The Future of Gaming or Why is the ship designer so popular

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello all,

Following the development of GalCiv2 during the last 2 months, it is obvious that no one expected the ship designer to be so popular. Since release a good portion of the players' suggestions have aimed that little portion the game. Even going as far as wanting the designer to be accessible from out of a game just so you'd be able to design ships at your leisurely plaisure.

But thinking back, I remember a game called Lords of the Realm that had a castle designer which didn't make it in the sequel. Result: that absent castle designer was the number one complaint there's been on LOTRII.

But one man could have foreseen all of this: Will Wright. The Sim creator.
Will Wright is presently working on a game concept called "Spore" (the premise looks awesome) which presents user-created content as a fun solution to the ever-growing problem of art budgeting.
And Spore is going to take this user-created content much farther thant just a designer.

Check it out!
http://pc.ign.com/articles/595/595530p1.html
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/spore/news.html?sid=6143653&mode=news

I think that Stardock have hit the spot Wright is talking about
18,718 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
there both are going or r good games going to be interesting if spore gets released this yr which one is going to get pcgoty or goty
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't get it. The ship designer is a gimmicky distraction. I just want to design my ships as quickly as possible and get back to the game.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Its all about customization, some people love it and will go huge distances to mod games to a way they like. The ship designer is a customization tool that came with the game that anyone can use easily (if they want to). Also from what ive seen on the ship design thread it lets some people creative side come out.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
it lets some people creative side come out


I totally agree... but it goes deeper than that
when you play a game, you want to feel as if it really were you that was in it, that's part of the immersive feeling that's so important to games. So as Wright comments in a presentation: when I play GTA San Andreas, I prefer to have my "hero" wear a pink shirt and flower shorts even if he's damn ugly cause I'M THE ONE WHO CREATED IT, whereas the art designer could never choose such a getup

But Spore goes way beyond that. It's planned to automatically share the user-created content via online directly to solo games.
With GalCiv2, that would mean that you would play against AI that uses customized ships or races designed by some australian player. And every game would bring unexpected twists to the art content.

The logic being that, over time, SOME users might significantly contribute to the development of the art content in a game, which would let the game designers put more effort (and money) in the other aspects of the game.

Personnaly, I'd be interested to know for galciv2 the percentage of the game creation budget that went in art.

Here's a quote from J. Allard from the game division of Microsoft:
"If only 1 percent of our audience that plays Halo helped construct the world around Halo, it would be more human beings than work at Microsoft corporation," Allard said. "That's how much human energy we could harness in this medium."
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I love the ship designer... BUT

It is glichy, upgrading ships can be pain, and a lot of the hardpoints are off on the initial designs... But I have friends who bought this game just because they saw the ship designer in action.