Spored out of your mind?

[Shavnir]

Oh god 14 out of 20 amazon reviewers gave it a 1.  Fuckkkkkk.

I got it downloaded after an unusually long time, played all the way through space exploration and somehow managed to quit without saving.  Had a ton of fun along the way but seriously Maxis...autosave?  You saved every creature I made but not my progress :(

[Azazel]

It's got a lot more than 20 reviews now. I expect this will be more-or-less like that woman's book. You know, the woman who had a lot to say about Mass Effect's sex and nudity before she'd actually, you know, even looked at the game.

Does not work on my machine (funny, I have a Dell XPS M130--decently standard gaming laptop).
Turns out the error I've been getting has been known since May, yet EA/Maxis has never once responded to it, and it's not in their support or forums.
DasmX86Dll.dll cannot be found. Crashes every time you start a game.

As a gamer, I'm like "eh, ok, whatever...some nice stuff in there".

As a game developer, I'm like "several of these are ok, several are simply not going to happen", because the consumers won't accept (at least not in this day and age, maybe the future) what is required to make it fair for both parties.

1.  Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

--only going to happen if that means online "phone home" authentication. Most users as far as I am aware don't like/won't accept this.


   2.  Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
   3.  Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.



Make up your mind. If the game is finished, then there should be zero expectation of meaningful updates. If a developer feels it's interesting financially, artistically, or strategically to update their game, that's their choice, not a "right of a gamer". I call total bullshit on this one.

[Baldrake]

Disappointed.

I picked up Spore despite the lackluster reviews because I was interested in what looked like a completely novel form of gameplay.

In reality, the game is thoroughly novel, but all the novelty is at the level of technical innovation. The animation is amazing. The ability to create such a wide variety of creatures and have them animate smoothly is incredible. It is impressive that all the music is procedurally created (but less impressive that it reminds me of the dashboard screen music on my Wii.) But so far, there's nothing innovative about the game at all. Like DQ said, it's a mile wide and a pankcake's width deep.

I nearly completed the second stage and was so bored I couldn't be arsed to finish it and get on to the third stage. Hopefully it picks up.

[rk47]

the problem is that there really is no difference to creature statistics even if you add 2-4-6-8 legs to it, it'll still move at the speed stat of one attached leg.
It's purely cosmetic. 75% of the game is about cosmetic customizations and 25% are gameplay. If you don't mind buying  game like that, go for it. At least my Sims had somewhat a personality in him, meeting random people that has different interests, but Spores forces me to micro from start till finish without rewarding much of it.

[Baldrake]

I suspect the people who will enjoy it are the non-gamers. If you've never played an RTS or a God-game, this is going to look really cool, and provides a much more accessible way of trying out that style of game play than, say, RA 3 or Civ 4.

[kildorn]

Does not work on my machine (funny, I have a Dell XPS M130--decently standard gaming laptop).

Turns out the error I've been getting has been known since May, yet EA/Maxis has never once responded to it, and it's not in their support or forums.

DasmX86Dll.dll cannot be found. Crashes every time you start a game.

From some quick googling, this seems to be hilariously caused by the EA Download manager being installed on vista 64, which then causes spore to fail to launch or some shit.

That's as bad as my issue with plaync's launcher causing guild wars to bluescreen my system, but launching guildwars normally is fine. 

[Stephen Zepp]

It's got a lot more than 20 reviews now. I expect this will be more-or-less like that woman's book. You know, the woman who had a lot to say about Mass Effect's sex and nudity before she'd actually, you know, even looked at the game.

Does not work on my machine (funny, I have a Dell XPS M130--decently standard gaming laptop).
Turns out the error I've been getting has been known since May, yet EA/Maxis has never once responded to it, and it's not in their support or forums.
DasmX86Dll.dll cannot be found. Crashes every time you start a game.

As a gamer, I'm like "eh, ok, whatever...some nice stuff in there".

As a game developer, I'm like "several of these are ok, several are simply not going to happen", because the consumers won't accept (at least not in this day and age, maybe the future) what is required to make it fair for both parties.

1.  Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

--only going to happen if that means online "phone home" authentication. Most users as far as I am aware don't like/won't accept this.


   2.  Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
   3.  Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.



Make up your mind. If the game is finished, then there should be zero expectation of meaningful updates. If a developer feels it's interesting financially, artistically, or strategically to update their game, that's their choice, not a "right of a gamer". I call total bullshit on this one.

Was there a point to your second quote? I'm not demanding anything, I'm commenting about a configuration/compatibility bug to see if anyone else has had that issue, and possibly resolved it somehow.

Additionally, but fixes/compatibility adjustments are not in any way "meaningful updates" in the context of that quote--at least not in the way I took it. Nice job mucking up the Spore thread however ;)

[Samwise]

I lol'd.   

