First off, I'd like to commend you on a great game which I'm really enjoying. Very few developers are able to come up with ideas as innovative as Maxis, and your games truly stand out as being unique and creative.

It is clear Spore is a broad game. Each phase offers a distinctive gameplay style that differs from the last, and invites the user to explore their niche in whatever way seems fit to them. The multitude of easter eggs and random events you've sprinkled in the game endows users with a fascinating experience as they chart a path through the game discovering all the little secrets. The final stage alone has endless potential for new and updated content to keep users engaged over time.

I'm certain expansion packs are next up on your to do list, and you've already got several ideas in mind. Few that immediately come to mind for me are methods for creating your own planets or plants, colonizing gas planets somehow, as well as different types of missions, new artifacts, new achievements, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Not sure if any of you have heard of a little game called Team Fortress 2 or not, but it's a game published by VALVe which has received regular free content updates over the course of its first year on the shelves. This has had a dramatic effect on the game, mainly keeping it in an entertaining state for the gamers and enticing others to buy it. The fact that the company is willing to provide these updates for free has commanded a great deal of respect for VALVe, and the company is lauded for their efforts in every communication I've been privy to (personal, forums, blogs, etc).

Many people recognize the potential for expansion with Spore, and it's clear Maxis is not against releasing expansion packs (how many expansion did Sims receive?). All that I ask is that if it's even slightly within the realm of your capacity, that you consider providing the community with some complimentary updates to add more depth to the game over time. Sure Spore in of itself is deep, but I can see the novelty quickly wearing out as people grow tired of doing the same things over and over. Discovering new things in the broad galaxy of this game's multiverse could do much to immortalize it in the hearts of the gamers, and in the long run hopefully bring more profit your way and secure future buys.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the great work!

EA has implied that expansions and paying for extra content is the way they're planning on going into the future.
I agree with OP and love TF2 to death, but sadly, I don't think other certain game companies will copy that business model.

Even Blizzard-Activision is charging for many things anymore like character transfers or name changes, or offering deals like, "Get Blizzcon on Direct TV & get a bear mount!"

Well TF2 is a mod of HL2... yes it's a very popular mod that you have to pay for... but still it's not technically finished. And because its a mod... well they can basically do whatever they want to it. Its not a standalone like spore.

morphosiscraft wrote:EA has implied that expansions and paying for extra content is the way their planning on going into the future.
I agree with OP and love TF2 to death, but sadly, I don't think other certain game companies will copy that business model.

VALVe's business model really does represent the pinnacle of the gaming community, and in a way EA is the antithesis of them. Think of EA on the left of the scale with a red face, with VALVe on the right with a happy green one. I'm not gonna even pretend I understand the inner politics between a developer and publisher of a high-profile game, but I think by now Maxis has enough clout to make this happen should they choose to.

Example: Releasing the creature creator ahead of time for $10, which would already be included in retail Spore. If it were me, I'd have released the full copy for free to entice users to buy the game, or even better offer them a $10 coupon towards the retail version if they bought this alone. I'd like to think it was EA who enforced the price on a demo of this game, and not Maxis.

raekreborn wrote:Well TF2 is a mod of HL2... yes it's a very popular mod that you have to pay for... but still it's not technically finished. And because its a mod... well they can basically do whatever they want to it. Its not a standalone like spore.

TF2 is considered (by well the world) to be one of the best multiplayer shooting games ever made.

SPORE is no more a unique game when you look at the bare bones (considering its just a collection of rehashes of previous games, according to Wright) however between the two one is kicking ass in the gaming market with high ratings and the endless SPORE inducing gameplay of its product...the other has 2k 1 ratings on Amazon.

Can you guess which is which?

Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

Albeit I personally loved HL2 it paled in comparison to its little brother and sister that came in that box.

Also, remove the SPORE "one account per CD key" SPORE.

I completely agree with the original post. It's time EA and Maxis stepped up to join what has become almost standard in highly successful modern games. Free content add-ons and gameplay changing/enhancing updates are a necessity in this world of high competition. EA and Maxis could learn a lot from watching what Valve, Bioware, Epic Games, and Stardock do. It's time EA and Maxis joined with an emerging PC gaming standard practice that instills good-will and makes the purchase of future titles much easier and quicker for someone to swallow.

Because of my experiences with Spore thus far, particularly the grossly untested space stage and intrusive DRM, I will not even remotely consider buying an expansion pack for Spore unless meaningful free content is delivered. I'm not paying for some stupid 'booster pack' or other failed idea. That kind of content should be given for free as many companies do. If and only if that kind of content is delivered will I consider the purchase of an expansion pack. Adding the missing underwater stage is something that should be free content, not an expansion. However, adding the ability to play as a flight-focused creature (bird) or water-focused creature (fish) in all stages would significantly change and add to the gameplay making an expansion like that worthy of purchase, ONLY IF the aforementioned meaningful free content is delivered. If EA and Maxis want to nickle and dime people for everything under the sun, they can anticipate Spore setting even more piracy records.

blazur wrote:First off, I'd like to commend you on a great game which I'm really enjoying. Very few developers are able to come up with ideas as innovative as Maxis, and your games truly stand out as being unique and creative.

