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[Cthulhu]

I almost think it's a joke site, because of this:

“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up.
22. “Never gonna let you down.”
23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.”
24. “Never gonna make you cry.”
25. “Never gonna say goodbye.”
26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”
27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

I may be misunderstanding it, I don't have time right now to read all the way through it.

[PTTG??]

I finally slogged through the first 4 stages. Meh all around. Then I got to space.
Well, finally, I thought. I get to really PLAY the game. Those first 4 where just a warm-up or something to get you into the game and build up a neat being. Now, I get to play the Sandbox mode!
Was I wrong! You have to unlock all the tools. What's that about? I worked hard to get to this stage, now let me customize my planet! The game went, in my eyes, from an average game to a poor game. And now I have a rootkit too kill.

[RedWick]

There is a story-line in the game, but I don't think it triggers until you reach the space stage (though I wouldn't be surprised if there might be more to be seen in the other modes if you go poking around; the sim games are notorious for those kinds of easter eggs).  I haven't played enough of the space exploration game to have a good idea of what's going on, but there's something about an unknown alien attacking planets.

[Okenido]

The "storyline" revolves around the center of the universe, and a species that according to Sporepedia doesn't exist.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

I know, they're humans!  And in the next expansion, you'll be able to play them!   

[Okenido]

...............

They're called the Grox...

[penguinofhonor]

Has anyone actually seen or played this storyline?

[Mr. Boh]

I almost think it's a joke site, because of this:

“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up.
22. “Never gonna let you down.”
23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.”
24. “Never gonna make you cry.”
25. “Never gonna say goodbye.”
26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”
27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

I may be misunderstanding it, I don't have time right now to read all the way through it.

Yeah, definitely a joke. Poe's Law is:

Without a blatant display of humour, it is impossible to tell the difference between religious Fundamentalism and a parody thereof.

Plus of course, the rickroll!

[Richards]

I was interested in Spore for a while and I finally played it a week ago for a day or two. I was expecting this game to get mid-80 rating from users so I kept checking back at Metacritic to see how it was doing in scores. Over the course of three days the score that began at 8.3 dropped to 7.8, then to 6.8, and kept going down as the votes came in. It's resting at 5.5 at the moment. Check the user reviews and you find some truthful reviews about what this game is. Here's one I thought was interesting written by Milo T.

This review is made by independent customer and lets you know whats going on if you are wondering about buying the game. First of all the game itself is different product that was promised. Years back the demos showed totally different game with rich in content and real challenge. That all has been changed now and there is absolutely no fun left in game. Q: What did they change and why? A: They took out vital gameplay aspects of the game so they can release them later on in multiple expansion packs. This ensures your money will be leeched years to come, not just one time theft. Even the official Spore trailer shows content that does not exist in the current game! The content was changed to appeal more "casual" gamer base thus giving more profit and less quality in return. This fact has been admitted by the developers themselves. Think of it as the Sims game without being able to socialize with other sims before buying expansion pack for it. Q: What is this securom DRM and how it works? A: Securom is a digital rights manager spyware that installs to your computer when you install EA products. It bypasses your normal administrator priviledges and is very hard if impossible to remove from your system. It gathers information about your computer activity and sends it forward, in most countries, that is considered spying which not even police is allowed to do. It can cause software conflicts, unstability in windows enviroment and can slow your PC down. The most important thing is that it limits your installations to 3. So you are not buying the game, you are renting the game for 3 installs. After 3 istalls, you are required to call by phone to have it reactivated. These calls are not toll free, to ensure you are paying for the game even after the purchase. It is not certain aswell that you can get your game reactivated. There has been cases in EA's earlier game Mass Effect which uses the same DRM that people have been unable to get the game reactivated because they are thought to be pirates. Yes, you have to be able to ensure the staff on the phone that you have not pirated the game you purchased. In some countries, the phone number provided in the manual does not even exist! There is no notification of DRM spyware in the box so people cannot be informed about it before they make their purchase. Q: Is the game worth buying? Is it fun to play? A: NO and NO. The game is so simple and uninspiring only children find it fun and challenging. But in later stages even them can find the game to be very frustrating and unrewarding. There is no problem solving, no strategy or any thrill whatsoever. During the course of your creatures journey, you are reduced to pressing one to four buttons or doing simple tasks repeatedly to proceed. Some people have referred the game as a tool designed to help autistic children. The best part of the game is the editors that let you create various creatures, buildings and vehicles. Combined with fascinating ambient background music and well made graphics, the potential is for Spore to be great game is there. Sadly not any of that potential reached the final product. Many customers feel their money was cheated and are now struggling to return their opened game box back to the store. Some customers refuse to have their computer infected with spyware only to play a game they purchased. Some cant believe their game stopped working after 3 installs and on the phone they were being treated as pirates. The promises made before launch and the product delivered just do not match up. This game is a one star game with a word GREED all over it.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/spore

[Sean Mirrsen]

That's a...  mighty fine gigantic wall of text you've got there.

