btw, just so you guys know, amazon.com is not the only one that deleted negative reviews about spore. Same thing happened on amazon.co.uk and also on amazon.de

All of the net is swarming with angry people, though, so maybe it will really make a difference this time.

EA simply cannot ignore this any longer, even if they won't adress the spore problem, if they want to keep making money they will need to adjust their "copy (read:paying customer) control" policies.

Its so sad because I always loved MAXIS games and I do enjoy spore here and there, but EA is killing anything good that MAXIS and other game creators could contribute to the gaming world.

At this point I would be happy to have one account. Apparently I used a different email address with Creature Creator than I did when I purchased the full version of Spore and now I can't log in using either email address.

To add insult to injury the game reminds me every time I play (after attempting to use either login) that I will not be able to access all the features of the game by playing offline.

What other option do I have?

I tried to visit that Gamespy article and it would not show up, odd...

Respose from the BBB - which I posted here (easy to find) http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/921.page




Thank you for contacting the Better Business Bureau (BBB) regarding your complaint.

The complaint was received by the BBB on September 16, 2008 and has been assigned case# 57128420 in our files. Please make a note of this number.

Your complaint has been applied to the following business:
Electronic Arts, Inc.
209 Redwood Shores Pkwy
Redwood City, CA 94065-1175

The case has been reviewed by one of our Dispute Resolution Specialists and has now been forwarded to the business for their response. Should you hear directly from the company and the complaint is resolved, please notify us immediately.

madjack wrote:Sorry to tell you this Heints, but the game is so shallow, it's embarrassing. Since you've just hit the space game it feels alright, but you'll see...

On the other hand, you might be happy with what's being offered to you. In that case, good for you. I mean it.

Ah yea it's shallow. And I'm still in the beginning phase of the space stage so I'm actually having some fun. But I wish there was more to do in the creature, tribal, civ, stages. The game feels real fresh when you first start playing, but after running around in the creature stage making friends or eating every other creature in sight, the boredom kicks in pretty fast.

To be honest this feels like Maxis left a lot out of the game so they will have reasonable content for the long line of expansions that are soon to come out. I hate expansion packs, and I REALLY HATE how EA/Maxis release 10 freaking expansion packs for the Sims - at what $30 a pop. They're simply taking advantage of their customers expecting them to pay $300+ for the entire experience... It's just cheap, and it's a shame the same thing will happen to Spore.

It's a growing trend within the gaming business I guess. Look at GTA IV. its a great game but they left a lot out because Microsoft paid Rockstar/Take Two $50 million dollars for two exclusive expansion packs to be released via Xbox Live. GTA IV is great, but clearly very light on features. Spore seems very light on features IMO, therefor they are going the same rout - milking the consumer base dry.

doorway wrote:btw, just so you guys know, amazon.com is not the only one that deleted negative reviews about spore. Same thing happened on amazon.co.uk and also on amazon.de

All of the net is swarming with angry people, though, so maybe it will really make a difference this time.

I have submitted two reviews about the game to amazon.com, both were clean, non-angry sound (if that makes sense) and did not mention the DRM problem. However I did give it 1 star, and described the single profile issue, and mentioned that I bought the game.

But Amazon didn't post either review. I wonder how many other reviews they aren't posting...

doorway wrote:More and more people are catching on. Several consumer platforms have notified people about the huge restrictions of the game and everyone I know could be stopped before they bought the game after I explained the 3 install limit (as someone else said, it's basicly just renting until your PC crashed 3 times) and the account limitation.

We must keep pushing.

Knowing EA and their history they won't care but the more people we can educate about the restrictions of the game before buying the game the better.

There's no problem with people buying it if they know what the limitations are. It's their own choice then which is something we didn't have when we bought the game.

In times like these 50 Euros (or whatever the game cost anywhere else) is a LOT of money to many families, and it's not everyday we can still afford a new game. And to be screwed over by such a large game company like that, with something that hits mainly families with children is downright evil.

I made up my mind that Spore is my LAST EA game, until they change their entire policy. I'll still play all the games I have (30+ from EA, I counted them and was shocked!!!) cause I paid for them, I might as well play them. But no more new games, most importantly, no more Sims expansion packs...

Yea talk about messed up. Yall will love this. A close buddy of mine got 2 copy's of spore right. And it just kept messing up. And they totally lied to him over the phone. And treated him like crap. So this past Monday he went to work. And got on the radio. (He works at a local radio station) and for the afternoon mix/talk show he took 10 min's away from the rush hour call in for a 10 min rant on spore. LOL he gave it to them. And he even took phone call's from people who played spore. And every one of them talked crap about it. And one caller said she was about to head over and get it. But soon as she heard him on the radio talking about the drama and the 3 install's and 1 account. she said she will buy something else LOL.

