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Spore, as a game, is amazing, and amusing little toy, it isn’t the giant monolith of a game everyone, me included, believed it to be. But it IS a good game, and as games go, that’s what pretty much matters. I still am sad that they did scrap the idea of the very powerful editor to replace it with mr.Potatoface-esque building tool, and the actual screentime of actual creatures, your creations, that matter, was minimal… but even with those faults, it is a great game.

And come on, who didn’t see it coming, EA milking the teat of Spore with utterly useless addonpacks, not unlike those that litter the Sims?

Really? Who didn’t?

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Everybody knows any games reviewer who doesn’t agree with the AIMs is clearly in the employ of The Man.

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In fact I remember grumbling to myself thinking “I guess I have to play this to know about it, a la Sims” and then being wrapped up in it for several days.

And that makes we wonder who it was that was actually affected by the hype. Did I enjoy it because I was expecting another Sims game that I wouldn’t find engrossing? Was my judgment clouded by all the cocaine I’d been snorting? It was hard to know.

Anyway, I don’t think any of the RPSers are surprised by people getting upset by our posting this particular game. The idea that experience of a game is in some way objective is pervasive among internet commenters. The only explanations for a differing opinion must be corruption, delusion, or stupidity. That’s certainly how I’m going to explain John’s dislike of Spore.

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As others have noted, Tribal also fails in doing what the developers themselves claimed to be attempting – balancing “user creation”, “community” and “gameplay” – it has almost no user creation, which stifles the interaction with the community, and thus has to stand entirely on the gameplay, which suffers from having to hold the entire stage up by itself. The Creature stage has about the same depth for the kind of game it represents, but also balances this correctly with the user creation and community aspects – it is the only stage that actually manages to do this as well as the designers apparently intended.

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I really don’t have anything more intelligent than that to add. It was just plain awful, so bad I wouldn’t even recommend pirating it.

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To actually put Spore in a list (what is it with lists anyways?) about games notable in a positive light reveals [that you genuinely enjoyed it, because I'm definitely not so hostile that I feel I have to insult someone for having a different opinion about a game to me].

Spore is an overhyped, underwhelming, uneven puff piece of a game designed to grab quick cash from credulous “casual” gamers. A game so dishonest that the devellopers still defend it’s flaws as being the point. Three equal parts, all to be equally apreciated? Really? If there was any synergy between the components Spore might have been minimally entertaining for more than a few days, but as it is you get a competent visual generator built upon a vacuous pseudo-game with a tacked on sharing service that is constrained to highly controlled channels owned by EA.

Spore is notable for many things all of which have nothing to do with the actual product. For what it is Spore isn’t anything.

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(Have edited in a link to Kieron’s original semi-review of Spore if it helps, though I suspect your contempt for the game is such that it won’t – but our not including it in the first place was an unfortunate oversight)

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Not to be too confrontational about it, of course, but what exactly is the point of self-identifying as game journalists or critics if in your actual, day-to-day writing critical thinking and principled stances are fractional in comparison to promotional linking and blockbuster apologetics (“defences”)? Shouldn’t you rather be trying your hand at public relations? (oh, I see it now)

But seriously though, we can have disagreements about whether or not obvious shortchanging copouts like Far Cry 2 are or aren’t obvious shortchanging copouts, but to include Spore in your yearly top 12 (or whatever it is) with reasons like “doughy collection of highly-nutritious [GDC conferences]” and “I’ve already Defence-ed it !” is only a step up from actually formulating the “game is only a third of final product” non-argument.

Next up, GTA4?
– Jim: “Some minor technical problems, but admirable console versions.”
– KG: “Let’s not forget the genuine anguish Rockstar coders managed to convey rediscovering a world outside the console-safe market.”
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This long-time fan hopes we can look back now from some hypothetical future and see this sporeling of a spat for what it is. (i.e. Not a good game)

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I stopped playing after the Civilisation stage because Tribal and Civ had crushed any desire I had to continue with the game, so I can’t comment on Space, of course.

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