Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[GrayFox]

Yikes, I just give up.... I almost totally disagree with your post. No hard feelings though. While I think you're being way too harsh, I can sorta understand why someone would feel that way. And.... We will find out for sure what the game's like in less than three months! 

[MaximumZero]

So you waking up eating breakfast to go to work to earn money to buy your food and clothes for work to then sleep and begin again isnt boring??

I quite like the Sims, thank you.

[Damiac]

Well.... of course the routine of real life is boring for most people.  If real life routine were exciting, there wouldn't be much need for an entertainment industry, would there?

[Greenbane]

It doesn't make much sense to justify games being boring because the necessary daily routine is boring.

You're blessed if you find the daily routine particularly fun, but most of us get our fun from entertainment. And a game which isn't fun has obviously failed at its primary purpose.

[Beggars` Sect]

Ability to mod is a boon to any game, but this one especially, methinks. Hope it will be an option.

Then, in case they botch it all up or just come out boring, modders could keep that galaxy-generating tech and run wild with some other gameplay ideas.

[Retropunch]

Ability to mod is a boon to any game, but this one especially, methinks. Hope it will be an option.

Then, in case they botch it all up or just come out boring, modders could keep that galaxy-generating tech and run wild with some other gameplay ideas.

Completely agree, although by it's very nature I imagine that it won't be possible. They'd really have to give access to their procedural algorithms for people to mod it properly, and I doubt they'd do that when it's basically they're one propitiatory thing.

[Neonivek]

Ability to mod is a boon to any game, but this one especially, methinks. Hope it will be an option.

Then, in case they botch it all up or just come out boring, modders could keep that galaxy-generating tech and run wild with some other gameplay ideas.

Completely agree, although by it's very nature I imagine that it won't be possible. They'd really have to give access to their procedural algorithms for people to mod it properly, and I doubt they'd do that when it's basically they're one propitiatory thing.

Well plus there are a lot of moddable games out there without any good mods.

Modality aren't some magic "insert goodness" button.

[IronTomato]

I'm super hopeful for this now that I know it exists, and I also know I'm probably going to love it, but on the other hand, the whole thing about hype and disappointment are still true. It looks pretty believable, but on the other hand I am still pretty suspicion.

[Shadowlord]

I was 99% sure Spore was gonna be the best game ever.

[puke]

+1

[IronTomato]

I was 99% sure Spore was gonna be the best game ever.

Yeah, but Spore's final release looked nothing like what had been seen up to that point, which is Aliens: Colonial Marines tier shittery. The only real difference is Spore ended up being tolerable*. I don't want to assume that's what's going to happen.

*I could be wrong about this, I didn't know anything about the development of either game

[Vector]

Well.... of course the routine of real life is boring for most people.  If real life routine were exciting, there wouldn't be much need for an entertainment industry, would there?

I think about this a lot.

My real life routine has been a little bit too exciting, but I still indulge in a lot of art. It's true that I get absolutely nothing out of games where the entire draw is explore X, kill Y, romance Z, but I think that games offer you an opportunity to practice with and reflect on what you're doing in reality.

Anyway, long story short, that's why I treat all games like puzzle games.


My (unprofessional) opinion is that the game is probably going to do well for a few months and then either be saved by the modding scene or fade quickly. If they provide good tools for iterative procedural generation, this could be a hell of a lot of fun. Otherwise, it's kind of the ultimate expression in the "just make it LARGER" paradigm. "Over X hours of gameplay! Y many weapons! So much stuff to collect (but our inventory management is horrible)!"

And if you like that, then I'm sure this will be very cool. I find it unlikely that they'd build up this much hype over a procedural generation system that was just going to be the same old shit. It would absolutely destroy the studio and everyone else involved in the design. The most likely thing is that they have the same old thing--but a bit different, and definitely bigger.

The real test is: Do people actually want "bigger" anymore?

I don't like the "art games" and walking simulators that seem to be the industry's response to this paradigm. I crave well-scaffolded challenges. But I don't think that "just explore " will necessarily keep turning out well, just like Starbound and Terraria showed us some limits to the spate of "just build" games.

There needs to be enough structure--"get to the mun" or whatever--to give people something to do other than sit around making numbers increase. So--what is there?

[GrayFox]

The (optional) "main objective" is to reach the center of the galaxy.

[Shadowlord]

... That was the optional main objective in Spore, too. Are there initiation Borg in the way?

[penguinofhonor]

I don't think most people are looking at this directly as an exploration of the limitations of procedural generation. At least for me, the issue is that the usual limitations of procedural generation are directly opposed to creating any sense of mystery, subtlety, or mystique, at least for more than a short time. Once you've explored enough to "see" the limits of the system, you reach a point where you technically don't know what's coming up, but nothing can surprise you.

With this game, my fear is that I'd get partway through the galaxy and everything would start feeling like new versions of the same things. That's not the wonder I want to get from a space exploration game. No matter how big it technically is at that point, it stops feeling big.

While I don't want this game specifically to push procedural generation, my experience with procedural generation has led me to believe it'll have to if it's going to live up to the hype.