How to start?
I waited quite some time for spore, and that with growing enthusiasm since i saw the first moving pictures of it.

I had a little worries because the creatures looked pretty comic, but i thought, "Hey, its EA, they are trying to adress a huge player community of course. Its a small price compared to the awesome game."

Then they brought out the Creator, because no one could hold their breath anymore.
First little push in the rips "Hey, why does a game demo actually costs money???? Oh, yes. Its EA, they charge you for everything hahaha :/"

I dindt bought it, due to logical reasons I watched it at my friends house, builded a creature, it was nice as expected, done. 10 bucks saved.

Then came the day when they game came out:

Install note:
The Creator demo will be deleted, your creatures will be stored.
"Hey, glad i didnt bought the demo, thanks EA for turning it completly useless "

I played through the first chapter, and then the next smack in the face.
WELCOME LAND CREATURE! Please add some legs, else it will look rediculous
"Wait, what?"
Please choose your body parts, and dont forget, there are good and bad ones, so you can actually build gimped creatures that are totally useless!
"Whoah...what?"
eat or charm 10 creatures... "Ok, i..." DONE! Next chapter!
Please add arms for the next chapter!
"But dont want to have arms"
Your choise buddy, we warned you!
kill or charm 5 tribes.. "Ok, that will be..." DONE! Next chapter!
Conquer or charm 5 cities ... "maybe this will... "Done! Next chapter!
I hope you liked using the creator again for buildings and vehicles. "Well I..."
WELCOME TO SPACE, the last chapter where the game actually begins!!!!!
"Ok enough!"

I putted the game beside and thought to myself, woah that was the most promising yet most dissapointing title i have ever played.
But that happens to many games, and still people like them. I cant blame them, i do play some games too that others dont like.

BUT!!!!!!!
I do blame EA, for screwing with their customers.

10 Bucks for a Demo,deinstalled by the original game.
Game release price 5 Bucks higher than all other Companies.
Release of an Addon, full charged. Offered free in shortly after that released Edition.

The DRM Securom Protection which works like this:
You can install the game onto 3 different systems. Are 4rth installion is not possible.
It means you can install it as often as you want, as log as you dont change the hardware or the computer, then its strike 1

This is SO MUCH FUN, because that means: You havent bought this game at all, you have purchased X uses of the product, which is actually.... lending
Thank you EA for lending me 1 of your games, awesome. I promise to give it back after use in proper shape.

Also a funny note: If you pay for the game, you get the DRM. The pirated version of the game comes without.
Well on that note there is an argument against, the pirate version doesnt have online modus. But thats why i just wrote it as funfact.

So every that found out complained about it:

EAs first reaction:
Ok, ok, we got your point, We raise the installations from 3 to 5 different systems.

Ha ha ha

Luckily, everyone kept complaining, and EA smelled the urgency.

We decided to remove the number restriction on installs.

Wow

After charging everyone for everything, they DECIDED to grant us ownership of the game we bought.

For me this story was the groinkick 2008.
And still i would have said, well i get over its just a game...

BUT
It actually wasnt the first time EA pulled off some numbers like that, and it wont be the last time. And whats so upsetting me overall:

EA does this EVERY TIME!!!!


And why, you ask? Because they can!
EA owns roundabout all sport league licenses.
Bringing out NFL, NHL, NBA, UEFA, aso, aso every year brings them a base income, which they can use to buy small 1 Title companies and sell their title under EA Flag (mostly they just spend the money to buy it, not to finish it properly)
In the last years they got a new flagship: Sims
Sims is popular ( no doubt) and therefor its bombarded with not ending Addons, which will find willing buyers everywhere.
But Sims didnt reached all parts of the gaming community, and therefor Spore was created to fill this gasp.

Woah the game failed, now they fell hard on their face!
No not really.
If there is anyone who can compensate a loss of such a title as Spore, its EA.

And that not even enough there is a worst thing, which bothers me most.

In the past, there where development deadlines that where season based, christmastime for example.
Then came the title runs: 2 Different companies had the same idea (yeah right ) and which one of it entered the marked faster, sale prices where for the winner. Overall winner was the better game.

But with a Leviathan like EA, title to tile jumper like Blizzard, Ubisoft, Activision etc are more and more forced to keep up with, which mostly ends up with what we all expirience today:

You think you are playing an unfinished game and your are bombarded with a million of patches every week. The games are loosing their depth more and more. Graphics up (no complaining at all ) gameplay down (theres my complain )
Every company had its own style and specialisation in the game ( I smell Ubisoft, when i fly it, drive it or dive it )
But its becomeing a more and more greyish sluggish mass.
Thank you EA for making our future brighter, with so much love and efford

I will never buy any EA titles again, no matter how "good" (muhahaha) they are.

