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Spore Almost Ready for Production, Complete With "Sporn"
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Thu Jul 31, 2008 01:12 PM
from the people-will-always-find-a-way dept.
from the people-will-always-find-a-way dept.
It seems that there has been some backlash over questionable creature creation with the Spore creation tool. Some of this content has been cleverly and obviously nicknamed 'Sporn'. For better or worse, Spore's Producer Thomas Vu is saying the long-awaited game should be ready for production in about a week, keeping it on track for the announced September 7th release.
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Rule 34. (Score:2, Funny)
If there is not sporn of it, someone will design sporn of it.
The only question worth asking: (Score:5, Interesting)
Did they pull the phone-home copy protection or not?
Re:The only question worth asking: (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:The only question worth asking: (Score:4, Interesting)
Quite why they can't just have a serial number and, since it relies on the net, leave it at that is beyond me. No, they'd rather install vicious copy protection.
This should be the greatest game of the year, but with the microtransaction thing, and the offensive copy protection, EA are fucking it all up. I know my "I MUST GET THIS!" mindset has, in the wake of this, sunk too "Well I'll probably get this depending on the copy protection." I mean really, the only worse thing EA could do at this point is use Starforce.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I tell you something. I wanted this game. I wanted it badly. This was on my (rather short) "games I will buy in 2008" list. It actually still is, I'm waiting on news whether or not the copy protection was/will be removed.
One thing stands, though, I will not buy it with this copy protection in place. Instead, and in spite, I will dump the money on Sins of a solar empire. It's a pretty good game, I had the chance to play it when a friend got it, and since the game budget is already there, I can as well spend
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Same here. There were three games I was waiting for this year. The Gal Civ II expansion (Twilight of the Arnor), Spore and GTR Evolution.
Now the expansion I have. Stardock are awesome and treat customers like CUSTOMERS, not thieves. (As you know from Sins.) The reason I bought Gal Civ II in the first place was pretty much because I read their stance on copy protection and wanted to support a company that, to be blunt, doesn't act like a bastard.
GTR Evolution is out August 15th. Holding off to find out what
Re:The only question worth asking: (Score:4, Interesting)
There is this very good article [galciv2.com] about piracy and gaming on the GalCiv board, and the reason why some companies rely on anal copy protection mechanisms. And also why some don't. Don't have to, that is.
Since there's little constructive I could add to it, I'll close and ask you to read it. It's long, but well worth the time. In a nutshell, make games for people who buy games instead of pirate it, make games that don't require machines only a handful of hardcore gamers can (or rather, want to) afford, and you'll sell. Copy protection or not.
Parent
Re:The only question worth asking: (Score:5, Interesting)
In reality, it is EA who are the thieves. Try this:
Buy a game for download from EA at a friends house (since there is no "gift" function like in Steam), and start the download. Go home and buy it for yourself, using Paypal.
EA will take you through the Paypal payment process, charge you, then spit you out on a page that says "Oops! Our records show you have already purchased SPORE Creature Creator (PC Download). Only 1 digital download purchase of a particular title is allowed. You will not be charged for SPORE Creature Creator (PC Download) at this time."
Lucky for EA, they already charged you. I tried to get my money back and it took WEEKS after the support email told me it would be addressed in 24 hours.
The only reason I really knew EA had robbed me was looking through my Paypal history, so I can't help but wonder how many people they have gotten away with double-charging.
Parent
Re:The only question worth asking: (Score:4, Insightful)
That is despicable! A lot of people bitch about Steam, but the thing is it WORKS. I've been using it for three years and have never had a problem with any facet of it. And it's saved me a ton of time which would have been spent trying to find disks.
If that's what EA did with their creature creator, I can only imagine the problems when the game itself is released. I usually go with a digital download of a game if it's available. But Spore's will apparently be with EA's Download Manager which, if what I read was correct, will A) give you no actual installable files so you can't burn anything to disk, and B) it's ONLY valid for six months. So if after six months you need to reinstall, you'll have to buy it again. Now I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere, but if the cap fits... And that certainly seems to go in with EA's strategy. I mean the CEO has said about monetizing the contents of the game. Clearly the game itself will be so if you need to reinstall and you downloaded it, EA gouge you again. Certainly fits the current EA business model.
May as well just strike Spore off the list of games to buy this year. Will sit back and sit how this plays out. Given that Spore creatures seem to be downloadable as simple PNG files, I wonder if one could pirate the game and just use creatures that way?
Whatever the case, I hope the pirates get this out before it's in stores, showing once again how pointless copy protection is. I used to pirate a lot in the late 80's and early 90's. I'm seriously at the point where EA is making me consider going back to that for titles like Spore. I'd still support indie developers, and companies like Stardock... (Even in the days when I was an avid pirate, I still bought games if they were any good. Sensible Software had so much money off of me...) The good guys and the small developers etc... They deserve the support.
