Posted February 04, 2016
ZFR: ...These things are not mutually exclusive. I could have a manually designed procedurally generated level. I can create a complete level only instead of storing it in memory write a procedure that would create it. The user won't know the difference.
So it's rather not preloaded vs. generated content, but more the question about the influence of the randomness. If everything is predetermined one could as well say it's manually chosen (one way or the other). But if it relies on randomness then the outcome is somewhat different each time.
Basically by randomness you can redistribute the landscape / enemies / treasuries / minor quests in Skyrim but you cannot that easily convert Skyrim into a Witcher game for example. It's more like they vary a bit the overall theme.
Actually Spore is maybe really the best example for what procedurally content can also stand for in a positive way. It stands for complexity then, so that the game allows you to make more complex actions. That's something that is really good. I wish there were more games like Spore.