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]

Chris Remo, in an op-ed on Penny Arcade, takes on the righteous indignation heaped on publishers -- notably EA -- over the use of DRM. The anger over DRM might be principled bitching, but the point is it's still bitching. Writes Remo:

Though it's not a popular view, in my mind a lot of gamers are overreacting—look how many people buy music through iTunes, whose DRM mechanics are hardly lenient. That's not meant to be a judgment of right or wrong, it's just an observation that may illustrate the gulf between a certain gamer segment and the larger audience that seems to be continually more frightened away by non-casual PC gaming; I would submit their flight isn't based on activation limits.

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The great thing about Spore is all the stuff we can make. No, make that, the great thing about Spore is all the stuff really talented people can make. Check out these images from Korean site Ruliweb of in-Spore created Starcraft Terran faction buildings and vehicles. Check out the Vulture, Siege Tank, Goliath, Wraith and Battlecruiser! The attention to detail is astounding. There are three words for this and they are "only in Korea". Have a gander in the gallery below.

Sporecraft Gallery
PC 게임 화면 게시판 [Ruliweb Thanks, Torokun!]

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Spore Origins is a nifty little mobile take on the expansive Spore, but few may realise there is actually a special multiplayer edition of Spore Origins avaiiable that lets you and your multi-cellular fighting fish take on other real people in a global primordial ocean.

If you're on Telstra, you may have already realised all this, but if not it's certainly added reason to grab a copy of the mobile game. It's a rare beast to get some MP game on with a mobile, and facing user created beasties should certainly add plenty of long-term value.

Grab Spore Origins Connected Edition on a Telstra mobile for $7.00. It may not be reason enough to churn, but it does give Telstra phone users at least one reason to get a little smug grin.

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.

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On it's surface LittleBigPlanet is a very unique game, a highly-stylized title packed with evocative smiley-faced character and oozing charm. But for some reason I can't shake the feeling that deep down it is in some ways reminiscent of Spore.

I think both games are playing around with the concept of user-created content, of delivering more a system of creativity than play. In fact, the folks that I've spoken to from both teams say things that could be about either game. They both talk about giving gamers a pallet of creativity, of broadening the user experience by handing over control of the game to the gamers.

The chief difference I see between the two games is that they've approached the idea of shared creative control from opposite sides of the same coin.

In Spore you're given a game and the tools with which to populate it. In LBP, from what I've seen, you're given characters and the tools in which to create their world.

At least that's what I thought, but when I floated that past the LittleBigPlanet guys earlier this week they totally shot it down.

"LittleBigPlant allows you to create your own characters and world," Kareem Ettouney, Media Molecule art director, explained. "And it doesn't stop there. You can animate your own creations, you can make them speak to you.

"That exceeds just the aesthetic."

Ettouney, like Wright, believes that user created content has the potential to push the medium of gaming forward.

"At the end of the day people have so much to say, to do, to express," Ettouney said.

Whenever you find large numbers of unhappy people, you're bound to find a lawyer. In this case it's Alan Himmelfarb with KamberEdelson of Vernon, California, who has filed a class-action suit against EA over the DRM in EA's Spore. The suit, filed Monday with the Northern California District Court on behalf of plaintiff Melissa Thomas and "all consumers globally who have purchased the Spore computer game", addresses complaints that consumers are not fully aware of what exactly SecuROM does on their system, and also cites a separate program that installs on the control centre of the computer and can disrupt system functions.

Plaintiffs demand disgorgement of unjust profits and damages for trespass, interference, unfair competition and consumer law violations.

You can see the full suit in PDF form over at Courthouse News. It's rather lengthy, containing excerpts from EA's FAQ as well as quotes from Amazon.com reviews, oddly enough. Looks like someone's done his homework. EA might even have to assign two lawyers to deal with this one.

'Spore' Hijacks Computers, Class Claims [Courthouse News via GamePolitics - Thanks Brendan]

Last week Penny Arcade's own Tycho contacted me to see if I would be interested in writing a short piece for their site about Digital Rights Management. What with the escalating brouhaha with Electronic Arts and likelihood that this won't be the last time gamers run face first into some form of DRM they don't like, I jumped at the opportunity.

In the short essay I talk about the origins of the word piracy (Daniel Defoe don't you know), and the absurdity of applying todays shrinking ownership rights to a situation closer to that origin. I also call for a sort of Gamers' Bill of Digital Rights. Not that anyone will listen.

If that sort of stuff floats your boat hop on over on the link to check it out. If it doesn't interest you, hop over there to read Tycho's take on my "wavy locks and hard-arse goatee."

The Origin Of The CD-Keys, Part One [Penny Arcade]

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.

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