Is there any innovation in gaming?

[DrSpike]

But what are the chances you can actually play - it not an online game right?

[Felch]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&q=spore

It looks pretty innovative

[Nostromo]

It looks pretty innovative

As a tech demo, its interesting. But, frankly, the game itself looks boring.

[Felch]

Can't please all the people all the time.

At least it's not Medal of Honor.

[Sava]

nostromo: I'll PM you my Steam account information and we can play CS some time if you want

we'll join opposite teams on a server or something

or 1vs1.. that is lame, but if you wanna do that to prove I am SUPREME PWNER OF YOU, okay

[Nostromo]

Can't please all the people all the time.

At least it's not Medal of Honor.

Well, like Wright pointed out himself, its sorta like Medal of Honor in one stage of the game, but without NAZIS. The way Wright describes his games, it sounds like this:

At the evolutionary stage 1, its like Pac Man

At stage 2, its sorta like a fps

At stage 3, its like a RTS

At stage 4, its like Simcity

At stage 5, its like Civ

And at stage 6, its like MOO

How can Spore do all of these types of games right, when its so hard doing one of them right?

I could end up being a great game, but I'm sceptical: I smell a new Sid Meier's Dinosaurs. IRC, Sid also had a big plan, with a trilogy of games, starting with Dinosaurs. We all know what happened to that...

[Nostromo]

nostromo: I'll PM you my Steam account information and we can play CS some time if you want

we'll join opposite teams on a server or something

or 1vs1.. that is lame, but if you wanna do that to prove I am SUPREME PWNER OF YOU, okay

Fortunately for you, I won't be playing on my PC for a long, long time. An unsolvable videocard problem. No, don't ask. Yadayada, I had to remove and sell it. But, like I said, its fortunate for you. You see, you're not ready to face me, not yet. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to sit for months. That's how hard I pwn

[Adagio]

Originally posted by nostromo
As a tech demo, its interesting. But, frankly, the game itself looks boring.

The way I see it, the engine itself is the main point of this game, while the game itself will be more like a toy. I doubt we'll see any real challenges in the game, but it's interesting to see what possibilities there are in this engine

An engine like this could (hopefully) be used in future games (parts of the engine anyway)

[DrSpike]

I don't wanna play engines I wanna play games.

[Felch]

The asynchronos multiplayer aspect reminds me of what was promised with GalCiv's multiverse. It's an interesting blend of ideas, that shows promise.

One thing to remember though is that innovation is always risky. It might suck, but it's not something I've seen before; hopefully the whole will be more than the sum of its parts.

[bipolarbear]

I'm not hardocre into games or anything. However I would say that Will Wright's work wit hSpore is pretty G*d D*mn innovative. I'm drolling over this vdieo.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&q=spore

[Adagio]

That video was posted a day earlier

[Felch]

http://www.manifestogames.com/

It's not off the ground yet, but in the one pagers it says that it's aiming for several niche game types, including 4X.

I think that if you want to find innovation, online distribution is the place to go. Just like how cable channels tend to have more daring television, and offer those shows more time to build audiences, online distribution will give a chance for more cult hits in the PC market.

[bipolarbear]

Originally posted by Adagio
That video was posted a day earlier

Silly me, reading less than half the thread before posting.

I think it still looks amazing, and hearing Will talk about the possibilities of procedural generation have really given me a perspective on game design that I never had before.

On a less innovative but still cool note. Tim Schafer's Psychonauts is a totally awesome title that did some different and funkycool things as far as subject matter, and, in some instance, game play.

I wish Double Fine would release another game!

[Adagio]

Originally posted by bipolarbear
I think it still looks amazing, and hearing Will talk about the possibilities of procedural generation have really given me a perspective on game design that I never had before.

And it's fun to hear him (after blowing up some planet) "There goes my reputation as a non-violent game developer"