General Godus discussion

I always thought one was zen like the other delicious?

Because you are a god - a powerful entity created through the needs and desires of humans. Effectively a mental construct made physical.
You are *NOT* "the creator", the allpowerful entity that supposedly created everything, is omnipotent, omniscient and otherwise completely broken in every possible way.

I think thats one of the problems that exists with the concept of "godgame" - the different idea of what a "god" is.
Godus (and Black & White etc before it) have made clear that their approach to a god isn't an allpowerful entity. You are a god, one among many. And you grow with your people.
You didn't roll in fully powered up. You aren't the chosen snowflake that controls time and space.

And for some people that isn't "godly enough".

Indeed, not only do the concept of what a god is vary wildly, but there really is no clear definition of what a god game is or even consistency between titles defined as god games. There isn't even consistency in the Populous series. I think for me personally, the closest thing that really came to what I would consider a 'god game' was Spore. 

In principle spore is perhaps a great concept and perhaps a god game. I can certainly see why you'd argue it's a god game. In terms of the implementation the game sucks and was an epic failure. It is proof that it is better to do one thing well than five things poorly.

You guide and shape a species from the cellar level to the space age. You make real choices along the way which determine the races shape, society and physical attributes down the line. During the space age you basically shape entire planets and determine their species, civilisations etc. In presentation it is obviously not a god game, but replace the starship with a divine avatar and how are the actions you take not 'godly' (apart from the trading). It's not a perfect fit, but the player's agency within the game is the closest to a deity I've seen. The game wasn't perfect, but was critically acclaimed and very far from a disaster btw. The expansion....well that was a somewhat different story.

What would you consider a closer representation of your ideal of a god game?

I got the impression (as someone who never played Spore) that people expected the game to be all about the evolution side, and it would teach all those fundies once and for all how science works... but it actually turned out to be a more of a spokesperson for intelligent design. Calling it a god game is a really good shout though. Never really thought of it that way.

The real problem with representing the idea of a god in a game is that nobody can seem to agree on what a god is... Here are some other god game ideas:

- A game were you tweak a lot of controls in the main menu, then sit back and watch it all play out.
- A game were you choose from a list of arbitrary rules, then smite anyone you think might not be following them. (You start with just two people to watch, but in later stages that number will grow, so keep your eyes peeled!)
- A game were people will ask you for stuff and you just give it to them. Also you make them feel good when they are sad.
- A game were different tribes of people make up stuff about you. Reward the ones who are correct... or not. (but remember to be consistent, or the world will descend into chaos and warring.)

Oh wait.. I think I'm just being facetious :-)

Most god games tend to project a human understanding of a deity into a kind of Omnipotent Servant (but with some limitations to make the game play engaging). I'm not saying that's a bad thing... I don't really know what I'm saying.

I think I need a cup of tea.

Wow, that's some seriously heavy-handed pandering idol worship in that "article". All the backstory manages to read like is a long winded attempt to win over the reader by obfuscating the facts of the situation surrounding Godus; once again dismissing the Kickstarter Backers, unfairly and unjustly. He greatly oversells the "features" in the game, describing them as though they're meaningful and creative, or even fully functional. So much hogwash, it doesn't seem very genuine - or he's seriously disillusioned. You can tell something is amiss with this write-up, because he spends more time lauding PM's past accomplishments than he does describing the current situation, and avoids going into greater details about the game; it's a puff piece, not a review.

Certainly Godus could have been (and maybe still could be) all those things the author raves about, but it just isn't. Apparently he has experienced a different game than 90% of the (PC) players, because I don't get how he could find it to be such a fun and amazing game as he seems to describe. {seriously, for comparison, just look what LoG did with Armello in as much time; now available on Steam!}

Unlike him, I didn't back the game because it was a "Molyneux" project - because I honestly really didn't have much of an idea who he was - but rather that I was a fan of the predecessor games toted in the pitch, a pitch which also sounded far more amazing than the disjointed mess what was invariably delivered. I even ignored the hesitation I felt after researching Molyneux's infamous idiosyncrasies and ill-inducing over-promising, because of the nostalgia drummed up from bygone days that lingered in desire to recapture creatively exciting gamplay. I figured that maybe as an Indie developer - with a staff of talented professionals - he could break free of that stigma. I thought maybe corporate control had held him back (I know how it goes; creative ideas get squashed by corp politico and greed) - and perhaps he could finally make those amazing sounding things he often spoke of; only later did it turn out that it may have been the other way around all along. When Peter is left to his own devices he apparently can't keep focus. I don't know if it's because he's overbearingly arrogant and selfish, or because he has some kind of attention deficit disorder (I can forgive the latter). Despite whom Peter may be as an individual, as Professional he's certainly good at selling an idea and then doing the opposite, souring an already shaky reputation - and yet still manages to win the trust of people like this author.

I'm actually glad Peter's taken a backseat to Godus, and is "letting" his creative employees finally do what they were hired to do - though it does somewhat feel like a stalling tactic - what urks me about it is he's left an (albeit highly competent) skeleton crew with little more than a shaky core game foundation, an uncertain financial future, and the still present "mysterious approval system of doom". It's hard to see where anyone would put much faith in a guy that runs his business like PM has.

It's Saturday! Time for our bi-monthly dose of irony.