My view on Spore

AKA why I do not think Spore sucked.

The biggest criticism towards Spore that I've seen is that the game is shallow, and hence people tend to get bored quickly. I think they have a valid point, but on the other hand, I do not think that point is relevant. To me the game is really very much like the Sims, in that the game itself is actually not deep at all. I actually got bored with the Sims within an hour, and it did not take me long at all for me to try most of the things I wanted to try in Spore. However, that does not matter.

I still play Spore to see what others have created for the universe. For example, right now, one of the really big hits is the Bura Tribes Collection. Basically a player named Aaarrrggg has created a creature called the "Bura" (which is quite cute, I'll have to say) and proceed to create a whole bunch of variations on it, then Aaarrrggg made the Bura Tribes an open project and allow everyone to create their own variations of the Bura and submit them to the Bura Tribes Sporecast. People who subscribed to the sporecast will have all the Buras automatically downloaded and populate their games. I subscribed, and it is now at some 300+ variations I think. So while I play the game, besides the few terra-forming and harassing Spode's followers, I also keep my eyes out of any Bura's I encountered in my game so I could abduct them and put them in my Bura planet. I find it fun, some of them are really very well made.

There are other sporecasts as well. I also subscribed to the Xenophage (which is kind of like a reverse Bura. The creator modify other people's submissions in his own xenophage style) and the real dinosaurs or other real life stuff. I think this is what Spore is about. The point of the game is to appreciate what you and others can make. I also keep my own sporecasts, which are more like bookmarks to things that I think looked good and would like to keep. Now I know many things about the game are still buggy, and many inconveniences could be improved. I also know this game is not for everyone, but to say that Spore sucked without acknowledging it's full potential is a little bit unfair. I also pirated Spore and played it for a bit, and then I went out and bought a retail copy. Really, the pirated version, with minimal access to the online content is an inferior product. EA's marketing department failed to see that the game itself already has anti-piracy built in, I'd have to say they should have seen that DRM debacle coming, especially after the BioShock incident. EA be damned, but I really would not say Spore itself is worthless.