My Spore profile is "spamwise", btw.  I think I must have played this for about 7 hours straight last night.  My big question: where's my plant editor, bitches?

[Morat20]

I lol'd.   

My Spore profile is "spamwise", btw.  I think I must have played this for about 7 hours straight last night.  My big question: where's my plant editor, bitches?

Expansion.

[Samwise]

Maybe while they're at it they can add some deeper tech trees to the tribe/civ stages.  If they give Spore the same level of post-release attention that they did to the Sims, there's a lot of room for them to do some cool stuff.  (Difference being that I disliked most of the core gameplay in the Sims, but I like what's there in Spore and just wish there was more of it).

BTW, am I alone in really loving the cell phase?  Out of all the phases I think it's the one where the choices you make in the editor have the greatest impact in the world.

[Morat20]

Maybe while they're at it they can add some deeper tech trees to the tribe/civ stages.  If they give Spore the same level of post-release attention that they did to the Sims, there's a lot of room for them to do some cool stuff.  (Difference being that I disliked most of the core gameplay in the Sims, but I like what's there in Spore and just wish there was more of it).

BTW, am I alone in really loving the cell phase?  Out of all the phases I think it's the one where the choices you make in the editor have the greatest impact in the world.

I haven't played the game yet, but I'm thinking that "deeper tech trees" for the tribe/civ stages is probably not in tune with their design and market thrust for the game.

Having watched this for awhile, it seems the "game" is the editors. Everything else is just minigames to unlock the editors and move to the next phase.

[Soln]

Wow.  Just got an update on my Amzn order.  And saw this @ 11:41 am PDT.

582 Reviews
5 star:    3%     (21)
4 star:    2%     (12)
3 star:    1%     (6)
2 star:    2%     (15)
1 star:    90%     (528)


DRM.

Edit: You know for a game designed around evolution and networks, it’s really ironic they decided on the DRM.

959 Reviews @5:19pm PDT
5 star:    2%     (26)
4 star:    1%     (17)
3 star:    0%     (7)
2 star:    2%     (25)
1 star:    92%     (884)

[schild]

Huh, I wrote na article when it was up to like 373 something. Like 2 hours ago. That's a lot of hate.

[Samwise]

I haven't played the game yet, but I'm thinking that "deeper tech trees" for the tribe/civ stages is probably not in tune with their design and market thrust for the game.

Having watched this for awhile, it seems the "game" is the editors. Everything else is just minigames to unlock the editors and move to the next phase.

A lot of it is differentiating your creature/civilization too.  The parts you put on your creature in the editor determine what capabilities he'll have as far as movement, attacking, eating, and socializing, so as you progress through the creature phase you differentiate your creature from the others in the world and the other possible choices you could have made.

The problem with the tribe phase, to my mind, is that there isn't as much differentiation.  You gain new capabilities in combat and socialization at the same time regardless of what route you're pursuing (whenever you conquer or ally another village you get all their tech from both sides).  In other words, you don't have any say in your tribe's technological progression, which I think is a missed opportunity to add to your "story".  I'd rather have the option to put all my time into researching, say, agriculture, at the cost of never developing any weaponry more advanced than a spear.

An agriculture-themed expansion would be awesome.  Add a tribal tech tree that lets you replenish and manage your fruit bushes  and breed your domesticated animals.  And something for the civ phase that lets you supplement your income with farmland outside your city, or maybe the ability to tame epics and turn them into military units.  And, of course, the plant editor, which gives you a wider variety of flora in all phases of the game.

[Oz]

I miss Evo on SNES. now that was bad ass.

[Lantyssa]

Having a lot of fun with it.  Gave myself a stiff neck because I was so into the game I didn't move enough.

I restarted a new civilization due to being ganged-up on in Space.  It got annoying having to return to my home planet every two minutes to defend it from the three civilizations who hate me.

I had a great "Oh shit!" moment in my second creature phase.  Walking around when an Epic version of my first race decides to walk over a hill.  Sixty foot alien dragons are scary!  The Tribal phase does need more.  I'm not sure how to finish it as Adaptable, as I allied with two tribes, killed three, and my bar stayed as a Predator the entire time.  The Civilization phase is annoying for Economics, in that if everyone declares war, there doesn't seem to be much you can do.  Space is fun except for times missions and hyper aggressive AI my first play through.

[fuser]

Any idea where the anti DRM movement is from? (referencing the amazon down voting)

[Ingmar]

Any idea where the anti DRM movement is from? (referencing the amazon down voting)

Just a guess but I'd say it probably comes from some e-libertarian hotbed like Slashdot.

[naum]

Any idea where the anti DRM movement is from? (referencing the amazon down voting)

Just a guess but I'd say it probably comes from some e-libertarian hotbed like Slashdot.