Creator demo was free, dunno what your talking about o_0.

And the stages weren't like that, 'Tis not like they forced you to put arms and legs on it.

Though, everyone knows EA are some cheap bastards. Didn't need this to tell them that

The Creator demo was free, but there were also "paid" demos for 10$ that had all the parts unlocked.

they charged for the full demo because, well there a company with a brain cell and with that much hype they were bound to sell. which they did. as for the game, well people still play it because some people like it.

what use would the demo be when you have the full game? none. so to be honest, the fact it auto un-installs, is a good thing and saves you time and hassle, it also gets rid of any conflicts. u had to pay for a expansion? well il be damned....

fell on they're face? omg do u even realise how many copies they sold? well its alot over 5 if that's what your thinking.

as for games losing depth, stop buying games like spore and sports games, and buy rpgs and storyline based games.

Seriously i dont see the point of your post, you spent all that time posting an essay of questions which are answered with sensible thinking instead of being angry over 1 little game.

Well, half the stuff you claimed in your "essay" long topic was surprisingly false. I don't know if you're just being sarcastic or if you actually think that EA "forced you (or you will regret it)" to aquire arms/legs/mouth/wang-doodle/etc. They don't force you to do anything in that game, in fact they try to inhibit you from aquiring such things by limiting the selection and forcing a player to either, befriend/extinct certain species in order to aquire new parts for your creature in the creature phase (that or you go scav'ing around for bones). The very fact that your claim makes almost no sense, in comparison to Spore, leads me to believe that you "probably" didn't even play the game and that you "probably" just watched your friend play it for about 1 hour if not more.

Secondly, it's true that the phases in Spore are extremely lackluster when it comes to quality, when does EA ever spew out anything but crap from their corporate bulkhead. Indeed, I do agree that the phases were horribly designed and the development team basically took a poo on the process (like George Lucas and Episode III) in addition to the spit-polished sprites, camo-driven repetitive sandbox planets, and every day mind "garbage" dump idea's, the game still managed to sell out as intended (I could've bought a $10 hooker and had more fun). However, you didn't even mention the Tribal phase in your random banter of half-driven words and half-quoted thoughts, which after reading (made me vomit) lead me to believe that you simply rushed through the game without even giving a second thought to your creatures development in your specific phase. It's very hard to understand what you have to complain about when all you did was rush through the game, got to space age, and quit, without taking the time to enjoy each stage before progressing.

Lastly, you're claim, "WELCOME TO SPACE, the last chapter where the game actually begins!!!!!", is a huge overstatment as we both know the game obviously doesn't start in the Space stage until it is unlocked, it starts in the Micro Stage, and that a suddle hint would be that only a player who had rushed through the game would be lead to believe your claim, that or a player who has played it a dozen times over. Stiflingly, you seem to believe your own claims, that the game actually begins in Space, when any person who has played Spore for enough hours (I was 40 hours the first week) would understand that Space is the dead-zone of the game, an endless galaxy almost impossible to completely conquer/explore and the ending of the game is nothing but a commercial mixture of pre-60's drugs and a mix of "Shaq-Fu" (shutter). Truthfully, the game dies in Space as does any hope for an expansion to Spore.

In conclusion, before you decide to bash something/someone for the apparant fault of a marketing scheme, don't put Spore at the top of your list, start off with Star Wars Episode III and move down from there, I would suggest Episode II, I, Hayden Christensen, Karate Kid, Karate Kid II, Top Gun, etc, etc.

Well I think the game has its restrictions and it tends to try to steer you into one direction or another.
But it was a great sandbox game. It spurred by creativity. It's a game for people who likes creating.
I myself spent the most part playing with the spaceship, vehicle, and building editors.
And the game rewards you with letting you see your creation come to life.
I have to admit, the gameplay is not as deep as it should. But it was fun and adequate.

As for creature parts... The OP is unfortunately correct if you happen to be playing the game in any version other than easy. You need the highest level hands, feet, weapons, and mouth to do anything very well for long. This is what they meant by the game forcing you to use certain parts. If you pick a mouth for a certain look, chances are that you won't be able to socialize with others past a certain point. If you pick certain hands for their look, chances are that you may not have high enough strike or pose, again limiting what you can do. Same with weapon and charm items, you are forced to pick the pieces which have the higher skill rather than pick a piece that looks right for your creature. While this may not be a major concern for those who just want to go through the creature stage without unlocking parts, for those who want a creature to look a certain way before entering tribal stage, it can often take a very long time to get the parts you need. And as you are required to keep up with your neighbors, there are often few options.

