I asked a very similar question and the answer is not to expect anything from them.

NOTHING . They will fix al these issues on their time and CHARGE paying customers every step of the way.

5 Installs or 3 installs I dont care either way is wrong. I will be formating my harddrive soon to remove this DRM crap and then I will download the Less buggy Non DRM Hacked copy then when the part pack it and expand it I will download those in hacked copies . I dont need other player unfinished buildings to enjoy the game frankly. ( but I dont enjoy it now ) So if they do give deeper gameplay options I will get them for free and EA can GO pound GROX

They will not get a SPORE dime more of my money .

RocketGirl, you try too hard. Let it go, and either leave, or stay and mind your business. If Maxis chooses to answer, they will answer. Will Wright has always had creative control over his projects, even when under jurisdiction under EA. This has not changed. Spore became how it is because it better fufilled Will Wright's dream for the game. It may have failed in your eyes, but what's not to say it's not A's across the board when compared to Wright's vision? Wright has said expansions will open up to all sorts of people, both to those who are more casually oriented, and those who are more gaming oriented. The spore you see now is more of a "base", like how Sims was in the beginning. The Sims began as a buggy, trashy game with an amazing idea, however since the internet wasn't nearly as vast as it is now, "Hype" wasn't really spread. What's to say the Sims wasn't going to be more realistic, a-la Spore? The same is true for Spore. It will begin buggy, be patched, and expansions will turn it into a masterpiece. If this bugs you so much, and would rather have maxis spend all their time working to perfect their game with the initial release, then wait for Spore 2. I'll get back to you in 2023.

I would add that MY experience of people being unhappy with this game comes from the few friends I have who bought it (or in the one case, pirated it). None of them are still playing it.

This forum isn't the be all and end of all for judging, that is right but it also shouldn't be discounted.

Cheers.

111uminate wrote:RocketGirl, what boggles me is you claim that yourself and others on these forums are the "majority". That people are generally dissatisfied with Spore. Well, I beg to differ. It may readily appear that way on these forums, but how many people, over the million sold post on these forums?

Enough to get a reasonable cross-section of the Spore-buying population.

And goodness knows that there have been enough polls and Spore-usage graphs posted recently that indicate that if I'm wrong, it's only a matter of degree, not of premise.

You're trying to dispute this on fuzziness of numbers; that's an extremely weak case at best. The margin for error is pretty low, frankly, and the numbers in question rather extreme; the chances of the conclusions being wrong are pretty slim.

So what do you hope to accomplish? Spore isn't an MMO. The developers aren't going to post updates and replies to player queries every week.

They don't have to. The question is about future plans in general: the players have spoken, Spoor failed in these specific areas, will anything be done about it or should we just give up on Spoor entirely?
A statement clearing THAT up would be a one-shot, not a weekly update.

You seem to be paying only marginal attention to what you're trying to debate; this is all information you should already have by now. What gives?

They make announcements when they choose, not chit chat with players because that person is so vastly important.

...wait, what? Did you just describe ME as vastly important? *boggle* I mean, I'm flattered, but I'm not important.
At most I might be prominent because I'm vocal and have a fair amount of community support for what I say, but it's not as if I have any power...or even really influence, when it comes down to it. People agree with me a lot, but I'm hardly persuading anybody who feels otherwise, which doesn't translate to power or influence.
So how can you possibly describe me as important?

The little group here on the forums is a puck mark compared to the sales the game reached, and what do they care about more? The game just launched. Obviously they care about sales. They're not going to be in a hurry to make little tweaks or fulfill promises right away just to ease the woes of a few butt hurt people.

Except that the online figures for how many people are still playing the game are down. If they care about sales, they're going to care about selling peripherals, add-ons. And if people find the game dull or uninteresting, they're not going to sell those. They really should care what we all think and why if sales are what's important to them.

I'm not disagreeing with you just to disagree, I'm just looking at things from a realistic point of view.

No, you're looking at things from what you think is a realistic point of view...and it relies on the assumptions that the forum is not a cross-section of Sporedom. I don't buy that basic premise, and your entire argument falls apart without it.

Your charade here is tired and monotonous, and your crusade is hollow.

To you; I have plenty of people responding with passionate agreement.

