Wednesday 21 July 2010

a certain smell of drm

I am surprised - well, slightly so, that the reaction to the news of EA's new game idea is so negative. Because the idea sounds vaguely fun.

The description goes, basically, that you'll have creatures made with varied abilities using leftover technology from Spore. You'll then go to adventure on varying planets, and select which creatures from your stable you want to take down with you to fight on that planet. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable kind of strategy game, if not one that I'm actually good at myself. (Witness my utter failure to complete Revenant Wings)

The slashdot response seems to be a combination of:
  1. Fear of restrictive DRM making it unplayable, or at least too difficult to set up for the multiplayer that's supposed to be the draw
  2. Spore was a big letdown so even having the word Spore in the title makes them sneer
Of course, for me the biggest problem is that if it's a fullprice topname AAA 3d extravaganza it's just too much of a pain in the ass for me to deal with. I could see trying such a game if it were, y'know, 200MB, 2D, and $20. Also cute and amusing instead of DAAAAAAAAAAARK.

Am I becoming more of a casual gamer in my (*cough*) old age? Or am I just sick of games that are big for the sake of being big when I can't see how it will actually add to the experience?

(I'm not completely sure if you actually get to MAKE your own creatures in this or if you have to let them make them for you. In which case what's the point of sticking 'Spore' on it at all?)

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