Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

I am disappointed in the dumbing down of the game, but it seems like it could still be really cool, at least for a game that's been developed under EA's supervision.  I'm not too sure about buying it right away though since it's got the same DRM as Mass Effect which is apparently causing people lots of problems.

[Kagus]

I was so hyped up about Spore when I first heard about it, I thought the gaming industry had finally made something worthwhile.

And then I found out that it wasn't going to be an evolution simulator.  I was seriously disappointed.

[lumin]

I was so hyped up about Spore when I first heard about it, I thought the gaming industry had finally made something worthwhile.

And then I found out that it wasn't going to be an evolution simulator.  I was seriously disappointed.

Yeah, I didn't get the memo from Will Wright saying it was supposed to be a toy either when I first heard about it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I've had doubts about Spore's game design since I first saw ingame footage. It's ridiculously hard to make something as coherent as EVO:Search for Eden, on Spore's scale. There, it worked because the whole thing was story driven. Here, a free creature builder based on earning DNA "experience", with no constraints whatsoever...  it can't be a game. It's a sandbox time-killer, at most. Unless the later (tribal and further) stages have something really neat planned for them apart from a "custom skyscraper SimCity" design, the game will only be held afloat by the community churning out new content and finding design exploits. It's the bane of such games, when there's a whole lot of stuff to do, and you know most of them are no challenge at all because you are nigh unstoppable. Games like Space Rangers (were there really any other such games?) circumvent this by throwing in completely off-the-beat segments of completely different gameplay, like having to run a ski resort or racing a supercharged antique car in an intergalactic championship..  I don't see stuff like that appearing in Spore.

[XchrisX]

So I have paid for the full version of the creature creator, and now I wish I hadn't.
It seems that to actually download the creature creator, I must install a program called EA Download Manager. Good enough.
I downloaded and ran the executable. It game me an error.

Error 1931.The Windows Installer service cannot update the sytem file C:WINDOWSsystem32winhttp.dll because the file is protected by Windows. You may need to update your operating system for this program to work correctly
[OK] [Cancel]

So I click OK, and the rest of the installation goes according to plan. However, when I run the Download Manager, it has my email in the top right corner, the EA logo with "Download manager" and settings and help below that in the top left, EA store in the bottom left-hand corner, and a resize-thing in the bottom right. However, the middle part, that I assume is supposed to show me what games I have paid for and can download, is blank. It's just white. Nothing.
I've done a bit of googling and screwed around a bit, trying to manually update the winhttp.dll file with one I found online that appears to be a newer version, but nothing seems to fix it.
Help?

Oh, and I'm running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1.
I'm thinking it might help to upgrade to SP2, but that proves... troublesome, as I believe there's that pesky Windows Genuine Advantage thing, that I'd really rather not provoke the wrath of.

I have the same problem
Has anyone figured out what we could do to fix it?

[Cthulhu]

From what I've heard, this happens a lot.  Does Spore have a forum you can try?

[Toady One]

I don't know if it's the same problem, but TT had one, and uninstalling the trial version fixed it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

The trial version hits me with that error periodically. Any form of temporary shutdown, like hibernating/dehibernating the laptop, restores its functionality for me.

[XchrisX]

I don't know if it's the same problem, but TT had one, and uninstalling the trial version fixed it.

It won't even let me uninstall it
it says I have to close the game first

[Jusal]

I suspect you're using windows XP so press ctrl-alt-del, look for something with spore in its name in the processes tab and kill it.

Or alternatively restart your computer and try to uninstall it again.

[ThreeToe]

I made another bird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je4nabtzlXc

this one actually got high marks on the spore page.

you guys make really cool ones by the way,
It think the bay12 people are way above par as far as spore is concerned.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I think DF players would be ahead of the entire planet if Spore took internal organs and body structure into account rather than just presence of certain external pieces. I mean, why in the nine beards of hell does the foot type determine speed? Last time I checked, it's the muscles moving the leg that affect the speed...

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Because Spore is made for fans of The Sims.  AKA, People who otherwise don't like games.

[Tylui]

Also, let's not forget the children.  Does anybody expect kids to know anything?  No.  And that's why education sucks now-a-days.

[Tahin]

Even when I was a wee lad I understood the concept that longer leg == faster movement. That's not so difficult. I think it's more about gameplay balance. Then again, longer limbs could just cost more.

Oh, and thanks Toady and ThreeToe! Not only do you make a hell of a game, but you solved my problem with EA's piece of shit software.