I don't know where it originated, but boingboing picked it up, and I'm quite certain that might cause such like minded netizens to matriculate over to amazon review posting form…

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/07/amazon-reviewers-clo.html

[fuser]

Slashdot is stagnant..

Lets take some examples...

From the breakdown.

One single review from J. Stewart.
793 of 905 people found the following review helpful:


One single review from Fox News Sucks.
382 of 432 people found the following review helpful:


A five star:
11 of 118 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Stop Whining about DRM, September 8, 2008


It's an organized attempt and everyone voting reviews useful that just mark the game down on DRM only in the review. Curious...

[Samwise]

I'm not sure how to finish it as Adaptable, as I allied with two tribes, killed three, and my bar stayed as a Predator the entire time.  The Civilization phase is annoying for Economics, in that if everyone declares war, there doesn't seem to be much you can do.  Space is fun except for times missions and hyper aggressive AI my first play through.

If you finished the creature phase as a predator, you might have to do nothing but ally in the tribe phase to push the slider back down into the middle ground.  It won't jump all the way back down with your first alliance.

As for the Civ phase, you need to become an economic powerhouse so that you have more spice than you know what to do with.  Build as many vehicles as you can, claim all the spices nodes you can see right at the beginning, and open up trade routes as soon as possible.  If someone doesn't want to trade with you, send him a big pile of money and ask again.  Buy cities as soon as you possibly can, since they add their spice flow to your own.  Then, when you basically have spice coming out your ears, you can maintain good relations with everyone, even if they're all mortal enemies, by sending them presents.  You'll take a -20 from doing trade with their enemies and a +40 for bribing them to their eyeballs.

In my civ game I ended up not needing a single military unit.  I bought up half the planet, bribed the other half (who were at constant war with each other) to keep relations good, and when they realized they weren't going to have any luck getting me to cut off trade with their enemies, they surrendered to my economic might.  It was  .

[Aez]

Yep, the game is gonna rock with 2-3 expansions.

My guess for the first expansion:

Extended cell phase and a fish phase.

I hope they'll had some feature for every phase.  The tribal stage  had it's features cut for release.  You can't customize tools and building for no apparent reason. 

[palmer_eldritch]

One of the things that disappoint me is that the differentiation between creatures becomes less important the further you get into the game.

By the Civ stage, your choices are to conquer by fighting or conquer by spreading your religion – which are effectively the same thing, because the religious approach just means sending vehicles to blast your enemies with some sort of happy ray instead of a death ray – or buying their cities. So, two real choices as a result of all the customisation you’ve put in.

And in space stage, nothing you’ve done before really matters. You do get two special abilities based on what type of civilisation you were, but they make a minor difference to gameplay.

I guess it makes sense that as races become more dependent on technology it makes less difference how many legs they have, but it’s a bit of a let-down.

Having said that, I had four days of lots of fun with the game, but I think that may be it and I was hoping for more:) It’s also fun looking at the cool designs other people have made.

[Yoru]

I ran into a planet full of Aez's buildings and another one full of Lantyssa's dragons. It was pretty .

Then I uplifted the Turrets from Portal. They only got to tribal tonight, but we'll see what happens when they collide with my friendly neighbors, the ultra-aggressive Freedom Shark Empire. Damn sharks own half my local cluster and would own more if not for colliding with another ridiculously-aggressive race.

The "Gracious Greeter" power is a real lifesaver in the space game, since it nudges relations just this side of hostile for the angry empires, meaning you have to actually provoke fights instead of just getting a massive beatdown due to an unlucky starting position. The Ecologist power is awesome too - with it, I only ever got 1 eco-disaster on any of my colonies prior to getting the biostabilzers, and I haven't gotten ANY since then. Stabilizers + uberturrets + T3 full-upgraded colonies = no more worries. I can basically just let my dudes alone and they'll be taken care of.

Gives me plenty of time to roam the galaxy and see cool shit without getting called back every 5 minutes. And when I run low on cash, I can always either colonize a blue-giant binary system or purple-spice system for fast cash, or just genocide a few minor races, as each colony you bomb into rubble drops 50-60k sporebucks, more than enough to top up your tank a few times.

[Khaldun]

I'm feeling that same specific sense of letdown--somehow it feels to me that the early stages should mean more than just something cosmetic, but that's about all they amount to: they constructed my appearance, and really nothing more.

The Tribal Stage is the weakest in the game, I think.

[Soln]

please tell me this game isn't genocide == FTW.  What are the win conditions?

[Samwise]

I don't think there is a "win" condition.  Colonizing the entire galaxy, maybe?  Good luck with that.  It's goddamn huge.

