The Game that will Own my Soul
I've known for quite a number of years now about the coming of this digital monolith, this pagan god of the gaming experience. I would like to say that I have prepared myself for its coming, but honestly a miniscule part of me hoped that it was all a pipe dream, that such a creature could not possibly exist.
But Spore has a release date now.
The concept of starting with a unicellular organism and taking it all the way through a civilization that reaches the FTL age and can colonize (or even conquer) other worlds fills my mind with so many possibilities that I can feel my brain about to explode... and I love every minute of it. Fully customizable evolution, so if I really want to create a race of hyper-inteligent scorpions with mandibles and hands I can do so.
And it won't just be me creating these imaginative creatures, or will it be some arbitrary AI programmed by the software development team. No, I will be downloading updates that contain races made by other players, complete with a playstyle based off of that player's actions to date, and will see them arise from the oceans of my world to compete with my own species for survival. Will we have a bloodthirsty battle for dominance over resources? Which one of us will develop higher mathematics first? How high-tech will we get before one of us blows the other off the face of the planet, if ever? The fact that I could potentially live on a world where two species co-evolve in harmony and work together is amazing, and all of it will be possible with Spore.
And unlike a MMORPG, if I do not play for weeks at a time there is no problem. My species does not die without my direction if I just quit out for a while.
The Sims series has nothing on this. My only fear is that, when it is released, I will be required to purchase computer of epic specifications to be able to handle everything the game will want me to experience.
It may well be a sacrifice I'm willing to make. ^_^
But Spore has a release date now.
The concept of starting with a unicellular organism and taking it all the way through a civilization that reaches the FTL age and can colonize (or even conquer) other worlds fills my mind with so many possibilities that I can feel my brain about to explode... and I love every minute of it. Fully customizable evolution, so if I really want to create a race of hyper-inteligent scorpions with mandibles and hands I can do so.
And it won't just be me creating these imaginative creatures, or will it be some arbitrary AI programmed by the software development team. No, I will be downloading updates that contain races made by other players, complete with a playstyle based off of that player's actions to date, and will see them arise from the oceans of my world to compete with my own species for survival. Will we have a bloodthirsty battle for dominance over resources? Which one of us will develop higher mathematics first? How high-tech will we get before one of us blows the other off the face of the planet, if ever? The fact that I could potentially live on a world where two species co-evolve in harmony and work together is amazing, and all of it will be possible with Spore.
And unlike a MMORPG, if I do not play for weeks at a time there is no problem. My species does not die without my direction if I just quit out for a while.
The Sims series has nothing on this. My only fear is that, when it is released, I will be required to purchase computer of epic specifications to be able to handle everything the game will want me to experience.
It may well be a sacrifice I'm willing to make. ^_^