Ranting on the forums or toying with EA Tech support will get you no where.

"...toying with EA tech support"? *boggle* Who's doing that?

You're going to have to do what everyone else is doing, and wait. They're not going to drop little morsels here and there because a few people are disgruntled.

Says you.

Their game is selling, and right now that's all that matters. Wouldn't you hope the same for a long term investment you spent years working on? Hope it succeeds, and tweak later. Sounds reasonable to me.

Not to me; it makes sense to start planning your next move NOW.

You would do well to learn some patience.

Patience, noun: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue.

I don't WANT to be patient, I want ANSWERS; sitting around and waiting like a passive little lapdog does NOT appeal.

RocketGirl wrote:I'm asking directly and point-blank so it can't be evaded (and a silence on this question will be deafening): When will we hear from Maxis about our opinion of Spore?

Seriously; they claim they listen to us, but when will they speak?
We've been posting opinions and criticism--even helpful suggestions--amidst the bile and invective, and it sure would be nice to know if Maxis--who claim they're listening to us--is taking what we have to say to heart.

Obviously, my personal biggest issue is that Spore has become little more than a glorified art editor and sharing tool, the game itself being essentially an afterthought, and that I'd desperately like to see Science Spore have its day; I'd like word on if that will ever be a possibility, direct from Maxis.
But there are other issues people have talked about as well, from the DRM to the patch, to possible expansions, etc, etc.

When will Maxis release a statement directly addressing these issues?
...ever?

I'm sorry, Maxis folk, but I'm awfully tired of diplomatic restraint (not that I've ever shown much of that, but my last perfunctory gestures in that direction have finally melted away) and it's time to be aggressive: I want an official word, one way or the other, and if you don't respond to me, here, directly, then at least issue some sort of general announcement, please.

there is a VERY good chance they don't say anything because of a contract they signed with EA.

Iorchova wrote:Will Wright has always had creative control over his projects, even when under jurisdiction under EA. This has not changed. Spore became how it is because it better fufilled Will Wright's dream for the game. It may have failed in your eyes, but what's not to say it's not A's across the board when compared to Wright's vision?

And you care to tell me exactly how you know all that? I find your argument very hard to believe or credit and in truth always will be unless we hear something.

Iorchova wrote:Will Wright has always had creative control over his projects, even when under jurisdiction under EA.

You know what ironically enough this is almost exact statement I used to convince myself to to preorder spore over 8 months ago

@Iorchova and 111uminate
non sequitur -- Latin for "It doesn't follow" (e.g., Our nation will prevail because God is great. But nearly every nation pretends this to be true; the German formulation was "Gott mit uns"). Often those falling into the non sequitur fallacy have simply failed to recognize alternative possibilities;

RocketGirl wrote:Enough to get a reasonable cross-section of the Spore-buying population.

And goodness knows that there have been enough polls and Spore-usage graphs posted recently that indicate that if I'm wrong, it's only a matter of degree, not of premise.

You're trying to dispute this on fuzziness of numbers; that's an extremely weak case at best. The margin for error is pretty low, frankly, and the numbers in question rather extreme; the chances of the conclusions being wrong are pretty slim.

You should actually read what I said. I stated, "it may outline a vague trend". I never said the numbers were wrong. It's statistically impossible that they're wrong. You mention extreme, and that's exactly the reason I decided to mention the xFire case. The way you people glom onto those numbers is as if they're rock solid evidence of what you claim, which they're not. There are too many variables involved.

They don't have to. The question is about future plans in general: the players have spoken, Spoor failed in these specific areas, will anything be done about it or should we just give up on Spoor entirely?
A statement clearing THAT up would be a one-shot, not a weekly update.

You seem to be paying only marginal attention to what you're trying to debate; this is all information you should already have by now. What gives?

Haha. I do have it. You seem to be missing it. What major game developer releasing a single-player game has ever walked people through every step of the way of what it plans to do in the future? That isn't how these games work. That's how MMO's work. That's how Valve's/Steam's games work. Not major releases like this. You're being unrealistic.

...wait, what? Did you just describe ME as vastly important? *boggle* I mean, I'm flattered, but I'm not important.
At most I might be prominent because I'm vocal and have a fair amount of community support for what I say, but it's not as if I have any power...or even really influence, when it comes down to it. People agree with me a lot, but I'm hardly persuading anybody who feels otherwise, which doesn't translate to power or influence.
So how can you possibly describe me as important?