I saw this TV thing years ago. This guy is digging a hole in his basement to bury some pipes or something. His friends laugh and joke that it's to kill his wife and bury her. He defends himself and says it's for plumbing, but his friends get on him so much about it that eventually he snaps, kills his wife and buries her in said hole. That's pretty much how I feel about the likes of EA now. They've spent so long tacitly accusing me and many other of being thieves via their protection schemes that it may as well fulfill their prophecy. While it may not be morally or legally right, I challenge ANYONE to defend EA's practices.
(Man, reading up on all this and writing after a mere 3 hours sleep is rough... Apologies for the rambling.)
Parent
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DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)
And... has there been any announcement in changes to DRM?
I'll gladly give them my $50 if I get a game that'll stay a game.
But when the single player aspects of a game will only work as long as the DRM servers are kept up... well... $50 for something that turns into a plastic coaster whenever EA wants seems just a tad excessive.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Months ago, as mentioned on Wikipedia, the phone home every 10 day behavior was pulled. It still phones home on installation, but that's it.
You can install 3 times before you need to contact EA and ask them to recharge your key for further installations.
Re: (Score:2)
So in other words, I can still only install it as long as EA agrees that the game should be playable?
I don't trust them. Their record of "annual titles" is stunning, and I do consider it far from impossible that my game(s) will suddenly stop working as soon as the next incarnation hits the streets, so I have to rebuy it.
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So in other words, I can still only install it as long as EA agrees that the game should be playable?
Yeah, sort of like the operating system you're running the game on.
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Huh? When did Wine become registration dependent?
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Oh... and that makes thier ability to coasterfy what you purchased OK? Because you can get around it (kind of) if you happen to have it installed when they try to coasterfy it?
There's still lots of game publishers out there that don't treat me like a criminal. I'll give them my money. EA can keep thier game.
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There's still lots of game publishers out there that don't treat me like a criminal. I'll give them my money. EA can keep thier game.
... yes. They can keep their game - not because they treat me like a criminal, but because I'm going to act like one.
... I might as well pirate it - since they assume I'm not paying for it, they shouldn't me in their sales projections.
... what if they assume everyone is going to pirate it? Is it an instant success when it sells anything?
I figure that if they assume I'm going to pirate the game
The only problem that arises... is
Re: (Score:2)
I hope you're not suggesting that I'm pirating?
If you choose to that's your business, although I disagree with you that you should.
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Ubisoft is already approaching the sale of their products like this - you pay for a product, you play with a pirated version! [ubi.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)
$50 for something that turns into a plastic coaster whenever EA wants seems just a tad excessive.
Then you must hate going to the movies and paying $12 bucks for not even a coaster. I don't know about you but I judge the cost of entertainment based on, well, the entertainment aspect of it. For $50, you're not getting a cd, you're getting a certain amount of entertainment. I'm probably gonna be modded down as a DRM apologist, but Spore is probably the most anticipated game of this year and it's been in production for around 6 or 7 years. As such, it will also be the most pirated. The DRM will of course be cracked eventually, and probably pretty quickly, but I don't see anything wrong with trying to delay the piraters so they might actually go out and purchase the game.
To some (like you), having the DRM on their disk will be inconvenient enough that they will wait for the crack. To others, not having a crack for the game immediately will be inconvenient enough for them to purchase it. Since regular people still don't even know what DRM is, I'm betting that the latter outnumbers the former, and that Microsoft made the most logical move.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Padron the pedantry, but Spore was the most anticipated game three years ago, a highly anticipated game two years ago, an overdue and expected game last year, and an 'awaited' game this year.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know about you but I judge the cost of entertainment based on, well, the entertainment aspect of it. For $50, you're not getting a cd, you're getting a certain amount of entertainment.
That's nice. That really doesn't matter at all because of the way the game is presented and the expectations of the customers, but it's nice to know you'll maintain such a positive attitude.
As such, it will also be the most pirated.
It'll also make a shitload of money despite being pirated. It's unlikely it'd actually lose any significant amount otherwise. Worse, every step they take to lock down the game increases the value of the cracked version. The legitimate customers are the ones that pay for it. Actually, I wonder how many people won't b
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Strangely I find it pretty easy to find something wrong with DRM. It will be cracked before the game hits the store shelves, so it's only remaining purpose is to take control of what I would have been willing to pay for from me. The value of the free version exceeds the value of the paid for version. So why would I pay?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ [google.com]
Re:DRM? (Score:5, Insightful)
And that changes what? That it will be working as long as there is Steam? Where's the difference, if I may ask?
Even Steam being around forever doesn't mean the game will work forever. Let's assume for a moment that the whole parents' outcry crap hits the fans and Jack Thompson or some other loonie hypes it so far out of proportion that a court declares that hey, EA can turn the game off any time they want, so they have to.
And snap.
And then? Oh sure, if you can still find that receipt, you may even be allowed to get some other EA game as compensation. Now, I buy my games online, I don't even have a "real", physical receipt. And I buy EA games at a rate of about 1 every 10 years or so. Then again, I buy games at a rate of about one or two a year...
