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New Spore Details, Possible Movie Deal

Posted by Soulskill on Thu Aug 14, 2008 01:05 PM
from the i-volunteer-to-write-the-dialogue dept.
Media Movies Entertainment Games
Eurogamer has a new hands-on analysis of Spore, as well as an interview with game designer Will Wright. He talks about the lengthy development cycle, the influence of religion (or lack thereof) on the game, and how movie-like stories are integrated into modern titles. Coincidentally, EA wants to license the television and movie rights for Spore as part of a new marketing campaign.
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  • How could you make a TV show or a Movie about a simulation game that is supposed to be limitless ?

    A movie with creatures made from the game ?

    • If it has Angelina Jolie in it scantily clad, it'll be a huge success no matter how crap the movie is.

       

      • If it has Angelina Jolie in it scantily clad, it'll be an awesome movie no matter how crap the rest of the movie is

        Fixed that for you

    • Re:TV Show or Movie ? (Score:5, Funny)

      by DGolden (17848) on Thursday August 14 2008, @01:14PM (#24602685) Homepage Journal

      Just call Uwe Boll, he'll know what to do!

      • Just call Uwe Boll, he'll know what to do!

        Could it be seppuku [wikipedia.org]? Please?

        Cheers

        • Just call Uwe Boll, he'll know what to do!

          Could it be seppuku [wikipedia.org]? Please?

          Cheers

          Now that is an Uwe Boll production I'd pay to see!

      • If there's something weird,
        in your movie idea,
        who you gonna call?

        Uwe Boll!

        If the script is shit,
        and it don't look good,
        who you gonna call?

        Uwe Boll!

        He ain't afraid of no sequels!
    • They'll probably just end up relabeling some Creationism "educational" movie :P
    • You're thinking too mainstream... I'll bet there's a relatively large niche for a Spore penis-monster movie in the Adult Entertainment market.

      • You're thinking too mainstream... I'll bet there's a relatively large niche for tentacle monster movies in the Japan.

    • How could you make a TV show or a Movie about a simulation game that is supposed to be limitless ?

      A movie with creatures made from the game ?

      Yeah... I think the clips of anthropomorphic genetalia on YouTube are opening a whole new market right now... who wouldn't pay to see that stuff in hi-def, with Spielberg special effects?

    • It would be a new genre called Spornography. It's primary audience would be young teenagers with a fondness for dirty jokes.
    • I'm sure that Uwe Boll can find a way.

    • Re:TV Show or Movie ? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by GleeBot (1301227) on Thursday August 14 2008, @03:36PM (#24605423)

      How could you make a TV show or a Movie about a simulation game that is supposed to be limitless ?

      A movie with creatures made from the game ?

      Actually... I just thought of an approach that would be kinda creative and fun.

      Instead of making a game set in the "Spore universe," whatever that is (and you're quite accurate in saying such a thing is ridiculous), what about a movie about the ideas that go behind a game like Spore?

      If Spore is ultimately about simulated evolution, perhaps you could make a movie about the simulation, rather than taking it at face value. A bunch of lab geeks playing god with their artificial world. Throw in some typical Hollywood business about the simulation becoming self-aware, and you've got an interesting idea. It'd be a movie about the relationship between a god and his/her creations, with the twist that the gods are just normal human beings.

      Alternately, you could just do a sort of Matrix-style thing. Any of the Sim franchises is probably ripe for it, although I don't know how far you could push the novelty of that.

      Of course, it could just be that EA's licensing the rights as a marketing move to sorta highlight that, "Hey, Spore is such a big franchise, we're even licensing the rights to it. Never mind that there's almost no chance we actually make a movie based on it, and even if we do, it'll probably be crap."

    • If the game is limitless, there are limitless opportunities for TV shows and movies.
      Right?

      Right?

    • Lots of penis creatures. Lots of them.

