Creatures Online Examined: Part Two
Make sure to view Part One to find the actual Creatures Online video! This is the second part in a series of posts about the various features shown in the recent gameplay video. Jumping right in, the Owner’s Kit in Creatures Online appears to include the basic information that any player would find useful. It is nice to see that a pregnancy will be listed with this information, but that could mean that a Breeder’s Kit has been completely removed from the game. The section about the Creature’s Genes ties in with the collectible nature of Norns that I’ll showcase in another post. One interesting addition is that the original owner is shown on this screen. Although not completely confirmed yet, this seems to indicate that Norns can be shared between players. The only drawback is that a Norn’s name looks to be locked in… Better hope that no one uses terrible naming conventions!
The World Monitor shows that there are four areas within Creatures Online. These seem to be similar to the metarooms that many Creatures players are used to, with the addition of population limits. This is another aspect that would make a wolfling run impossible. Sometimes I start with at least six Norns just to see which genes get passed down and whatnot. One benefit to this overview is being able to see which Norns are in each area. Not too bad!
A notification system is shown in the gameplay video. One of its main features appears to be a way to alert a player about a Norn in trouble. In this case, a Norn was starving. This actually happened quite a lot, making one question just how independent these Norns could be, or whether food was too scarce.
I nearly turned off the video and completely wrote off Creatures Online at this point. Why? All Creatures players know about the punishment system: You either type “no” or spank a Norn for not behaving. I’ve never been a fan of the spanking, but one spank usually gets across a point! Punishment in this game isn’t a gentle spank… It’s a violent slap across the face. The hand literally wound up to smack this starving Norn (from the above notification) right across the face. The previous Creatures games did feature violence, including fatal wounds from Grendels and too much punishment. Yet the simple use of one spank or slap was understood to be an acceptable form of teaching. I can’t even fathom smacking a Norn across the face in this manner. I’m not someone who’s offended by violence, either, and this made me gasp out loud. This seems inappropriate for older players, and I don’t understand how this will appeal to parents looking for a game for younger players.
Creatures Online did away with the lifts from the previous Creatures games, which seemed like a great idea. No more “eat elevator” syndrome! The replacement is a ladder system that Norns can climb up or down on. Only this Norn started climbing and kept climbing… And climbing… And climbing. Maybe he was just being very careful? It took him something like a full minute of real time to make it to the bottom of this one! When your life span is only a matter of hours, that amount of time could be a killer! And one wonders what might happen if a Norn passes away while climbing on a ladder… Hopefully gravity is kind to the fallen ones in Creatures Online!
We also got a glimpse of the Achievements screen in Creatures Online. As expected, it includes sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter. Hopefully there is no requirement to link these up when using the game. To be honest, having achievements is a neat idea for this type of game. There are all sorts of goals to work towards, although many seem like they could take awhile. Playing with 250 toys could certainly take up a lot of time! The rewards add another uncomfortable reminder about all of the currencies within the game, though.
A third part of this examination of Creatures Online will be out again soon! Feel free to comment with any agreements or disagreements: I’m always happy to discuss anything related to this game! No release date yet, though.
Images Credited to Fishing Cactus
I was sure that we’d asked FC to alter the slap location, although the head is technically the easiest target on these norns.
I thought that this was addressed long ago, too. I agree that the head is the easiest target when zoomed in, yet I feel like the animation could be more like a little tap to the top of the head… The poor Norn looked like he was going to fall over from the force of the slap! Maybe this is something that still can be changed, but it’s probably one of the things I dislike the most about Creatures Online at this time.
I agree that the slap is too violent. Targeting the head is fine, but a small bop or a tap on the nose fits much better than full force slapping across the face. What I find slightly more ominous than the force of the slap is what it indicates the developers feel about the norns. They seem about as loved and respected as virtual goldfish. I can’t imagine being the guy whose job is to animate furry creatures getting slapped full force across the face… (Even if it did absolutely have to be a slap for some reason, why animate the norn’s head all but flying off? Why not a small flinch to indicate that abusive levels of force were not being used?)
Well said! Everyone has varying degrees of attachment to Norns, and there’s always been an active discussion about the abuse of Norns from too much slapping. Yet I’ve never felt guilty about giving a C1 Norn a spank when he or she wasn’t listening: I still prefer positive reinforcement, but it’s not like a single slap makes me feel like I’m being mean. The Norns in the other games flinch and say “ouch!” enough for us to know that the message was received without too much pain. I really hope this is changed. It’s an odd bit of excessive violence in a game seemingly meant for younger audiences. Can you imagine slapping a pet or small child like this?!
Uh oh, it’s The AntiNorn Incident all over again! Hash-tag, “History Repeating”?
AntiNorn was long before my time, although the Creatures Wiki has some interesting information! I think the distinction here is that one slap in Creatures Online looks very violent and tortuous. The other games offered up physical punishment, though it was the excessive use of slapping that created the controversy. Maybe it’s a good thing we’re all still talking about protecting Norns: Artificial life certainly is a fascinating subject! I really hope that this animation is changed prior to release, though.
Hi Jessica, don’t forget that the Creatures Wiki has moved to a new address: https://creatures.wiki/
The new location has over 200 new articles.
The old site still shows at the top of Google searches. I just grabbed the first Wikia/Wiki link I found related to AntiNorn. Fixed my link above, though!
Thanks for that, Jessica. The more that people link to the new location, the more likely it is that the new location will appear on Google as a search result. :)
No problem! Google search algorithms can take some time to catch up, especially when there are two sites that it sees as similar ones. Hopefully all will settle out soon!