3 ms·

As dumb as it sounds, I think I didn’t like it because it was too “Will Wrightish”. Felt more like Sim City than The Sims. Sim City was too brainy, my 10 yr ol

As dumb as it sounds, I think I didn’t like it because it was too “Will Wrightish”. Felt more like Sim City than The Sims. Sim City was too brainy, my 10 yr old self didn’t want to do homework about power/water resources. The Sims was a complete sandbox. Spore wasn’t brainy, but I expected it to be more free form. The 4 stage concept kills any reply value because there’s not much left to be curious about. The creature creation was fun, but I don’t remember my models having any unique behavior. At least nowhere near like The Sims where I could make them pee and cry >:)

Mezzie 3y ago
> Sim City was too brainy, my 10 yr old self didn’t want to do homework about power/water resources. Aw, I always thought those were the best parts (my 4 year old self fucking loved the SimEarth manual - the one that went into detail about things like prokaryotes vs. eukaryotes - and there was a giant SC2K strategy book that was The Best) and didn't like Spore because it wasn't Will Wright enough. Which was probably the problem: It didn't know which audience it was going for. The Sims was great because you could go as deep as you wanted. Like in the Sims 2 I had about 200 unique genetic markers all arranged in a very complex inheritance system, but you didn't need to do that. Whereas with a lot of the Maxis games you did have to and that's what you've identified here that I never really thought about. Did you ever play any of the 90s Maxis Kids games? I'd be curious what you thought of them - especially something like Sim Town.
- pipeline_peak 3y ago
  I guess to be fair, I was never a big Maxis fan lol. I briefly played just about all of them, but not enough to form an opinion. I found Streets of Sims to be my favorite because I always loved Twisted Metal and the extension to Sim city maps was really cool. Sim copter felt like well…a Sim and I really didn’t know what that was when I was little, so they all just felt like boring intellectual games. I also touched Sim Towne, Sim Ant, and other weird stuff like that. Again, same feelings. It wasn’t until I touched Roller Coaster Tycoon and Red Alert 2 that I REALLY got into rts games more.

Mezzie 3y ago

> Sim City was too brainy, my 10 yr old self didn’t want to do homework about power/water resources. Aw, I always thought those were the best parts (my 4 year old self fucking loved the SimEarth manual - the one that went into detail about things like prokaryotes vs. eukaryotes - and there was a giant SC2K strategy book that was The Best) and didn't like Spore because it wasn't Will Wright enough. Which was probably the problem: It didn't know which audience it was going for. The Sims was great because you could go as deep as you wanted. Like in the Sims 2 I had about 200 unique genetic markers all arranged in a very complex inheritance system, but you didn't need to do that. Whereas with a lot of the Maxis games you did have to and that's what you've identified here that I never really thought about. Did you ever play any of the 90s Maxis Kids games? I'd be curious what you thought of them - especially something like Sim Town.

pipeline_peak 3y ago
I guess to be fair, I was never a big Maxis fan lol. I briefly played just about all of them, but not enough to form an opinion. I found Streets of Sims to be my favorite because I always loved Twisted Metal and the extension to Sim city maps was really cool. Sim copter felt like well…a Sim and I really didn’t know what that was when I was little, so they all just felt like boring intellectual games. I also touched Sim Towne, Sim Ant, and other weird stuff like that. Again, same feelings. It wasn’t until I touched Roller Coaster Tycoon and Red Alert 2 that I REALLY got into rts games more.