I took the game for a spin last night and found it to be pretty fun, though there’s a bit of a learning curve. The game is effectively broken down into two main sections: the creature builder, where you can tweak both the appearance and the attributes of your character (things like speed, reproductive rate, and over a dozen others). Once you’ve fine tuned your creature to your satisfaction, you can go into ‘observation’ mode, where you watch miniature versions of the island’s animals fight over food, eat each other, and reproduce (by way of eggs hatching). The graphics in the simulation portion are pretty basic — everything is presented in a 2D, top-down view, but they’re charming and get the job done.

The game’s strategy lies in crafting the ideal creature that’s best suited to both your island’s enviroment (which can be impacted by the type of food available) and the other creatures living on the island with you (if you’re slow and another create is quicker to get to the food available, you’ll probably die of starvation). This can be harder than it sounds, because when you’re playing against your friends the variables will be constantly changing, as the game allows you to further tweak your creature’s attributes between rounds using DNA points, the game’s virtual currency.

As with most Facebook games, Spore includes a number of viral mechanisms that invite you to publish your accomplishments to your news feed and to invite friends to come play with you (the biggest draw will be the buttons to invite friends to join you on your island). To monetize, the game allows users to purchase extra DNA points for further customizing their creatures.

Here’s the latest movie based on a video game that’s sure to be horrendous: Spore will be turned into a movie, ladies and gentlemen! Only five people will be allowed in the theaters at a time in order to prevent piracy, jkjk!

Right, so 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to make the movie, and Robots director Chris Wedge is currently penciled in to direct. Greg Erb (he wrote Rocketman, which I liked as a youth) and Jason Oremland (who doesn’t seem to have done much of any great import yet) will write the movie. They were also involved with the upcoming Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. I wonder what that’s about…

Nowhere do I see Will Wright, the game’s creator, being involved. That’s not to say that he won’t be involved, but you figure that a man so important as Will Wright would at least get a mention of being involved.

One thing’s for sure: it cannot be any worse than 2012.

We were such children. Wright’s magnum opus received decent reviews and followed through somewhat on its promises… but when history looks back on it, all it will remember is that it was the lever by which EA dumped a thousand crappy expansions, mini-games, and part libraries. It’s like they’re striving for the exact opposite of every sensation Spore was meant to evoke in those who play it.

By announcing more and more garbage with the Spore name attached, EA is further diluting the already disappointingly thin Spore ecosystem. Is it worth it, EA? Huh? Is it?

Not only are EA games going to be released on Steam henceforth—in and of itself a big deal—but the games will be totally free of DRM. It seems the largest video games publisher has learned its lesson, and learned the hard way: legitimate gamers (that is, non-pirates) want nothing to do with digital rights management.

Right now, gamers can purchase titles like Spore, Mass Effect, Crysis and FIFA Manager 09 (among others) from Valve’s digital distribution service. Titles expected to be released on Steam in the near future include Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space.

It’s a coup for Valve—look how many top tier publishers use our service to distribute their games!—and something of an admission of guilt by EA. You’ll recall how would-be gamers absolutely freaked out over the harsh SecureROM DRM found in Spore. Not wanting to repeat that embarrassing (and, more importantly, costly) experience, EA has embraced Steam, no DRM required.

And now how long do gamers have to wait for DRM as a whole to be recognized for what it is: punishment for legitimate gamers (as pirates crack and crack away)?

The most compelling one has to be the newest, regarding Spore’s Creature Creator, a free piece of software if you’ll recall in trial form, and an embarassing money grab in retail form. However, even if you got the free version, you got yourself some nice SecuROM DRM included, and I understand that it isn’t even mentioned in the EULA. Copy protection for a free demo? What the hell were they thinking? The other new lawsuit is a little more woolly and probably will come to nothing.

You’re going to get mad and throw the joystick panel. It’s going to rap around and go…It’s going to be the end of you.

Harry Connick, Jr.

Did you just say, “joystick panel”?

via Kotaku

These cubic planets are allegedly the result of a new patch (1.02 if you must know), and are possibly intended to pacify the outcry over Spore’s DRM, lacking gameplay, and the inevitable avalanche of expansions. My guess is they just couldn’t figure out a way to charge for this.

Will Wright, the brains behind Spore, Civilization and The Sims, finally spoke his mind yesterday about the now infamous Spore-DRM brouhaha. It’s a strange reaction, I think.

It [the DRM] was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore… I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times. For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later.

Wright also notes how EA is moving toward an authentication model à la iTunes, whereby you authenticate and de-authenticate computers from being able to play the game. That seems fair, right?

Note that he also called the issue a small one, which sounds a lot like what EA’s CEO said the other day.

You sorta get the feeling that Wright is like a director who has to play by the studio’s rules, whether he likes ‘em or not.

It’s hard to exaggerate just how much EA’s CEO, John Riccitiello, misses the point here.

I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.

That’s what he said at some hoity-toity media conference, referencing the Spore-DRM brouhaha. First, the pedantic tone—“there’s this problem called piracy out there”—doesn’t really help EA’s image. Second, and more importantly, pirates got off easy; the DRM didn’t affect them at all. Go check ThePirateBay (or your private tracker of choice) to see how many pirates are enjoying the game despite the DRM.