  • I'm sure EA would've sold the movie and TV rights for Tiger Woods by now, if only that were possible. How about Burnout? 2 hours of DJ Stryker being brutally beaten with a muffler.
  • I'm sure they are using the pitch "there are limitless possibilities" when referring to the script. If spore gets its own movie, the where is my SimCity movie?
  • A game that's not even out yet and we're already talking about a fucking MOVIE? Is this going to be the most ridiculously hyped game ever or what?
    • they hype comes from the fact that people are really looking forward to the game. I for one can't wait to go out and buy it once it hits the shelves. It just created such a buzz around it that they are simply trying to figure out ways to make money of it. Just because they want to sell the movie rights does not mean a movie will be made.

  • seriously, wtf?
    it's not going to include user created content is it?

  • Not buying it until they lose the DRM (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Da w00t (1789) * on Thursday August 14 2008, @01:32PM (#24603031) Homepage
    Or until there is a community based patch to remove the DRM. I tried finding a way to contact EA/Maxis, and all I could find was their support portal. Entirely FAQ based, and when you go the route of "None of these help me, let me send an e-mail to customer support" my message was received but obviously misunderstood. How can I and the rest of the community tell EA/Maxis that they're not going to purchase the game unless the draconian DRM is removed? They don't seem to want to hear my thoughts, and I'm already planning on voting with my wallet.
    • If you want to let EA, or any big company, that you disagree with their draconian DRM, please email /dev/null@ea.com.

    • Re:Not buying it until they lose the DRM (Score:5, Insightful)

      by the_humeister (922869) on Thursday August 14 2008, @02:33PM (#24604187)
      They won't listen to you because people keep buying the game. Unless you can get a significant chunk of the gaming population to do the same thing you are, they won't listen.

    • Or until there is a community based patch to remove the DRM.

      I tried finding a way to contact EA/Maxis, and all I could find was their support portal. Entirely FAQ based, and when you go the route of "None of these help me, let me send an e-mail to customer support" my message was received but obviously misunderstood.

      How can I and the rest of the community tell EA/Maxis that they're not going to purchase the game unless the draconian DRM is removed? They don't seem to want to hear my thoughts, and I'm already planning on voting with my wallet.

      The "community based patch," aka crack, for the game will no doubt be available within one day of the official game release. That may even be one day before the official release.

    • If you've been reading slashdot about the developers talking to pirates, you will know that you can just tell them you won't take the DRM (and not buy it) and just download the free cracked version which was much easier to install.

  • There are plenty of examples of species crossing over from plant-eating to meat-eating and vice versa. Consider the dolphin or the kinkajou... or ones stuck in the middle like humans...

  • Anything new on the install limits? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by arkhan_jg (618674) on Thursday August 14 2008, @01:40PM (#24603163)

    Has he said anything new about the securom DRM recently? Since it's supposedly going to have the same 3 install limit as mass effect, I cancelled my pre-order.

    I simply won't accept a game that so heavily restricts how many times I'm allowed to reinstall windows or upgrade my PC in the lifetime of the game before having to make an expensive phone call to plead with EA tech support to be allowed to continue playing, with no guarantee they'll say yes. Even for a game that looks as tasty as spore.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by paganizer (566360)

      Here is my plan.
      I'm buying the game.
      I'm downloading the pirate version, and putting it on my game PC. the one I buy, goes on my work PC.
      Every 2 to 3 days, I'm going to call EA and complain about the game making my emulators not work, restricting me from testing hardware out. Changing bios settings, messing with my firewall, whatever I can do to make the DRM shut me down.
      If they get enough phone calls, and it costs them enough money, they WILL kill the DRM with a Patch.
      Will Wright still gets money, and EA mi

      • I reinstall windows or upgrade every few months, recently. So if I'd bought spore 6 months ago, I'd now be out of installs with only 1 pc. What if I'd wanted to play on my laptop, or upgrade to vista? I'd plan on playing spore for years, I still dig out civilization or sim city or other old games years after I bought them. If they had the level of DRM of spore, I'd have been locked out long ago.