Whatever you do, it all comes down to one single flaw: You buy a game, but EA retains the ability to disable your copy or all copies essentially at will whenever they either want to or are forced to for some reason. They could decide that you should have bought the game elsewhere, so your copy is invalid (see orange box for reference). They could decide that you created such a porn animal and thus for some reason your license is invalid (yeah, you can try to fight that out. Good luck). They could essentially pull whatever reason out of their ass and just disable your copy.
Why, again, should I spend money to hang at EA's leading-string?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Which takes us back to the "what if Steam doesn't exist anymore" problem. How am I going to validate my newly installed games?
If I got your comment right, it means that I can install from whatever medium, even from the CD a friend lent me, but I have to validate them with the Steam server to prove that I am legally installing those copies and that I bought them. Now, what if the server doesn't exist anymore?
Wait for the screaming to start.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What's really funny is that it usually requires a pretty dirty mind to see anything "sexual" in the sporne monsters. It's a bit like complaining at an inkblot-test that your shrink is showing you all those perverted pics.
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You must not have looked at very many of them!
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Put down your braille keyboard for a moment, and ask a friend to model a user-created Spore creature with Play-Doh or something. Now put one hand on that model, and if you're male - and equipped with two hands - the other hand over your genitals.
Do you get it now?
Re:Wait for the screaming to start.... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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You can have it prefer your creatures over others.
The reason it's connected is that it downloads creatures other have made for you single player experience. That means the more people play, the more variation there is. As a result, it's a bit harder to play without an internet connection.
They bill it as a "massively single-player game."
Re: (Score:2)
Of course that's how all the sporn got created in the first place, by people defining how their own race should look. Feel free to make penis monsters to your heart's content. (actually my favorite was "The Beast With Two Backs", euphemism made literal heh)
Re: (Score:2)
penii
Penes.
Re:Sex is bad, mmkay? (Score:5, Interesting)
Violence is easier to teach as right and wrong, you get hit it hurts, so you know that if you hit someone else it hurts thus henceforth there is a direct cause the wrongness of violence. Sex if abused takes time before truly understanding the consequences, as the act feels good for both parties, issues of psychological attachment issues, teenage parents, economic problems, medical problems, and other risks. Makes it far more difficult to teach, responsibility, as all the effects are what ifs and could happen and protection offers better chances but not 100%.... All very difficult for stupid kids/teens to comprehend. As well American culture isn't properly designed to deal with these issues so when there is a teen pregnancy it is treated as a problem of society.
Parent
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That's a bit like saying regular people are smarter than retarded people. It might be true, but it's a completely useless measurement.
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What the British head censor said... (Score:5, Insightful)
Screwed up? Yep, we've got lotsa that, all right.
I recall reading, several years ago, an interview that the head of Britain's film censorship board gave on the occasion of his retirement (i.e, now that he was able to speak his mind freely without contradicting policies he was required to uphold). Basically, he said that he thought that, as regards media depictions, that sex was a fine and healthy thing for society, while violence wasn't. He thought that Britain (and societies in general) would do well to be less concerned with censoring sexual content, and more concerned with violent content.
Now, while I thoroughly enjoy playing CS with a group of fellow forty-somethings who understand that IT'S JUST A GAME, I must say that I agree with that fellow's opinion. (I don't really know how to reconcile the inherent conflict here, BTW. )
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
It's not parents.
Bullshit. There are millions of parents in America who make this a massive issue, and raise their kids to be fearful and confused about sex. Who kick up a stink about protecting their precious children, and who think that any kind of non-shameful sexual expression is a one-way ticket to hell and pedophilia.
There's also preachers and other "community leaders" spewing homophobic fear, or jumping on the anti-porn bandwagon.
It's windbag politicians like HillDog and Gore who make it into a big issue so they can look like heroes.
When you say politicians "like" Gore and Clinton, the intended subtext appears to be "De
"Great, yet another planet..." (Score:5, Funny)
Ctrl-Alt-Del [ctrlaltdel-online.com] put it very well.
wait...s-pr0n? (Score:2)
am I the only one who thinks it's funny...and clever that they used the name "sporn" as opposed to "s-porn" or something similar?
I must be getting old I guess.
For the curious: (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/scott/spore-porn [buzzfeed.com]
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=191255 [computeran...ogames.com]
I find this one particularly amusing in its simplicity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUXnnH6sY0 [youtube.com]
What a great quote to choose, CNN... (Score:5, Funny)
Child pornography: This isn't it.
SecuROM on OS X? (Score:2)
So does anyone know if the Mac version is going to have SecuROM?
Will the Wii version be the same as the PC/Mac? With the same features, etc?
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't seen copy-protection on Mac which embeds itself in the OS like SecuROM does on Windows. Yet. I'd wait for reviews, since this is EA.
The BEST collection right here... (Score:2)
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/06/18/nsfw-a-beginners-guide-to-sporn/ [rockpapershotgun.com]
It's all because of the Mantenna attachment. (Score:2)
hell, Like most of you, I too play a Female NE in WoW but that all changed when I could put a 6' mantenna on a 4' creature, I just couldn't pass it up!