Spore

[mega raptor]

Wow... I just found the original video that made me fall in love with Spore in the first place: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... Ag&q=Spore

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'll be able to look at the game the same way.

Sure, I'm sure there were a lot of problems with the game at that point. There are with all demos, all beta versions.

But if there's one crucial difference I see between the two versions, it's that the game at this stage seems like it knows you're going to win. The creature stage, for example, looks like it's more difficult and gives you more time-you're investing points in your brain, for example, not having your brain size automatically increase. And I like that-that's more realistic, more interesting and seems more fun and rewarding to me.

Same thing with the tribe stage: You're buying fires, huts, weapons and instruments, and they're reacting to them-you're not directing them. And I can see problems with that-I imagine some players would be frustrated when the AI screws up and does something completely wrong. But the idea of influencing, not directing, your tribe is an interesting one that was tossed out when the game was dumbed down.

Civ phase suffered a similar fate: the cities in the video appear more complex and have more buildings than just 'town hall/house/factory/entertainment'. The conquest game seems the same, but the planet looked larger, more complex and more challenging.

Space stage looks about the same-though planets look larger, again. Of course, those had to be scaled down to be easier on everyone's systems.

Anyway, my point is, it looks like the game's been significantly dumbed down-I can't tell if they realized that they had no target genre and decided it would be best if they marketed it to casual crowds, EA wanted it stripped down to sell about a dozen expansions or they simply ran out of time and cut out features that weren't working out quite as well as they should.

Hopefully, they'll make the gameplay better and make the game a little bit more complex with a few expansions-who knows, maybe a year or two from now I'll look back on this post and sound like a ranting fool (I already do, don't I? ) But for now, Spore seems bitter-sweet to me.

Edit: Oh, and that tophat looks sweet.

[Doc 42]

I went looking for that video a few days ago and found it. It was heart breaking.

You have to take into account that yes, its a demonstration video. They only show the stuff that works to give people an idea of what the game will be like. Its very likely that they did the tripod/weapon on tail animations to death in order to make it look good. If he had made a two legged creature, I dont think it would have worked so well.

But I have to agree with you for most of the part. What we have is seriously dumbed down. The creature phase was a huge dissappointment for me. While it sounds like it was ment to be an eco system, the creature phase seems to me more like Grand theft auto 2, where the missions were optional to beating the game and basicly damaging stuff earned you cash (which you needed to win)

Basicly just running around wrecking stuff.

But my main critiscism for it is quite simple.
In my eyes, Herbivores spend most of their lives running and fighting.
Carnivores spend most of their life chaseing and eatting

In spore, Herbivores go around making freinds, searching for fruit trees and avoiding angry species so they can make some more freinds which they like and need if they want to evolve.

Carnivores run around beating up other species while avoiding bigger species. There is no need to worry about food, as beating the crap out of others provides it. food is merely a distraction from the whole process of beating others into submission to evolve.

This is nothing like real life. Herbivores generally have an easy time eatting stuff while Carnivores have a hard time finding food. Carnivores are the ones who need freinds. Carnivores need more allies in order to be able to attack and kill strong prey. Herbivores as a result pack together to fight off the larger carnivore packs. They either develop speed or weapons in order to defend them selves.

When it comes down to it. The game should have posed Herbivores life as an escape style game. Where the player has to keep their creature alive by either fleeing or fighting off predators. (Dont say Fleeing enemies isn't fun. Just look at the losing team in Day of Defeat. Most frantic exciting chase ever)

For Predators, life should be about Stealth and the chase. Chances are, the key to getting food and surviving is going to be REACHING the prey rather than fighting it. Suprise will keep any aggressive herbivores under check and fast herbivores wont stand a chance if taken down on the run.

On what you said about the tribal stage, thats only partially true. He was guiding one of the creatures around the place at the start.

But I think its easy to agree that the space stage is much better in the version we have now. In the video it seemed really confusing.

[mega raptor]

Alright, done with my little kniption now.

Just wanted to say, I think the content-sharing in the game is great. I spent a lot of time this morning clicking through the newest creations on the server and downloaded a few hundred buildings, vehicles and creatures.

I've found TT and KP on the server and added them to my buddies list, and I'm trying to find more RPGT members now.

[Doc 42]

Patch just released for spore:
http://www.spore.com/patch

Includes alot of cool stuff

[mega raptor]

Just found this on Gaming Steve: http://www.gamingsteve.com/blab/index.php?topic=14677.0

The list of un-realized features/gameplay elements/random stuff in the game's files reminds me a bit of the stuff found in Operation Genesis's files...

It would be interesting to see these re-integrated in patches and expansions.