Ha Ha Haaa. Hook, line, and sinker. I didn't describe you as important. That statement was open ended, and vague. "Players", is plural, since you didn't notice. Get over yourself hon.

Except that the online figures for how many people are still playing the game are down. If they care about sales, they're going to care about selling peripherals, add-ons. And if people find the game dull or uninteresting, they're not going to sell those. They really should care what we all think and why if sales are what's important to them.

Completely reasonable, and I agree. But what do you expect in the first two months time frame of the game's release? What you describe is what maybe happening now. A portion of the player base is dissatisfied, obviously. But you're asking for the solution right now, which in my opinion is unreasonable. Changes will come months down the road. If you have any idea how a "think tank" type setting works, or a team of creative people developing something transpires you might think otherwise. If they did release information about potential changes they'll be making, as they go along you'll be getting a pack of lies. Content is subject to change for too many reasons to conceive. This is why I say we're going to have to wait.

No, you're looking at things from what you think is a realistic point of view...and it relies on the assumptions that the forum is not a cross-section of Sporedom. I don't buy that basic premise, and your entire argument falls apart without it.

Haha. Hardly, doll. You're telling me I think the forums don't represent a portion of the player base? That's entirely wrong. I acknowledged that countless people here are upset with the game in my first post. How does that make my argument fall apart? Do you know what my argument even is? Let me tell you. The rag-tag bunch here is a fraction of the amount of players who don't post on the forums. Simple.

To you; I have plenty of people responding with passionate agreement.

And that's all that matters isn't it? Ahhh, things become more clear. It's not so much your little crusade here as it is your reputation is it? I'm not sure which the bigger question is. Do you love listening to yourself, or others agree with you more? Hehe.

Not to me; it makes sense to start planning your next move NOW.

And who says they aren't? They don't have to tell you, or anyone else about it. The fact that they haven't doesn't mean they aren't planning. You're assuming, dear.

Patience, noun: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue.

I don't WANT to be patient, I want ANSWERS; sitting around and waiting like a passive little lapdog does NOT appeal.

A feisty one aren't you? Look, I know like others you've invested a great deal of imagination in this game during it's development prior to release. But you have to ask yourself one question. How much of that was exaggerated on your behalf?

okay im tired of reading on these forums about "if you dont like it dont play it" what are you stupid? that flawed and moronic argument leaves no room for improvement or fixes or compassion or understanding or anything. im sick and tired of you sheeple saying "just wait". FxxxUxxxCxxxKxxx YxOxUx. the whole reason why america is going to collapse along with the rest of the european countries is because of waiting. the only thing that *might* change the horrible nightmare spore turned out to be is let them know how it is. you dont just roll with the punches and wait, you throw some fists back. i hope some of you sheeple get where i am coming from

THIS IS ALL ABOUT MONEY, my personal opinion does not matter, but the consumer mass as a whole does, and the fact of the matter is we were mis advertised an editor for a video game. this is just about us wanting the product that we were promised. thats what buisness 101 is about sheeple. constructive criticism, have you heard of it? i spent 50 dollars for a big editor when i was told i was being sold a game, that is false advertising.

this game blows, everyone knows it, fanboys hate it but they really dont want to admit it.


flu

Soldats wrote:

Iorchova wrote:Will Wright has always had creative control over his projects, even when under jurisdiction under EA. This has not changed. Spore became how it is because it better fufilled Will Wright's dream for the game. It may have failed in your eyes, but what's not to say it's not A's across the board when compared to Wright's vision?

And you care to tell me exactly how you know all that? I find your argument very hard to believe or credit and in truth always will be unless we hear something.

Iorchova wrote:Will Wright has always had creative control over his projects, even when under jurisdiction under EA.

