Spore

[miffy495]

Whups. When I posted this the first time, I just searched and brought up a thread in which Spore was discussed. Turns out this was in the Networking section. My bad. Without further ado;

Just got it last night. I'm Miffy495, of course. I'm on the tribe stage now, quite happy with my creatures and trying to adapt myself to the ultra-simple RTS mechanics.

I actually thought the creature stage was pretty cool. I was primarily a carnivore and made about 7 species extinct before I decided to make some friends. I went up to these giant gorilla looking things and started befriending them when I huge dinosaur-ish whatchamacallit came out of nowhere and started eating them and attacking me. I legged it the hell out of there and made some different friends. Once I could have a party of myself and three others, it was really cool to take a group of incredibly varied creatures on a hunt with me. I ended up befriending about 8 species and then using them to hunt down and kill everything else on the map. Good times.

Oh, and so far the defining moment was when I was a simple little creature out trying to befriend a group of carnivorous bunnies and a flying saucer from someone else's game that looked a lot like the Starship Enterprise came in and abducted them all before I could make nice. Damn you, Kirk!

[Nick]

With my recent lack of employment, I've been playing loads of spore. I think it's a great little game!

Check out my page at http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Daffadowndilly

Here are some I'm most proud of

[thorn]

I quite liked Creature stage also, although the whole befriending/fighting thing got very repetitive after a while. I mean, if it's something you're going to have to do over and over and over and over and over again, surely game designers should put in a little bit of variety in sound effects and animation. Buhahoring!

Tribal stage was a bit shallow but short and Civ stage was mercifully simple once I built up enough cash.

Space stage... all I can say is never be rude to another race. If they ask for money, either give it or say that you don't have any. If you have insulted them, wipe them out as quickly as possible (because I was religious in Civ, I now have a tool that converts an entire planet in one shot, which is handy) or suck up to them to become friends again. That way, you don't have to constantly run back to your planets to stop them from being destroyed. Pirates you can get away with ignoring most of the time.

[Nachimir]

Mecha, fantastic

[JoannaDark]

wow. nick yours all look fantastic. mine look like they've been created by a spastic with a mr potato head.

[Roderick]

Is it particularly shallow of me to dislike Will Wright, now that I've heard he donated big money to McCain and the Republicans?

[miffy495]

Nah, my stomach did a bit of a cartwheel when I heard that as well. Still, he already has my money, so there's not much I can do about it.

[toblix]

It's interesting -- I had the same reaction, quickly re-evaluating all his games in light of this new information. Would I react similarly if learning the same about other people? Musicians, composers, writers, painters, directors, actors, bicycle repairmen... I remember throwing out all my Ender books after reading about OSC and his antics. I'm going to have to rethink that one. It's like I assumed I would inadvertently "catch" an artist's religious or political views by enjoying their work.

edit:

Thought experiment: The creator of Mario & Luigi 3 is flamboyantly pedophile. Would I still buy the game?

[toblix]

Yes I would.

[Scrobbs]

Next question: Is 3 minutes enough time to make a decision on supporting a paedophile? Or, am I missing something, and you gave a fast reply as part of the point to illustrate that M&L:3 is easily good enough to override moral objection to an author's proclivities.

[Nachimir]

I remember throwing out all my Ender books after reading about OSC and his antics.

What antics? I'm be interested to know.

[toblix]

I don't even remember. Something about him being a crazy Mormon or something.

[Scrobbs]

He seems like a bit of an all round prick, if this is the bloke you are talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card

[DanJW]

Card has written that an increase in crime in USA of the 1970s and 1980s "might well have been the result" of what he calls "the New Morality and the Pill" because they may have increased the number of babies born to "the people with poor impulse control" who are "most likely to be irresponsible parents."

I like him already.

Yeah I find it slightly unsettling to discover that Will Wright is a republican. He's such an open-minded, pro-science kind of guy. Maybe he's just hoping for some tax breaks?

[n0wak]

And freakonomics argues the complete opposite of that.

I think some of the vitriol against Card is summarized nicely in his book Empire.

[Scrobbs]

Quality book, freakonomics.

[DanJW]

I think some of the vitriol against Card is summarized nicely in his book Empire.

Hahah that was indeed hilariously bad. I'm not even offended, it was so ridiculous.

[Nachimir]

And freakonomics argues the complete opposite of that.

?

I think some of the vitriol against Card is summarized nicely in his book Empire.

Wow. Jesus. That's the kind of thing I've only seen "articulated" on forums before. When Xenocide went into faster than light travel that works because people inside the ship think really hard about it, I gave up on him. Seems like his slow descent into madness might have been worth keeping tabs on though.

[Scrobbs]

?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freakonomics

I think you might quite enjoy that book nachimir. It seems like it might be your sort of thing.

[Nachimir]

Ah, should have been clearer.

I read it a while back, but have forgotten a lot. I mostly just remember that the guy who studied drug dealing was incredibly naive, and the chapter on white/black sounding names had one interesting point (Shockingly, CVs with white sounding names got more interview offers from companies than identical CVs headed with black sounding names like DeShawn), but was otherwise weak.

Now I remember, it was the theory that Roe vs. Wade caused a fall in crime wasn't it?

I was shocked at Wright donating to McCain and Guiliani at first. It doesn't fit my concept of people who come from Montessori schools (or any alternative models like Steiner or Sudbury), but now I just think he's entitled to whatever he believes. I find it pretty normal to be disappointed in public figures, eventually, for something or other, so it doesn't really affect my reasons for fandom. I'm sure there's plenty I'd disagree with each and every one of my idols on.

Will Wright is still a clever man and an interesting speaker. If I were him I'd want my money back though

[miffy495]

Yeah, it's not anything against Wright himself. He can believe anything he wants for all I care. It's the idea that I'm indirectly funding McCain that bothers me.

[Jayel]

WHAT

I'm shocked. I could've never guessed that he's a republican, let alone donate a large sum of money to republican campaign. Come to think of it, his latest quote about how he'd rather produce a financially successful game than a critically acclaimed one didn't sit well with me.

[LOPcagney]

It's so ironic, too, because I literally bought the game Sunday after reading the piece on Penny Arcade and making up my mind that, DRM aside, my money was going towards a worthy cause (namely, the survival of computer gaming).

But I guess the joke's on him. McCain can have my money, but he can't have my vote.

[miffy495]

See, I only get to vote in Canada, so the total contribution I have now made to the US Presidential race is to give $50 to a man who gave McCain a ton of cash. Awesome.

[Scrobbs]

Probably less than $50 if that makes you feel any better? He would only be getting a slice of that retail.