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Super sim Spore will get its first expansion pack in the form of Galactic Adventures this Spring Autumn, according to an invite from Electronic Arts. And, no, the Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack doesn't count!
Electronic Arts may be evolving its digital distribution plans, as the super-publisher looks to be bringing one of its biggest titles to Valve's Steam platform, despite having its own "solution," the EA Store.
GameSetWatch and Gamasutra have reprinted a really interesting article from Game Developer, where Soren Johnson of EA Maxis takes up the issue of 2D versus 3D in game design. Johnson maintains that while 2D is frequently seen as a relic of antiquated technology, there are plenty of places where it can make sense to utilise 2D over 3D. And, as Johnson points out, 3D graphics don't necessarily equal 3D gameplay, and 3D gameplay comes with its own challenges. 2D graphics also have their less obvious advantages:
The latest issue of the Escapist deals with god games, most of which are quite grand in scale. John Carr, however, looks at the micro god game — in this case, SimAnt, Will Wright's first foray into games decidedly small in scale — and declares its inspiration (childhood games of playing god with hapless insect) the 'original god game.' SimAnt is certainly one of the weirder little titles in Wright's repertoire, but certainly an important title when looking at later games:
Listings have turned up on both GameStop and Amazon's store pages for a Spore expansion. Sorry, "expansion". Called Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack, it's got a shipping date of November 18, and is currently listed at $20. Going by the name - and really, that's all we've got to go off at the moment - we're subtly led to believe it's a new box of spare parts than anything that'll add any new meat to the mechanics of the game. And for $20, there'd want to be a hell of a lot of spare parts in there.
Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack [GameStop, via Hooked On Spore]
After just two weeks and change on the market, EA and Maxis' Spore has sold through over a million copies. The company announced today that Will Wright and team's sim-everything game is, officially, "a hit." That million-plus figure counts sales of the Windows, Mac and Nintendo DS versions of Spore, but not the mobile and iPhone versions.
While EA was trotting out numbers, it wanted to mention that some 25 million things have been uploaded to the Sporepedia, a figure we'll presume includes all the goodies uploaded via the Spore Creature Creator. So, now you know!
When Spore owners were silenced by forum moderation staff for posting one too many SecuROM/DRM complaints on the game's official message boards, the internet-going masses were worked up into a lather. "Censorship!" they cried. "Business practices to which I don't agree with!" they shouted. A vague warning about your Spore user account being banned in conjunction with your forum account likely didn't help matters, giving the impression that loose talk about copy protection could render your game useless.
More responsible forum moderators tried to clear the air yesterday and EA itself let us know that the warning was completely out of line and, more importantly, totally inaccurate.
Following the locking of a thread on the official Spore forums, one questioning the moderation policies regarding SecuROM and DRM discussion, along with a rather threatening sounding warning, the EA hate machine booted up. Yes, the admonition from Spore forum mods was scary stuff, warning that "If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fansite forum."
Even more frightening? Reopening the SecuROM/DRM wound with new threads on the official boards may put users "at risk of banning which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore." Yikes!
Fortunately, that's not true, according to forums mods.
And EA's DRM back-tracking continues! First it was the number of times you could install Spore, now they've announced that they're loosening the ridiculous restrictions on the number of Spore accounts you could have on a single PC. Initially this was restricted to a single account, meaning families/friends/loved ones would have to share the same account. This has now been changed. While each installation can still only have one online account, each of those now has five "screen name accounts", which you can log in to every time you boot the game up. One for you, one for the missus, one for little Susie, etc etc.
We know that Amazon users do not take kindly to Spore's DRM measures. Seems Spore users don't either. GameCulture have dug up a number of anti-SecuROM creatures/vehicles people have seeded in the game's creation galleries, which range from the absurd to the surprisingly clever. Our pick's probably the Veroflraptor, a hideous creature that "is known to spray excessive DRM and overhype on its attackers".
DRM Evolved: Spore Users Create Creatures to Voice Their Displeasure [GameCulture, via Shacknews]