You know what ironically enough this is almost exact statement I used to convince myself to to preorder spore over 8 months ago

@Iorchova and 111uminate
non sequitur -- Latin for "It doesn't follow" (e.g., Our nation will prevail because God is great. But nearly every nation pretends this to be true; the German formulation was "Gott mit uns"). Often those falling into the non sequitur fallacy have simply failed to recognize alternative possibilities;

Oh, you're a smart one. Yes, the argument is strawman, I designed it as such. It's just amusing watching people respond to whatever pisses them off. Also, you shouldn't need to explain non sequitur. Anyone who hasn't fallen victim to the horrible schooling system used these days should know what that means. You're just exaggerating the simple to make yourself sound smart. Now, upon reading this, you're going to quote this post I'm making right now, saying I'm doing the exact same thing, and that I'm acting like a hypocrite. I'll save you the time to type and simply say that I was using my words as a form of criticism, and not taking the needless time to explain something, and arbitrarily add in words just to increase peoples overall opinion of yourself. Then, after I would post that, you would say that I am doing the exact same thing, and I would rightfully agree with you. However, that doesn't change the fact that our score is still tipped 2-1. After the argument is closed, neither one of us will have a chance to strike back at the other, left in a frozen state, unable to get back at one another, unless of course you're able to pick your way through this post, finding a flaw I overlooked. Of course, to top the scales in your favor you would have to do this twice.

Of course, since you seem so delightfully confident that I fail to plan ahead, I'll also write down alternative possibilities. You could ignore this post altogether, ignore the lengthy explanation of your possible posting sequence, and simply reply to the original message, or even deliberately try to dismantle my predictions, going directly against them in an attempt to spite me. You could also try and make up for your wrongs by pointing out spelling errors. Don't worry, there are none. As for grammatical errors, you might also try and tear at those, but the further we discuss this, the further we're brought to how I began this post -- strawman arguments. Actually, since I've opened and closed with the same Idea, that would be a good place to stop, now, wouldn't it.

There, see how much easier it is when we sort through the arguments beforehand?

Now, please, don't let me stop you. Go bicker about your game.

Edit: You're going to respond to the fact that I edited this post.

Another Edit: I omitted positive possibilities. In the event that you're actually minutely impressed with my work, you might praise me for my work. However I believe this is unlikely, given the conflict between us.

Yet Another Edit: You could also put me down for my use of redundant language. Now that I'd actually let you have.

Edit #4: You could also diverge the conversation by picking up my comment on the schooling system. Of course, ironically, that would be non-sequitur, which was your a big point of your message in this post.

Edit #5: You could even blame me for my inconsistancy in my edit naming and labeling system, or the fact that I have 7 edits, yet 5 notes.

Edit #6: It also occured to me that you could criticize me for not timing these edit dates. People don't know when Edit #5 was made, so they can't corroborate its truth without having someone giving solid evidence that it was true through use of a non-edited, .bmp screencap. Of course, as soon as I hit submit, that will become impossible. So you could also mock me for not having warned people about this ahead of time.

Edit #7: Oh, this one's obvious. Criticizing me by saying I'm amusing myself. That's a classic. It also holds truth.

Edit #8: Noting that I could've taken the time to foretell these mistakes in advance, then using that as an example to show how my entire post can be likened to Spore, which began buggy, then had to be fixed with patches and expansions, and only after much work finally becoming complete. You could also respond to this edit in and of itself that I'm contradicting my stance on the game, when in reality I'm simply seeing things from your point of view.

Edit #9: Criticizing my arrogance. Also a possibility of becoming perturbed by the fact that I have a 9 edits, which is an odd number and annoy some people. To fix this, I'll make a blank Edit #10 just for you.

Edit #10: Blank.

111uminate wrote:
You should actually read what I said. I stated, "it may outline a vague trend". I never said the numbers were wrong.

You were still very dismissive.

The way you people glom onto those numbers is as if they're rock solid evidence of what you claim, which they're not. There are too many variables involved.

So your entire argument is predicated on your interpretation of what we mean, on how we make you feel.

...pardon me if I don't give a flying SPORE.

Haha. I do have it. You seem to be missing it. What major game developer releasing a single-player game has ever walked people through every step of the way of what it plans to do in the future?

You're an idiot; I just got done saying--and have already said multiple times--that a brief yes/no statement is all that's required, not a "walkthrough".

