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Spore Creatures Now Outnumber Known Earth Species

Posted by timothy on Wed Jul 16, 2008 01:21 PM
from the does-not-count-the-hollow-earth-creatures dept.
PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games
GBC writes "AFP is reporting that, as of a week ago, the number of creatures in the "Spore" database exceeded the number of known species on Earth. They are created using 'Creature Creator,' which is available in a free (with limited parts) or paid download at the Spore website. Will Wright seems extremely happy with the progress so far: 'We hit 100K in 22 hours and a million by the end of the first week. The numbers are just blowing us away.'"
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Submission: Spore creatures now outnumber Earth species by GBC (981160)
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  • What percentage are... (Score:5, Informative)

    by ivan256 (17499) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:22PM (#24216721)

    ...penis creatures [ctrlaltdel-online.com]?

  • Yes but... (Score:4, Funny)

    by wikdwarlock (570969) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:26PM (#24216815) Homepage
    Aren't they mostly just variations on walking genitalia or lewd acts [google.com] thus far?

  • Worried (Score:4, Funny)

    by kenp2002 (545495) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:30PM (#24216913) Homepage Journal

    Should it worry me that there is more interest in fake creatures then real ones these days? This is turning into Pokemon on Meth...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pembo13 (770295)
      Well I think the time for worrying about such things is long past. Make your peace.

    • You have it wrong. More of x does not mean people are more interested in it. There are far asteroids than planets in our solar system, but planets receive a lot more interest.

    • Tweakachu! I choose you!

  • My amazingly large number of 3 creatures helped add to that database.

  • And it's only been out for a month (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pluvius (734915) <pluvius3@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:46PM (#24217159) Journal

    I guess this takes the concept of Wikigroaning [somethingawful.com] to a whole new level.

    Rob

  • My skins cells also outnumber known Earth species. Is that relevant to anything? I believe someone commented yesterday (when this was news) that obviously this only implies that the criteria for "creature" is less stringent than for "species".

    • It reminds me of that old joke:

      "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant."
      "Why do you want an elephant?"
      "I don't, I just want the money."

      It's a relevant size measurement. People know there are a lot of Earth species - this must mean there are a lot of Spore "creatures." The point is that people put (at least some) effort into creating these things, which means that it must be doing alright. If the average person spent a mere five hours on a creature (although I haven't used this due to system require

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Clovis42 (1229086)

        If the average person spent a mere five hours on a creature

        It's more like .5 hours. I put my 12 year old brother in front of it for the first time and he made an impressive looking creature in about 30 minutes. It is an amazingly simple tool to use. If the other parts of Spore are as streamlined and elegant as the Creature Creator it'll be one of the most impressive games in years. I doubt that will be the case, though. There are some tutorials on the Spore website. You can watch a Maxis employee throw t

        • Oof, thanks. MEANT five minutes, not hours. The meager math following that inane statement uses five minutes.

          Besides, the average human can't spend five hours on ANYTHING.

  • DRM on Creature Creator? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:55PM (#24217335)

    I've mostly been staying away from Spore because of the fairly restrictive DRM it's supposed to be shipping with. Anyone know if the creature creator tool also installs the DRM?

    I just recently re-formatted and re-installed windows, and I'm trying not to bog it down again with crapware like DRM systems that drag down my system performance.

    Personally, since I can't get the full game without DRM, I'm not sure I'm too interested in the CC even if it *doesn't* have the DRM, since it's not *much* use creating a creature but never playing the game.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Yvan256 (722131)

      From what I've read even the free creature editor comes with SecuROM, so yes, you should stay far away from it.

    • Re:DRM on Creature Creator? (Score:5, Funny)

      by mweather (1089505) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @03:34PM (#24219141)

      I just recently re-formatted and re-installed windows, and I'm trying not to bog it down again with crapware like DRM systems that drag down my system performance.

      Then why did you install Windows?

          • DRM (Score:3, Informative)

            by pluther (647209)

            Gah!
            I did that several months ago. It hasn't allowed me to watch my purchased DVDs since. Apparently, it doesn't like my VGA connection to my monitor.

            I had to go learn how to rip DVDs just so I could watch the video I legitimately purchased.

            Ironically, WMP 10 has no problem playing the ripped content, or any DVDs that I burned myself.

  • Apparently, Will Wright and company weren't at all satisfied with the idea of people creating monstrous amounts of after-market content for their Sims games. Not only have they whet the appetites of all the people who enjoy the Creture Creator for the retail game, but they also get to sell Spore right out of the gate as having "millions of creatures available online." The only expense involved was building the software for creature creation, and they would have done that anyway. Brilliant!

      • Re:Tricky Geniuses at Maxis/EA (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Amorymeltzer (1213818) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @02:28PM (#24217895)

        It's over-budget, behind schedule, and from what I've seen so far, totally kicks ass!

        That's the way it should be. It's why Blizzard is one of the only group out there that makes a good product - Damn the release date! A better game is better for everyone in the long run. Really, that line should read:

        They're putting every resource they have into making this the best, taking every day necessary to make it even more awesome, and from what I've seen so far, totally kicks ass!"

        *insert joke about how DNF must be, ipso facto, the greatest game ever made*

  • The original poster obviously missed the most extraordinary animal on the planet: the slashdotter. Without it, the world is obsolete. By the way, how would this creature look like? Any takers?

  • Beware of the Spores (Score:3, Funny)

    by knightf0x (218696) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @03:08PM (#24218665)

    "The Spores Dana, beware of the Spores, and the Invid. Beware of the Invid. They will come in search of the Spores."

  • I wonder if anyone has duplicated another user's creature without knowing about it....

    • Re:How many per user? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dr. Eggman (932300) on Wednesday July 16 2008, @01:53PM (#24217299)
      Each profile gives some statistics about this, so I grabbed the numbers off my profile:
      # Total number of creatures uploaded: 1906743
      # Total Users Total number of users: 675241
      # Creatures Uploaded in last 24 hours Creatures uploaded in last 24 hours: 30567
      # New Users in the Last 24 Hours New users in last 24 hours: 7853

      1906743 / 675241 = ~3 creatures per person. I've uploaded 130 myself, but there are a lot of of 1-time-only-creature creators too. As far as I've seen, very few users are over more than 200 and even 100 only somewhat common.

    • Really it would be a fun exercise and it and it could teach what can go horribly, horribly wrong with just a little nudge to the DNA here and there.

      You obviously haven't seen the creatures that already have been created with this software. Some of them are the definition of "horribly wrong."

      • I've seen pictures of Gabriel Anwar.......pretty hot (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000270/).....especially in certain scenes in Body Snatchers.

        Layne

      • Here is a long picture diary [jmg-galleries.com] of a trick to ANWR that prove you absolutely positively don't know what you're talking about. But then, I think that should be apparent given the name of Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.

        Drilling in ANWR would not yield significant benefits to the oil market until 2026 according to the Department of Energy [doe.gov].

        It seems before you should tell people to get perspective, you should stop deluding yourself with homemade "facts".

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