The Right Angle? Spore Adds Cubic Planets

The newly released v1.02 patch of Spore has actually caused a minor furore with one of its changes. Is it that you can hold down control in sporepedia to select multiple things? Nay. Is it the improved gait for two legged creatures? Nope. Is it the fact that there's an occasional cubic planet thrown in? Why, yes, that's it entirely. Here's an enbiggened image of the planet. What do you make of it? A poll and my own thoughts on this clearly crucial PC gaming issue beneath the cut...

The argument against it is that its thrown all the laws of physics out the window. Which is true, but that's not really why people are angry with it. The game's already well divorced from any real scientific underpinings. What this is really about is its symbolic nature. First real content added to the game, and it's something that is from the cute rather than simulator side of the issue. This means that they can take this as evidence of where Maxis' priorities lie.

Perhaps more importantly though is the fact it's an easy, obvious thing to go for. When a fanbase is angry at a game, they choose an aspect of it and magnify it so it encompasses everything that's wrong. If they'd just slipped in cuboid planets without bringing attention to it in a patch, it'd have probably just been a fun occasional Easter Egg that fits in with the fabric of the general cartoon-heavy approach of the game. Since they've trumpeted it, it's a flashpoint. As loot-glint was to Thief: Deadly Shadows and scaleable enemies was to Oblivion, I suspect Cube Planets will be to the disappointed parts of Spore fans.

They'll be an added "n" here, but there's nowt we can do about it. Some manner of bug in our poll system. Man! RPS so needs a patch too.

My take? Option 3. Of course, this is all based upon it not being a gag from Maxis, as the only screenshot I can find online is one a Maxis chap lobbed up online. That'd be very mean.

So - your take? And obvious subtleties in your position can be explained below...