...wait, what? Did you just describe ME as vastly important? *boggle* I mean, I'm flattered, but I'm not important.
At most I might be prominent because I'm vocal and have a fair amount of community support for what I say, but it's not as if I have any power...or even really influence, when it comes down to it. People agree with me a lot, but I'm hardly persuading anybody who feels otherwise, which doesn't translate to power or influence.
So how can you possibly describe me as important?

Ha Ha Haaa. Hook, line, and sinker. I didn't describe you as important. That statement was open ended, and vague. "Players", is plural, since you didn't notice. Get over yourself hon.

First of all, I was reacting not to the word 'players' but to 'that person'. Admittedly, your statement was VERY vaguely worded, but even so...
And you can hardly play 'gotcha!' games when my entire reaction boiled down to disbelief and denial of the 'very important' charge. I was incredulous, not self-important.

Completely reasonable, and I agree. But what do you expect in the first two months time frame of the game's release?

Throwing us a friggin' bone. A brief, "Maxis hears you, sympathizes, empathizes, and is working on correcting Spore's deficiencies based on your criticisms," or even, "Sorry; Spore is what Spore is and that's not going to change" ...worded however thy like, of course.

That's all it would take, and I've said so multiple times.

What you describe is what maybe happening now. A portion of the player base is dissatisfied, obviously. But you're asking for the solution right now, which in my opinion is unreasonable.

It IS unreasonable...but that's not what I'm asking for. I'm asking for FEEDBACK AND AN UPDATE, nothing more.

Haha. Hardly, doll. You're telling me I think the forums don't represent a portion of the player base? That's entirely wrong.

It's consistent with your arguments, responses, and attitude.

And who says they aren't?

Who says they ARE?
We have absolutely no information WHATSOEVER. That's the POINT: getting Maxis to friggin' SAY SOMETHING.
Haven't you been paying attention? The entire point of this thread, from beginning to end, has been to get Maxis to break their silence and tell us what's on their minds with regards to our criticism of Spore. That's it. Nothing more.

They don't have to tell you, or anyone else about it. The fact that they haven't doesn't mean they aren't planning. You're assuming, dear.

No, I'm not. I'm agitating for them to say something, whether they have to or not. Just to end the suspense, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. It's that simple.

YOU are the one who is assuming, assuming what my thinking is and what my intentions are when you don't know them at all.
And you have no excuse; I've been completely and utterly transparent about my motives and expectations, and none of them have anything to do with what I think Maxis is doing or not. I've flat out stated repeatedly that there are things I'd like to see and criticisms that I have, most of which have been echoed by a significant number of other Spore-players, and that I think it's high time Maxis weighed in on all of that.

So I've made no statement regarding whether I think Maxis is doing something or nothing at all, only that I want they to tell us, one way or the other. That's all. From beginning to end, that's been the entire point of this thread.

A feisty one aren't you?

Absolutely.

Look, I know like others you've invested a great deal of imagination in this game during it's development prior to release. But you have to ask yourself one question. How much of that was exaggerated on your behalf?

Insignificant and irrelevant. The real question is, how much was flat-out STATED my Maxis--usually by Will Wright himself--that wasn't even WAVED at Spore, much less made it into the final game?

Now, I'm getting awfully sick of responding to you. You've been wrong multiple times, made baseless assumptions, tried to play gotcha-games with me that have blown up in your face, your reasoning goes beyond tortured, and you clearly haven't understood the whole point of the OP from the very beginning. All in all, that makes talking to you extremely annoying because I basically spend all my time having to correct what you got wrong from last time rather than actually debating anything. So either start being worth talking to--like by taking my points as I mean them instead of twisting them into pretzels--or prepare to be ignored.

wow you guys are really cool, stop flaming each other your not going to change eachothers opininons, why not focus on fixing the problem instead of creating one between one another btw rocketgirl im with you 100% but you wont change his mind. in my line of work we call his kind "sheeple"

:]

Iorchova wrote:
Oh, you're a smart one. Yes, the argument is strawman, I designed it as such. It's just amusing watching people respond to whatever pisses them off. Also, you shouldn't need to explain non sequitur. Anyone who hasn't fallen victim to the horrible schooling system used thesedays should know what that means. You're just exaggerating the simple to make yourself sound smart. Now, upon reading this, you're going to quote this post I'm making right now, saying I'm doing the exact same thing, and that I'm acting like a hypocrite. I'll save you the time to type and simply say that I was using my words as a form of criticism, and not taking the needless time to explain something, and arbitrarily add in words just to increase peoples overall opinion of yourself. Then, after I would post that, you would say that I am doing the exact same thing, and I would rightfully agree with you. However, that doesn't change the fact that our score is still tipped 2-1. After the argument is closed, neither one of us will have a chance to strike back at the other, left in a frozen state, unable to get back at one another, unless of course you're able to pick your way through this post, finding a flaw I overlooked. Of course, to top the scales in your favor you would have to do this twice.