Now that's karma! EA got it handed to them. Because after the show he got email's from people. I think it was like 4,600+ fan's that all said screw ea and thanked him for warning them about not getting the game. So you see guy's. In the end you get what's coming to you!. EA treat's people like crap. And lie's. Well now they are paying for it. Spore was suppose to be the game that put them back on the map. But so far it's the game that is ending them. Karma is a bish... What you do in life always come's back to you in the end. And EA is gonna get served big time soon. I wouldn't doubt it if they went out of business cus no one ever bought any of there games anymore.

jjwalters3 wrote:

doorway wrote:btw, just so you guys know, amazon.com is not the only one that deleted negative reviews about spore. Same thing happened on amazon.co.uk and also on amazon.de

All of the net is swarming with angry people, though, so maybe it will really make a difference this time.

I have submitted two reviews about the game to amazon.com, both were clean, non-angry sound (if that makes sense) and did not mention the DRM problem. However I did give it 1 star, and described the single profile issue, and mentioned that I bought the game.

But Amazon didn't post either review. I wonder how many other reviews they aren't posting...

I just looked, Amazon has apparently locked the reviews for Spore... No new reviews have been added since September 15, 2008

This is really bad for EA... I mean who in their right mind is going to buy an EA game with this much bad publicity. Even non-gamers are hearing that people are unhappy or pissed off - even if they don't quite understand the problem.

jjwalters3 wrote:

doorway wrote:btw, just so you guys know, amazon.com is not the only one that deleted negative reviews about spore. Same thing happened on amazon.co.uk and also on amazon.de

All of the net is swarming with angry people, though, so maybe it will really make a difference this time.

I have submitted two reviews about the game to amazon.com, both were clean, non-angry sound (if that makes sense) and did not mention the DRM problem. However I did give it 1 star, and described the single profile issue, and mentioned that I bought the game.

But Amazon didn't post either review. I wonder how many other reviews they aren't posting...

That is just freaking crazy. Why on earth would they delete reviews... In an attempt to raise the Spore rating. LOL good luck with that. My guess is EA might be giving Amazon something under the table, or just strait paying them to stop the negative reviews all together. Sounds like something EA would do - pay large humps of money to Amazon, and a huge line of lawyers, instead of using the money to make quality, profitable software.

Some where along the way EA forgot where it came from - and it changed from a software company that made games for people to enjoy to a business company that cared more about expanding their profit margins.

Right now EA is standing there with their tail between their legs wondering what should they do. Will this go away? Will customers eventually accept this? Did we make a mistake here?

EA, pay attention and listen to your consumers - you screwed up.

You've been spanked by every gaming website out there
You've got a segment of your user-base in absolute outrage
It's so bad that Amazon.com has to lock or hold up on reviews
> And by the way you've got a major title coming down the pipe

Is the picture clear yet?

My advice to EA - make the right choice, apologize for not understanding how your efforts would impact customers, fix this, learn your lesson, and move on. - or stay your course and take a chance that you'll drive your company in to the ground....

Check out the thread here and see a section all about other thing's that need to be added guys!!!!

http://forum.spore.com/jforum/posts/list/817.page

It's funny and sickening at the same time - if you are a gamer.

EA has to protect its brand name from who? Not the government, not yet at least. They are trying to protect themselves from their own consumer base. Only in gaming would you find such a travesty within corporate endeavors.

Yes - many of us have to get our thumbs stuck to console controllers. We have to build an empire by mouse clicking through hours of gameplay on a great PC game. We love to game, it's who we are.

And EA... They sit silent, ignore us, and hope we'll shut up and buy many expansion packs. No patch update yet! Not a single consistent remark to all of the consumers having problems. They are at war with their customers! How pathetic!

I'm done, my household is done... We are finished with EA, Spore, Sims, Madden, Mercenaries 2 - whatever, and every other game EA has a big money grabbing hands in.

How did your hostile takeover of Take Two end up EA??? Everyone is fed up with this crap. We love our games, but we hate you. And you fight against us, the last few who actually bought your crap product.

Screw EA, fix this freaking issue!

It´s just silly how you treat your paying customers!

I know EA support isn't equipped to deal with this, but I was a little insulted that finally after a week they would send me a generic canned message - "we are experiencing higher than normal e-mail volume" email with a bunch of irrelevant links and FAQs.

Amazing. I just logged on, and I have to say, I'm extremely happy from all the support people have been showing for this thread. I know that this is a difficult (if not infuriating) situation, but the more new people who post what they think about it, the better.

I would like to thank the people who posted while I was asleep and made this one of the first threads that they wrote in. Keep it up!

Well, it's day 10 for me and there is still no good response from EA, and I just got a generic reply to my e-mail question. Funny, though. I had just finished writing a very long response to that generic e-mail (and while I was writing this, too!), and I tried to post it. Apparently I had been on long enough so that I had to sign in again, but when I did, I also lost everything I had written. Maybe not EA's fault, but I still became even more upset.

I really hope that EA is just waiting to fix this at the same time the first major patch is released. I'm not holding my breath though.