Beyond the creature stage, the parts you have DO play a role in how capable you are at the tribal stage. A creature with slow movement speed, or low weapon skills can be very difficult to play with in this stage. Go download or make a creature without legs, hands, or a weapon above 2 and start a tribal game on medium or hard... You'll see what is meant by forcing certain design features if you want to be able to really play that creature all the way. Cute and Creepy solves this slightly, by adding a few variations of similar stats, but not enough to get around the key issue... And it's even more money that you're throwing at this crappy game.

The lack of real content through most of the game is actually the reason why is sucks as bad as it does. The reason why the game really only begins in space is because this is the only time that ANYTHING you do has particular consequence. In cell stage, everything you do on one planet is the same exact thing that you do on another planet. Things appear in the same exact order every time, and don't act any differently no matter what properties your cell has. In creature stage, there is some variation if you happen to have a large enough creature pool to work with, but things you see ALWAYS match the growth of your creature and do little interacting outside their nests. Furthermore, you could make every other species extinct on your planet, and have a full ecosystem again when you enter the tribal, civ, or space stage. The only thing beyond the properties of your creature that pass on is the location of your last nest. In tribal stage, you're forced to either socialize or kill other tribes with no other options. Once socialized, those tribes don't do a damn thing short of bring you food. Once killed, you just have a dead camp. This wouldn't be so bad if the process of these tribes appearing wasn't so linear. Civ stage the same sort of linear RTS. Some cities pop up, you either conquer or buy them, and that's all there is to it. Aside from the little bonus things, nothing you do in each stage has a real, lasting effect on the following stage. It's only when you get to space, when you have your own little corner of the galaxy to deal with, that you need to start planning for the future in regards to who you are allies with, who you destroy, who you trade with. It's also only in space that you have access to something beyond the whole "paper, rock, scissors" type of tactic. Then there's freedom with creation tools. This is why space is where the game really begins. Afterall, of all the stages, space is the only one you'll likely be playing for more than a few hours, while still having something new to see.

You seem to have completely ignored this part of the post in your random banter of half-driven words and half-quoted thoughts, which after reading (which made me vomit) lead me to believe that you simply rushed through the post without even giving a second thought to what he was actually saying. It's very hard to understand what the hell you are talking about when all you did was skim the post, got to the end, and decided to post a rebuttal filled with flames instead of contribute to any intelligent discussion, without taking time to actually read the post before replying.
...
In conclusion, before you decide to bash something/someone for apparently misrepresenting a game, don't just skim the post in question, actually read it and then post a reply that makes sense, instead of using it as an outlet for your misguided hatred of Episode III and other various movies that are completely unrelated to the topic at hand.

Very interesting opinions! I like the way you write because it seems to flow and keep one engaged, somehow. Hard to explain.
for the 15 minute read.

Eh, I was quite disappointed in some of the stages. I would say World of Sporecraft and the Space game is where the real meat of the game is. Tribal and City stages were over-simplified RTS games.

Personally, I was rather disappointed in the game overall- Flying around in my cobbled together Rokh ship (Yes, the one from EVE Online) conquering or buying planets and buying spice gets repetitive after getting to the center of the universe. Although creating space-fairing creatures just to find them in my game was a rather long pre-occupation of mine once I started getting tired of the rest of the game

Yep, worst Maxis/EA game ever... Even counting Simtower and Simcolonoscopy.

Well, I figured that with the release of Galactic Adventures the game would improve into something I'd enjoy.
Boy, was I wrong!
Endless variations on "Clark & Stanley Go To Hell" or "OMGFREE EASY POINTS!" or "OMGFIGHTANEPICLULZ" cluttering up my catalogue, spammed half-ass creatures and buildings with titles like "jjjjjjjjjj234" that were built and shared just so the creator could get the "50-whatevers-published" achievement... when it started taking me 10 minutes every time I booted the game to delete all the BS creations that the game would automatically download, all the adventures written in languages I couldn't translate, etc... the game lost all charm for me.

Deleted from my HDD, and good riddance.

...

I enjoy Spore. It's still a fun game. And I also did indeed enjoy SimTower. and SimCopter. Those were classics. But really, Spore is a good game. 'Twas quite overhyped, but turned out to be a very fun game in the end. I don't regret buying it in the least.

But hey, that's my opinion, not yours. I'm just saying that yes, people still do play Spore.