[Musashi]

My spaceship is the Space Battleship Yamato.  It took me like two hours.

http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=sast-500034971376

[Azazel]

Was there a point to your second quote? I'm not demanding anything, I'm commenting about a configuration/compatibility bug to see if anyone else has had that issue, and possibly resolved it somehow.

Additionally, but fixes/compatibility adjustments are not in any way "meaningful updates" in the context of that quote--at least not in the way I took it. Nice job mucking up the Spore thread however ;)

oh, I don't think I broke the thread. Just pointing out the part about the game being "finished", which clearly in the case of your PC is not the case, but they've decided it's "finished enough" since it's working on most other people's machines. Also that you should be able to return it for a full refund, which might be more difficult. I just left "meaningful updates" attached to #2 because you tied them together. #2 (finished) is more pertinent to my quoting.

[Yoru]

please tell me this game isn't genocide == FTW.  What are the win conditions?

Please tell me this is a joke. This has to be a joke.

Win conditions. Will Wright. ... Win conditions.

Srsly?

[Fabricated]

*Sees that Spore seems to suck*

*Isn't surprised*

[Hawkbit]

I wonder... At what point will the negative scores on Amazon due to DRM cause a profit loss greater than simply letting the game be pirated?

I tend to really read through the reviews to see why things are rated the way they are, but it would not surprise me to find that most people don't.  This might hurt EA badly when Xmas rolls around.  I wish the numbers were quantifiable.. I'd love to see how it all pans out!!

On a side note, why couldn't they have made the game require a login to an account (ala mmorpgs) before playing?  Seems that would nip the [Securom] issue pretty quick, it works for WoW and the others. 

[Sky]

I dunno, I know when I see negative reviews on amazon, I always look for the bias. Ok, DRM sucks. Whatever.

Got the game yesterday and started a crazy race based on my polydactyl cat. Just as I got on land, the fiancee shows up, she was sick most of the day so she plops down on the love seat. Immediately Bart (the digital version) does something silly and she starts laughing. I get my first follower, and not really knowing what I'm doing, I recruit the cute little guy from the next nest over. She loves him, keeps asking "Where's your little buddy?" because she thinks he's going to get eaten (she's right, he's got 6hp when I had 25). Makes me wait until he catches up. Then we were running from some aggressor (didn't know how to sprint) and my little buddy got chomped. I thought she was going to cry. Had to go back and recruit another of the little guys. She then asked me if I could leave the Bart race to play only when she's around to watch.

That's fucking awesome.

Started another, more generic race (Meeps from Meepthorp) after she took off. I pretty much suck with the editor, so I just based it on the cell creature the game gave me to start with. I really like the polish in the cell phase, the little waterways, the way you can see creatures up in the next level but not interact, oh shit moments when you see epic cells. Same deal with creature phase, lots of nice touches. Seeing all the creatures take off running and then a meteor shower hits. Or while playing Bart, we saw some lightning in the distance and then a minute or two later it started raining where I was. And the epic creatures are really cool, training onto aggressive camps ftw.

Then I got to the tribal phase with the Meeps and got curbstomped by the aggressives because I didn't know what to do. Figured it out just before I went to bed (way too late and several chocolate porters later), so I might be able to salvage that race, yet.

You fuckers are jaded, it's a great game. MrBart is my username, but only the crappy evolution of the Meep is showing up in Sporepedia right now.

[MisterNoisy]

You fuckers are jaded, it's a great game. MrBart is my username, but only the crappy evolution of the Meep is showing up in Sporepedia right now.

Added ya - my tag is 'MisterNoisy'.

I picked it up yesterday, and I agree.  It's not terribly demanding as a game, but it's lots of fun, especially if you like dinking around in the editors - I started playing it at 6P last night and when I looked up it was midnight, so for now it's definitely working for me.  For my first playthrough, I tried to play it as 'omnivore + adaptable'/friendly, but ultimately caved in to my baser gaming instincts and ended up committing near-genocide on all my neighbors (I left at least one alive each time so I could harvest the nest for food again later), who now run away at the sight of my pack of ravenous killers.

About 2/3 of the way through the Creature phase, I saw a UFO come screaming in overhead, and fly around to abduct creatures, complete with darkening skies and ominous music.  Good stuff, and came as something of a surprise.  Also, seeing Epic versions of the critters I'd made with the Creature Creator earlier this year was very cool, though the first time it resulted in my budding killer getting mudstomped.

[Sky]

I almost got abducted because a ufo showed up while I was trying to recruit a mini-epic critter into my gang. I'm not set up for combat, so the rest of the creature phase was a breeze, two alphas of my race + the mini-epic badass brawler to whomp on things until we could get away. Then when tribal phase started, he was just a little pet in our village :( Tamed a monster and he towers over the formerly almost-epic duder.