[MeshGearFox]

Years back the demos showed totally different game with rich in content and real challenge.

No, seriously. Same damn game. I know I said earlier that they switched the emphasis to content creation -- which is true, although that's probably less because they realized that content creation == more sales with casual games and more because they realized their base game wasn't that hot and they needed to start focusing elsewhere because it was already something like five years into the development process at that point and they couldn't entirely change it -- but what the gameplay is now doesn't appear any different from what was shown years ago in the demo reels.

Again, though. I haven't played it. Just going from reviews and modern demos v. old demos. But as I said, going from the reviews, Spore still IS exactly what they promised, and this is more or less why I never knew why people were making such a fuss about the thing anyway. I've been saying for years that it was just going to be a bunch of lite-version RTSes queasily strung together, and apparently, that's exactly what it is.

[Sean Mirrsen]

"A bunch of lite-version RTSes" were supposed to be strung together with content creation. The frustrating bit is that content creation doesn't matter in these RTSes. A shoebox with a single big cannon and one wheel is just as good in combat as an exquisitely designed warmachine of death. The mechanics always stay the same, and the design only alters the looks, which have ABSOLUTELY no meaning at the scale these RTSes take place.

[Cthulhu]

That fails.  There was an RTS from like 1997 that had full vehicle customization that mattered, and it was great.  It's freeware now, I don't remember the name, someone help me out here.  It was made by Eidos.  That's all I remember.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Warzone 2100?

[Rhodan]

So far, I like Spore. I'm a bit sad they left out the aquatic bits and the 'realistic' procedural walking, though. Here's a jumbled mess of my thoughts, split into paragraphs so you can keep them apart.

I always understood that the Evolution bit in Spore was just the storyline, in a way. The story is about a creature and it's species evolving all the way into space. What the creature looks like is the bit that's up to you.
Even E.V.O. was a story about evolution, but never actually had any evolving going on. in fact the whole thing was almost identical to Creature stage, except with a story.
You can't actually have evolution and creativity at the same time. Creativity is about purpose. Spore is about Creativity in a biology setting.
Evolution is about stuff happening, and the stuff that doesn't stop happening happening some more so you happen to end up with stuff that's better at happening. No real purpose in that.

The Creator is fun, but limited in how it actually affects gameplay. The only aspects you can change are sight, speed, jumping, sneaking, flight, attacks and social interaction. All the rest is just looks. This gets even worse with the Vehicle and Building Creators, where stats barely matter at all.

Still, if position and size and joints and all those things actually mattered, wouldn't it be terribly difficult to make a nice creature? I bet very few of all those popular Zerg(s?), dragons and spiderpigs would actually function. Not to mention aircrafts. Every planet would be filled with crippled creatures flailing about because they're 'unbalanced'.

Tribal and Civ are fun, but short and simple. I wish all 3 vehicle types could be built at the same city. Or perhaps just multiple vehicles with the same stats. I really like taming wildlife in Tribal stage.
The Civ stage should have a tech tree to unlock building parts that increase productivity and look more advanced. Tribal should have a building designer, or at the very least a building decorator.

Space stage suffers under the high rate at which "disasters" appear. I'm also dissappointed that the zooming out into the galaxy isn't as seamless as I thought it would be. I remember a vid zooming all the way out from the surface to the galaxy. My lappy always pauses a bit when I try that. Terraforming is fun. Shame planet size doesn't matter. Moons should only be able to support light atmospheres. They're not even real moons, just tiny planets following big ones.

Clothing needs more options. And shouldn't be symmetrical. It doesn't need any fancy animation or retexturing like the Creatures, so I don't see why it can't be assymetrically(sp?) applied the the Creature's frame.

I don't feel like I was promised more than I got. The game does have a lot of flaws and bugs, but so do all the latest games and it's still a lot of fun for me. The fact that each stage is so short makes it easier for me to create a new Creature and play some more. Legless, stealth-flying birds that eat eggs are fun to play.

What I really, really would like to see are:
Space constructions like dyson spheres, wormhole gates and space stations.
Underwater environment for all stages.
Better zoom and resolutions in later stages.
Ability to 'seed' a planet with a meteorite or creature and begin a new game in the appropriate stage on that planet.
Rivers.
Space monsters.
Plant editor. (can't anyone just hack that in?)
Different fruits.
Ability to 'upgrade' parts so they look the same but function like their better version.