a city (sort of), a vehicle for them to use (there is no variety beyond military, religious or economic) and you only get 1 type of boat, plane, or tank. The Cities you build seem to be purely cosmetic and have no noticeable purpose. This goes for most of the parts on your creatures too - fat, skinny, it does not seem to affect the game play – why pay DNA for 100 eyes when there is no noticeable benefit? I didn't notice any significant game play differences by changing any of the dimensional features. quite simply, the building of items/creatures just cant compare to the degree of flexibility of the house in Sims where the layout dictates just about everything giving a sense of “design” or “successs”.

It was the uninformed “dumbing down” which most players who are complaining seem to be upset with. A lot of players had certain expectations which were not met. Move complexity and depth of play would have been greatly appreciated.

If I had known what I know now, I would not have bought Spore. Whilst there is bound to be an audience who will love making creatures and watching them dance, I feel mislead.

Mark PC Says:
September 9th, 2008 at 04:12
It sounds like a game I'd really like. But I won't touch it because it's loaded with DRM. Sorry Mr. Wright, you lost yourself a buyer that way.

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Will Wright Laughing All The Way To The Bank

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