If you want to peek behind the curtain, you can download all the early Spore tests from the game’s Web site. During the process of creating the game, Maxis had to assemble a number of tests and prototypes to see what would work in the final game. The prototypes are hardly full games, but they show you the steps taken to prove what could actually work.Don’t own a copy of Spore? No problem, you can still get a taste of the action.

Thanks to the fix, maybe I’ll finally be able to play Mass Effect–another EA game saddled with this draconian copy protection. Within 36 hours, they identified the common threads and uploaded information to the service’s subscribers.ĭid this clear up your problem? If not, you may require a little more forum scrounging. Supportal call centers began helping irate gamers and uploading complaints into a dynamically updated knowledge base. In one case he cited, a college student couldn’t get his copy activated while others in the dorm were well on their way to creating a new race.īut that’s still only a part of the problem. Karlin believes that, similarly, EA’s game activation servers have been hammered since the game’s release this past week. They weren’t ready for their own success. The Spore box is as close as some are getting to actually playing the game.It reeks of the exact same problem that Apple had with the influx of people trying to update their iPhones. And according to Kevin Karlin (director of client services at Peak8 Solutions’ tech support service, Supportal), an increasing number of their customers have called in with issues just trying to get the game activated.

Over 1900 buyers (out of more than 2100) have already written scathing 1-star reviews despite Spore’s critical acclaim. As a result, the game’s been savaged by a user flash-mob at. (So don’t go reformatting your computer–God forbid.) Got a problem with that? File a complaint, buddy.

You see, Electronic Arts has imposed a digital rights management (DRM) system to prevent “casual” game piracy: Three installations of the game, and that’s it. In truth, it is five casual games wrapped into one pretty package–and a perfect choice for a weekly column dedicated to slackery in the PC World. It traces the evolution of a species that you create, starting from one single-celled organism to a space-faring sentient species.

It’s been hyped for years as a huge scientific and gaming achievement. It’s official: Spore has finally launched.

Spore pc disk