It is clear Spore is a broad game. Each phase offers a distinctive gameplay style that differs from the last, and invites the user to explore their niche in whatever way seems fit to them. The multitude of easter eggs and random events you've sprinkled in the game endows users with a fascinating experience as they chart a path through the game discovering all the little secrets. The final stage alone has endless potential for new and updated content to keep users engaged over time.

I'm certain expansion packs are next up on your to do list, and you've already got several ideas in mind. Few that immediately come to mind for me are methods for creating your own planets or plants, as well as different types of missions, new artifacts, new achievements, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Not sure if any of you have heard of a little game called Team Fortress 2 or not, but it's a game published by VALVe which has received regular free content updates over the course of its first year on the shelves. This has had a dramatic effect on the game, mainly keeping it in an entertaining state for the gamers and enticing others to buy it. The fact that the company is willing to provide these updates for free has commanded a great deal of respect for VALVe, and the company is lauded for their efforts in every communication I've been privy to (personal, forums, blogs, etc).

Many people recognize the potential for expansion with Spore, and it's clear Maxis is not against releasing expansion packs (how many expansion did Sims receive?). All that I ask is that if it's even slightly within the realm of your capacity, that you consider providing the community with some complimentary updates to add more depth to the game over time. Sure Spore in of itself is deep, but I can see the novelty quickly wearing out as people grow tired of doing the same things over and over. Discovering new things in the broad galaxy of this game's multiverse could do much to immortalize it in the hearts of the gamers, and in the long run hopefully bring more profit your way and secure future buys.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the great work!

Well said

While I usually like to remain optimistic about things. I'd have to say sadly, that this is highly unlikely to come to pass. I quite agree with the idea that if you put VALVe (and Arenanet) on one side of the spectrum, then EA will be at the very very end of the opposite side. You're talking about a company that is forcing securom and DRM on it's customers. Their priority is crystal clear.

There's no doubt TF2 is a stellar game, but much of that can be attributed to the developer. VALVe is so quick to fix any bugs and balance the game. Also, the fact that they're releasing these content updates for free is unprecedented in my eyes. I'd have grown tired of this game long from now, had it not been for the regular class updates, new maps, and new gameplay styles they've worked into the game. I think that, as much as anything, is responsible for making it as popular as it is now.

I wish more developers (and publishers) would take note of their business model and follow in their footsteps. Its efforts like this which can captivate the audience of gamers and keep them coming back for more. If Maxis took the same approach with Spore, it could easily be stamped with a tagline claiming "Absolutely the best sandbox game on the market."

The key is to not let EA interfere with good business practices...

I'm not convinced that Maxis has all that much say about the business end of things here. I n any case I just wanted to say one thing about EA.

EA likes money. This is true of every company. But EA is also not stupid. If EA attempts to sell the things "left out of Spore" for $40 each in expansion packs then they will kill the majority of the market for Spore from both overpricing and popular backlash. EA should be smart enough to know not to do this, because EA is smarter than Blizzard, who have begun to look pretty bad by cracking down on people playing WoW on private servers to avoid the monthly fees. In contrast there are no fees to play the Battlefield series, expansions are reasonably priced, and (this is the most important part) new content for the basic game still comes out regularly.

If I'm wrong that EA is too smart to kill off Spore, like everyone appears to be saying, then EA will deserve to lose our business then. I choose to wait and see what EA decides to do.

theultimateend wrote:

Hell HL2 in the Orange Box came with two of the most acclaimed games of the last year.

Portal and TF2

Oh, don't even get me started on Portal! *swoon*

You know, there was an earlier game with Portal's mechanics that failed, people just didn't buy it. It was some game about a guy rescuing a princess from a demon and he had to use portals to do it. People just didn't like the concept, I guess.

So they took that really awesome game mechanic of the portals and put them in a new game with a great idea of the science lab experiment thing. So sweet, very clever. GLaDOS is awesome, but the little turrets are probably my favorites. "Please come out so I can see you." LOL

look at the sims 2, they have a real good thing going for that. You can download content from the website, plus all those neat addon expansions.

Pugnap00 wrote:look at the sims 2, they have a real good thing going for that. You can download content from the website, plus all those neat addon expansions.

Yeah, and then they made The Sims 2 store! UGH.

Total fail, who would pay $1300 for content that you can pick up in retail stores for $10 per 100 items in the form of Stuff Packs?
For those who don't know, a few months ago, EA released The Sims 2 online store where you can buy mostly old content from stuff packs for like $1 each. Only stuff packs usually sell for $15-$10 and give you hundreds of items in each pack. Complete disaster.

Here's a thread about it: http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=0045d30ab43c5bc56e440972772aad70&directoryID=2&startRow=1&openItemID=item.2,item.41,item.127,item.23

Honestly? I wouldn't expect it. It would be cool, but I wouldn't expect it. Lets not forget that like a year ago they tried to sell us Ikea stuff expansions for The Sims 2 with a straight face. $20 for what was essentially an ad. Since then, my faith in maxis bar hasn't been all too high.