        The mass effect DRM was broken before the game was even in the shops in my country - it lasted literally hours, no

          • Who cares why he does it? Maybe he likes to run a clean sweep to determine that only what he wants is on his box. Maybe he's a paranoid schizophrenic who has voices that won't shut up until he reinstalls. Maybe he gets bored and likes struggling with a new install because it keeps his brain fresh. It doesn't matter why he does it, just that he does. And there's no reason for EA to lock him out just because he has to reinstall the game.

          • Motherboard changes. x-fi sound card, various nvidia chipsets and finally an intel motherboard, with different selections of 4GB DDR2 so the thing will boot reliably. The first one did, but that gigabyte piece of crap went bang, so I had to replace it. Repeatedly, trying to get a stable system with working sound under XP and vista that didn't decide that today it wasn't going to boot any more until I flashed the BIOS. All the rejected motherboards are fine under linux, so it's just crap nvidia windows drive

  • [With Spore] we didn't want to go too far down that path: we leave the whole creation of the universe question open.

    With spore, we know how the universe was created. It was created in Will Wright's office. Duh.

    • [With Spore] we didn't want to go too far down that path: we leave the whole creation of the universe question open.

      With spore, we know how the universe was created. It was created in Will Wright's office. Duh.

      Intelligent design for the win.

      • Intelligent design of a universe driven by natural selection!

        Is that a compromise, or what?

        Pyrrhic Compromise: a solution to a problem designed to piss off everyone involved.

          • I'm not sure I would describe people who hold that belief as creationists, unless they told me that's how they wanted me to do so (and I'd be sure to ask why). Nor would I expect that any technical or scientifically minded person who was willing to accept something like the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics would be prepared to rule it out.

            Also... I have made similar suggestions to various people who did identify themselves as creationists at various times over the past 36 years (the first time I

  • It's a well known fact that the movie "Star Wars" was based on the game "Space War".

  • Every time he announces his "Sport Report" I keep thinking he's talking about this game.

  • My god.. the spore creatures... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Channard (693317) on Thursday August 14 2008, @01:49PM (#24603319) Journal
    .. they're mutating. Into dong-faced monstrosities. Well, that's how it'd be if the movie was true to the game.

  • There is no connection between atheism and militancy. Those who conflate the two (like the interviewer) are engaged in little more than hate speech.

    Perhaps the interviewer was just trying to drive clicks by insulting a large number of people, or perhaps he really does hate atheists; but in any case, someone who tries to convince others of his own religions view should be called "outspoken" or "evangelical*." This use of the word "militant" is very very bad form by Eurogamer.

    *I would love to see the one of t

    • There is no connection between atheism and militancy. Those who conflate the two (like the interviewer) are engaged in little more than hate speech.

      Using the term "militant atheist" does not equate to conflating atheism and militancy, any more than using the term "Ford car" implies that all cars are made by Ford.

      It's true that the majority of atheists are nice tolerant folk who by and large couldn't care less whether other people choose to believe in Jesus, Buddha, or the Tooth Fairy if they want to. But n

  • Spore: Ticket Terms (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sethstorm (512897) * on Thursday August 14 2008, @02:12PM (#24603731) Homepage

    To view Spore: The Movie, you are required to:

    1) Register at the place where you bought your tickets for a key.
    2) Carry a phone with a data and text messaging plan.
    3) Periodically text message or visit a secured site during the movie to send the key.

    Failure to do 3) will result in ejection from the theater. You are completely responsible for being able to send the key at the required intervals. Each participant requires their own key regardless of age. Any sharing of keys or reverse engineering is a violation of the DMCA.

    • Re:Easy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Sockatume (732728) on Thursday August 14 2008, @01:18PM (#24602749) Homepage
      I don't think there was a time when Spore wasn't an EA product. Maxis was acquired by EA in 1997. So you were never "going to buy Spore before [they] got [their] grimy hands on it".
      • He does bring up a point though: if it's like any other icky EA games, then you can expect to see dozens of Spore expansion packs just to add new "creature parts". (Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold parts a la carte online, either. Won't that be lovely.)

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