Oh, and by the way... Has anyone figured out how to use the crop circles in space phase? They don't seem to really do anything, but I remember hearing something pre-release about being able to establish a common language between you and pre-space societies and they seem to be the only way to do it...

[raptor titanus3]

Well... I just lost the cd to the game, so I can't finish off that spode believing race that I've been fighting.

[The Kingpin]

you don't need the CD to play...as long as it's installed, you're fine...

[Pyronychus]

I just had something happen that I think every Spore player here should know about. To start, my computer's video driver is now inoperative, probably corrupt, and all I see when i turn it on is a black screen with vertical multicolored bars all over it. I'm probably either going to have to reinstall the operating system, or if that doesn't work, format the hard drive and lose everything, games, data, emails and all. And guess what caused the failure? Spore. I'm not joking. Yesterday the graphics suddenly started going crazy and then the monitor went dark. My dad and I haven't been able to fix it yet, and there's a good chance we might need to take it to a computer shop to be fixed.

The bottom line is, Spore comes with a piece of code that some people have been referring to as a virus, although it's actually more like a Trojan, because luckily it doesn't spread. I've known about this for a while, but didn't pay much attention to it because I never thought it might actually happen to me. I just hope to goodness it doesn't happen to you. Updating your video drivers would probably be a good thing to do if you notice anything at all about your graphics that seems squirrelly.

[C S]

(insert random consecutive cusses here)

Damn, after comming from the movies, I wanted to stop by game stop to buy spore, but now, im sorta glad I didnt....

[TyrannoTitan]

I played Spore for hours and hours at a time, and my graphics card is fine.

Maybe it was too powerful for your graphics card and just fried it Pyro...I dunno :/

[Pyronychus]

I had a pretty good graphics card, although I don't know if the drivers were up to date. Someone in California actually sued EA, so I'm guessing something similar to this happened to more than a few people...

[TyrannoTitan]

That's because of Secur-Rom. It actually latches onto your PC and doesn't allow you to remove it unless you wipe your hard drive. The reason they sued is because on Spore's box, it doesn't say anything about Secur-Rom, so it was basically a virus that doesn't do anything.

Maybe Secur-Rom is the source of your problems...

[Pyronychus]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is. But I've heard that it can actually interfere with hardware and software packages like photoshop on some systems. Why it went after my graphics card when I wasn't trying to do anything illegal is beyond me. :S

[Doc 42]

You see dear Pyro, you have to understand DRM...

Considering its properties, im going to compare DRM to countering world terrorism.

Your average DRM program attempts to prevent the software from being copied.

Like a country which has laws to arrest suspected terrorists.

More sinister DRM like Securom, takes the proactive approach of targeting POSSIBLE pirates.

Kinda like nuking a country to stop the populous from becoming terrorists.

But you know what happens then? The people who have just had their computer explode get really pissed off. Then they pirate their first game out of spite. Guess what they discover? The pirate copy has no Drm. AND it doesnt even need the Cd. Thus, Securom has created pirates where their originally wasnt any.

Come to think of it, If someone nuked my country I'd probably resort to terrorism myself, creating terrorists where their originally wasnt any.

Its amazing how those two link together.

[Pyronychus]

Mkay. So if they hadn't put the DRM in, Spore probably wouldn't be one of the most pirated games in history. XP

And an update on my laptop... It was sent to Florida a few days ago to get a new motherboard and I won't have it back until sometime next week. -_- Apparently HP issued a recall on a bunch of laptops back in February and I never knew about it. The computers had wireless problems, and some kind of issue with the motherboard (and something else which escapes me at the moment.) So it might have been a ticking time bomb anyway and the DRM just pushed it over the edge...

[raptor titanus3]

Anybody figure out what the grox are guarding, I can't get past them

[Pyronychus]

I hope I'm not bumping the topic, but I just want to report on what's going on computer-wise if anyone's still interested...

First off, and I don't know why I didn't tell you this ages ago, I know for a fact that Spore did not kill my laptop. The faulty motherboard is completely to blame. The rootkit/DRM had nothing to do with the collapse. After getting the thing back from being repaired twice, I decided not to install Spore and see if anything happened. A week later the same problem occurred. So... some good news. I got another laptop (a Toshiba Qosmio, which I like much better), and re-bought a DRM-free version of Spore on Steam (which is DRM in itself, but non intrusive, so I'm okay with it.) So anyway, I'm back into Spore... ^_^

[TyrannoTitan]

Good to hear Pyro. I've been playing a bit of Spore recently again...just for the hell of it.

There's an expansion coming out for the game, though. Its called Galactic Adventures, and it allows for people in Space Phase to do ground missions involving a bunch of different objectives and such. There's even a mission editor. Sounds really cool.