The importance of this DRM mess, the message to take back to EA HQ, is that DRM, ostensibly present to prevent piracy, did no such thing. It’s the people who went to the store and paid their American dollars who ran into all sorts of problems. They’re the ones who got bitten by the DRM, not the pirates.

And until EA (and the rest of ‘em) realize this, they’re gonna have to deal with more and more angry Internet mobs.

But this? Once again the expansion monster rears its ugly head. Not that we don’t expect it after the decade-long cavalcade of Sims expansions, but… really? Releasing a “Cute and Creepy creature parts” expansion a month after the game is released? Real classy. It’s almost as if the content was ready when the game shipped, but you decided to withhold it and sell it later for extra! I understand it’s a business, but when even Spore can lose its magic due to industry pressure, it’s a sad day indeed.

Plenty of people have downloaded Spore using BitTorrent, but EA doesn’t seem too concerned. Because on Earth 2, where EA is apparently based, people downloading torrents of the game doesn’t necessarily mean that the game is being downloaded.

Nope, that makes no sense to us, either.

Says an EA rep:

Stepping aside from the whole issue of DRM, people need to recognize that every BitTorrent download doesn’t represent a successful copy of a game, let alone a lost sale…. We’ve talked to people that made several unsuccessful attempts to download the game and ended up with incomplete, slow, buggy or unusable code. In one case, a file identified as Spore contained a virus.

Well, I’d like to meet, interview, then tease the person who’s not able to hop on The Pirate Bay, type in “spore,” then have a fully working copy of the game in a few minutes.

Perhaps EA should re-consider using SecurROM, lest it run into more of this piracy nonsense.

Spore! StarCraft! Korea! It’s a triforce of fun!

As you might have already guessed by glancing at that photo, some enterprising folks have re-created vehicles from the hit game StarCraft in Spore, which I have never played in my life. Not having played the game, I can’t really evaluate the authenticity of the re-creations, but they certainly look convincing.

Bravo to the team behind this. Under normal circumstances I’d be playing Spore all day long, but I just re-rolled in anticipation of a certain expansion pack.

via Kotaku

And now Electronic Arts has a class action lawsuit on its hands. Hell hath no fury like Spore fans scorned.

The publisher is accused of violating two laws relating to the game’s DRM. The suit claims that EA installs SecuROM without notifying consumers. Then the suit lists SecuROM’s crimes, including the fact that it’s damn near impossible to uninstall. It also claims that SecuROM hijacks a PC’s resources in order to phone home, telling EA all about your system.

The suit, which was filed in California, asks for rewards of $49.95 per class action participant, plus damages.

You’d think that publishers would find something other than SecuROM to protect its games. Maybe that’s a business opportunity, create a DRM scheme that’s not a complete pain in the ass for legitimate users? (No DRM whatsoever notwithstanding.) Any VC money in the house?

Currently, the game is only able to be activated on up to three machines. If you replace one of those machines, you’ll have to call up EA, proof of purchase at hand, and plead your case to be able to activate it again. Under the new system, you’ll be able to deactivate certain machines, similar to how iTunes works, and activate new ones.

The patch will apparently be coming in the “near future,” although no specific date has been given.

But it also has one of the worst ratings on Amazon (2,016 out of the 2,216 ratings are one star) because of a concerted campaign by fans protesting its DRM. It has also been downloaded an estimated 500,000 times on BitTorrent, and is well on its way to becoming the most illegally downloaded game ever.

The DRM that comes with the official game only allows customers to use it on three machines (after that you have to call EA for permission to activate the game on additional machines). This is nothing more than an inconvenience. Gamers, in general, are more likely to have more than one computer, and to cycle through computers faster than other PC owners because they always want the latest, greatest, and fastest machines. Many will hit that three-machine limit quickly.

Maybe EA should join the rest of the entertainment industry in coming up with a consistent DRM policy. Unlike iTunes, which imposes a five-machine limit on most purchased songs and movies, there is no way to associate new machines or disassociate old ones from your account online. You have to call. That does not scale.

So now EA has a consumer backlash on its hands, and not because consumers don’t like the game, but because they don’t like EA telling them what they can do with the game after they’ve paid for it. What is worse, the DRM is obviously not stopping pirated versions from getting out there. And since the pirated version is DRM-free, many gamers consider it a better product than the DRMed one that Electronic Arts is trying to sell.

The silliest part of this whole affair is that EA has a much more effective weapon against piracy than the DRM: the game itself. Many of Spore’s most interesting features, such as the ability to upload characters you create and explore worlds created by other players, have an online component. These are integral to the gameplay. All EA needs to do is to turn these features off to anyone who cannot prove that they’ve actually purchased the game. Then no self-respecting gamer will want that pirated copy.

There is a lesson here for all media companies. Whether they are producing videogames, movies, or music, adding DRM won’t stop piracy. The best way to stop piracy is to hobble the pirated version, not the official one.

(Image via Danja Vasiliev).

I’m starting to think this anti-Spore site is merely a prank. It’s worded too perfectly to be On The Real™.

