"Spore" difficulty level too low, thoughts?

I think the joy of spore, and the sims, is creating something which is unique - that makes the games completely different in the "source" of their fun, and hence things like a story and a challenge of something to fight against, which are inherent in basically all other types of game, are simply unneccesary distractions in these games, for the audiences of them

all I've played is the creature editor

All the stages are fairly easy and if you die there really are not any great repercussions that give you a sense of mortality (making you feel like you don’t want to die). Even in the final stage when you die you still keep what is in your cargo hold and all the weapons your ship has collected.

But the thing is yes its very easy in the early stages, and even in the second last which plays out like a command & conquer on acid. But once you reach the space age, things take a terrible turn for extremely hard. You literally have to keep flying round keeping people happy so they don’t declare war on you and all but wipe you out.

Basically it feels like the early stages of the game is filler whole the space age is where the game really lies.

Here's what I think happened with Spore. I have no direct evidence for any of this, it's just the feeling I get knowing EA's history and the few interviews I've read, so take it how you want.

Spore dev team: "Well guys we're almost done, and this game is AWESOME. Only one problem, who is going to publish it for us?"

EA: "We'll publish it."

Spore dev team: "Great, lets just sign the contract."

EA: "Great to be in business with you guys, you got a hell of a product here. Now, there's just a few things we'd like to change..."

Spore dev team: "Wait... what do you mean change?"

EA: "Well we feel this is all too complicated. If there's one thing we've learned over the years with games like The Sims, it's that simplicity sells games. Make the game simpler."

Spore dev team: "But then we'd have to take out a bunch of stuff... and we think people will really appreciate the more complicated gameplay."

EA: "Simple = $$. You do want $$ right? Lets put it this way... make it simpler, or the deal's off."

Spore dev team: "Fine... what else?"

EA: "There's just too much content in this game. You guys are doing this all wrong. What you should be doing is releasing this stuff in expansion packs. Expansion packs mean big $$$."

Spore dev team: "Soo... you want us to take even more stuff out? And release it later?"

EA: "Exactly. Trust us on this one."

Spore dev team: "Ok... we've taken out a lot of stuff and made everything simpler. This created a few bugs though so we'll need more time to fix those."

EA: "Whatever. We're releasing it now. Everything's been planned and it's too late to change it. Now, lets talk DRM. We want to try something new with this game, but we don't think people are going to go for it. We want to limit it to 3 installs, then set up a support line to charge people money to get more installs credited to them. Obviously people are going to be upset, so we're going to add in yet another 'feature', the game will phone home once every 10 days to re-authenticate itself."

Spore dev team: "Why the hell would we do that?"

EA: "Best case scenario, everyone's cool with it and we have more protection for this title. Worst case, this second thing creates a huge backlash on the internet. If it does, we'll make a big announcement that we're removing the phone home DRM. People will feel they've won and the 3 installs thing will slip by under the radar. Best idea? Or the best idea?"

Spore dev team: "Yeah.... that's good, I guess..."

EA: "Great. Looking forward to the release guys. Get working on those expansion packs, we're gonna make a killing off this thing."

And Spore hits the shelves, disappointing people everywhere. Sure, it's still a good game, just not nearly as great as it could have been, or was hoped to be.

Copasetic nice post.

Is any of that stuff true?

After all the hype and after playing spore is has the semblance of truth.

I have no idea if it's true, it's just the sense I get from this whole situation. By now Maxis and EA are so close that they're really the same thing, and if EA knows anything about games it's how to draw the most money out of every release. Look at the Sims, it's got like 20 expansions all selling for $20-30 a pop. But I'm betting some of the developers of Spore (and maybe even Will Wright) weren't too happy with some of EA's decisions. I refuse to believe they've been working on Spore for 8+ years to finally release it as, basically, The Sims with creatures instead of people.

I do feel the DRM bit happened like that though.