Of course, since you seem so delightfully confident that I fail to plan ahead, I'll also write down alternative possibilities. You could ignore this post altogether, ignore the lengthy explanation of your possible posting sequence, and simply reply to the original message, or even deliberately try to dismantle my predictions, going directly against them in an attempt to spite me. You could also try and make up for your wrongs by pointing out spelling errors. Don't worry, there are none. As for grammatical errors, you might also try and tear at those, but the further we discuss this, the further we're brought to how I began this post -- strawman arguments. Actually, since I've opened and closed with the same Idea, that would be a good place to stop, now, wouldn't it.

There, see how much easier it is when we sort through the arguments beforehand?

Now, please, don't let me stop you. Go bicker about your game.

What is with the personal attacks man? I have not said one thing in detriment to you. This is not a game to me where I have to keep score of how many I got over on the other guy I just wanna see the game changed or at least have some power to change the game myself. As to why you are strawmaning your own argument I have no clue.

Edit: Can we make it a rule for no further personal attacks? I really don't want to see this thread locked

xxfluxx wrote:why not focus on fixing the problem instead of creating one between one another

Well, largely because the problem can only be fixed by EA or Maxis. The problem, of course, being a lack of information on the future of Spore.

Well, that, and the fact that many people think Spore kinna sucks. But they've been willing to explain why, and what to do about it, and all of that just feeds right into wanting to know the future of Spore...because only Maxis/EA can fix those deficits, which can only happen in the future. So...

...well, what do you expect any of us to do to fix it when Maxis/EA holds all the cards, here? Yanno?

well the more you complain the more you get noticed, and btw thats a good thing, but complain about how these greedy corporations stole your money, not about how this guy doesnt want to believe he was robbed

RocketGirl wrote:Now, I'm getting awfully sick of responding to you. You've been wrong multiple times, made baseless assumptions, tried to play gotcha-games with me that have blown up in your face, your reasoning goes beyond tortured, and you clearly haven't understood the whole point of the OP from the very beginning. All in all, that makes talking to you extremely annoying because I basically spend all my time having to correct what you got wrong from last time rather than actually debating anything. So either start being worth talking to--like by taking my points as I mean them instead of twisting them into pretzels--or prepare to be ignored.

Well, by golly, I do say I believe I struck a nerve. How did I manage that I wonder? No need to bring out the claws pookie. There's nothing wrong with two human beings disagreeing. You seem to like telling me I'm wrong though. Why do you insist upon attempting to seem so "right?" In case you haven't noticed, much of what I've said to you in this thread, and others has been opinions. I've never called you out on little tidbits of information or other such things, and the only depth of me labeling you "wrong" is the way you interpret what I'm saying. You can have whatever opinion you like, go about it however you want, I'm merely sharing what I think of it. If you don't want to hear that, then by all means, ignore me. It just lends further credence to what I was saying.

And as for taking points and twisting them into pretzels, you've done a real bang up job of snipping my posts and replying to them within their snipped context. You're censoring and editing what I say to you and replying to that, not what I'm actually saying. Rofl. But do whatever you like. Obviously parading about on these forums like a Queen gives you something very important, and I won't get in the way of that.

xxfluxx wrote:wow you guys are really cool, stop flaming each other your not going to change eachothers opininons, why not focus on fixing the problem instead of creating one between one another btw rocketgirl im with you 100% but you wont change his mind. in my line of work we call his kind "sheeple"

:]

Hahaha. Alright charlatan. Here's some perspective for you. You, RocketGirl, and more than 75% of this forum all share the same opinion: Spore sucks and you want it changed, and want answers. I'm offering a counterpoint to some of your standpoints. Who's the "sheeple" now?