Right, so even though Spore has been favorably reviewed (despite the DRM uproar), a pious Christian is taking the game to task for promoting “biggest attack on Christian values to date.” Ok, terrific!

The site, faithfully titled Anti-Spore, slams Will Wright, Electronic Arts and its employees for creating a game that promotes evolution (as opposed to creationism). As such, it must be outlawed, destroyed, etc etc.

But again, I think this site is fake. Read this:

However, I have received many comments saying that the game is more like intelligent design than evolution and I must say I very much disagree after using Craigslist to find someone who would allow me to watch how the game is played.

Now tell me that doesn’t read like some smartass wind-up merchant wrote it.

But oh God—am I allowed to say “Oh, God”?—you need to read he comments.

Great site, really. Job well done.

via ComputerAndVideoGames.com

PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
FOR WINDOWS XP
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.

When launching the game, some Microsoft Vista users may receive a warning about running out of address space along with a link to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. If you see this message, it is recommended that you follow the instructions and go to the website listed in the message to update your system.

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset, 945GM or above.
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.
* 768 MB RAM

Supported Video Cards
NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

Intel® Extreme Graphics
GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100

ATI Radeon™ series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850

Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but may run comparatively slowly. Standalone cards that are installed in vanilla PCI slots (not PCIe or PCIx or AGP), such as some GeForce FX variants, will perform poorly. Intel integrated chipsets featuring underclocked parts, such as the 945GU, GML, and GMS, will not perform adequately.

Integrated chipsets such as the ATI Xpress and the NVIDIA TurboCache variants will have low settings selected, but should run satisfactorily.

Please note that attempting to play the game using video hardware that isn’t listed above may result in reduced performance, graphical issues or cause the game to not run at all.

The NVIDIA GeForce FX series is unsupported under Vista.

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Spore requires at least the following:
* Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
* Intel Core Duo Processor
* 1024 MB RAM
* ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
* At least 4 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for creations.

This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset GMA X3100
* Dual 2.0GHz CPUs, or 1.7GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent

Supported Video Cards
NVIDIA GeForce series
7300, 7600, 8600, 8800

ATI Radeon™ series
X1600, X1900, HD 2400, HD 2600

Intel® Extreme Graphics
GMA X3100
This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.

via Kotaku

So let’s say that Spore is one of your favorite games and you play it year after year, new computer after new computer. When you try to install it on your fourth new computer, you apparently won’t be able to without calling up EA and providing your proof of purchase and the reason why you’re trying to install it on yet another system. Or let’s say you’ve got four computers right now and you want to legitimately take the disc between all four machines to play the game. Apparently that’s not allowed.

The DRM is provided by SecureROM, which has been a touchy issue in the past on games like BioShock and Mass Effect, to name a few. Those games’ DRM policies were eventually eased up in order to appease angry customers, so it’s possible that the same may happen with Spore. It’s just odd that EA would keep trying to get away with stuff like this when it turns current and prospective customers off so much.

Will Wright’s Spore officially comes out on Tuesday, and it’s already raking in the positive press. But perhaps you want to play the game this weekend, what do you do then? You turn to BitTorrent, of course.

Release group RELOADED cracked the game’s SecureROM encryption, and now the game’s all over the usual sites: The Pirate Bay, Mininova, etc. (I probably shouldn’t link to it, but you know how to find it, I’m sure.) You’ll have to live with the fact that you’re helping to put Will Wright in the poor house, though.

Or, you can be Mr. Noble Pirate and download the game now, then buy it when it comes out next week. That’s not too objectionable, right?

I may not understand the appeal of Spore but our very own Greglet (Greg Kumparak) had this to say,

No matter what anyone says, Spore will be successful. It’ll sell a shit ton of copies, and eat thousands upon thousands of hours that would be better focused on the real world.

Gaming editors around the country seem to agree and have given the EA title favorable scores.

IGN’s Jason Ocampo gave it an 8.8/10, which garnered IGN.com Editor’s Choice award.

I think that Maxis has made an impressive product that does so many incredible things. Spore will serve as an introduction to gaming for many; it’s clear that many nontraditional gamers will check it out. As such, this feels sort of like a sampler plate to gaming, introducing newcomers to the different types of gameplay out there. But much more than that, Spore will make you think about science, and when was the last time you could say that about a game? It’ll inspire people to learn more about the universe and imagine what’s possible out there. Spore also pushes the idea of user-generated content to incredible new heights; this is a game where users will make the vast majority of things that you encounter, and this creation and sharing is done seamlessly.

Yet while Spore is an amazing product, it’s just not quite an amazing game. I can’t help but feel that Spore is ambitious and memorable, but I also admit that, save for the cool Space Stage, there’s not a lot of depth here. Rookie gamers are going to feel at home here, but veteran gamers may feel like they need more. Still, Spore proves to be one of the most unique products in recent memory, one that reaches for the stars and ends up giving us a universe in a box.

Gamespot gave it an 8/10 while Gamespy gave it a 9/10. And not to exclude our nerd brethren across the pond we’ll throw in Eurogamer‘s score as well, which was a 9/10.