The Spore Supersite
Soon to come : Spore Profiles
Maxis responds to authentication controversy
An email was sent out from Caryl Shaw (MaxisLucky), the online producer of Spore. In the email Caryl clears up several key issues that many Spore addicts were concerned about. This is the email that we received today at 11:44 AM ET. Have a looksie:
Hey Spore Fans -
We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about
the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to
head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information
about how Spore is planning on using this new system.
A few things we wanted you to know:
-- We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the
first time.
-- We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads
new content or a patch for their game.
-- The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your
computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a
huge benefit.
-- You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
-- You can play offline.
We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings
and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and
one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the
Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my
Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see
what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing
their creations.
I'd love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We've got a
game to finish. :-)
-caryl
We wanted to let you know that we've been hearing your concerns about
the online authentication mentioned earlier this week. I didn't want to
head into the weekend without getting back to you with some information
about how Spore is planning on using this new system.
A few things we wanted you to know:
-- We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the
first time.
-- We'll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads
new content or a patch for their game.
-- The new system means you don't have to play with the disc in your
computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a
huge benefit.
-- You'll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
-- You can play offline.
We do hope that players will play online - sharing creatures, buildings
and vehicles with other players is something that is unique to Spore and
one of the coolest features of the game. Every day, when I play the
Creature Stage, I get to see wacky and awesome new creatures from my
Buddies on the team coming over the hill at me and I can't wait to see
what happens when our creative, passionate community starts sharing
their creations.
I'd love to write more - but I need to get back to work. We've got a
game to finish. :-)
-caryl
1. Lord Henry II - May 20, 2008 08:56 PM
new vid on cell phase, cooler. you can find it at gamevideos.com, it was the second thing on the list. check it out!
2. Sporemenow - May 20, 2008 05:41 PM
some nice pics of cell stage... http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=52322
3. xStaticwolf - May 18, 2008 04:56 AM
...Learn to use the forum. It's hella lot better.
4. MatchNL - May 16, 2008 08:10 AM
I don't have enough space in this comment box to portray how much of an idiot you made yourself sound, lucky711. The "silly"-ness of it is the fact that people who don't have a cable connection or internet at all hours of the day wouldn't be able to play the game....at all. Free or not. Some of these people would include ALL of our overseas military personnel. I think it's right to assume that any software that prevents LEGALLY PURCHASED COPIES of the game to not work anymore (just because you couldn't relay a message to EA every few days) is stupid. The whole PR stunt would've caused MORE games to be pirated just to bypass this horrible feature.
5. lucky711 - May 15, 2008 04:53 PM
why does it seem silly to you?? Thats a really stupid thing to say!! Atleast your not paying for anything!! I say, all of you people who are complaining should be kissing EA's feet right now, bc they could have made you pay lots more for the demos, and onling thing like youtube and your SPORE space or wats it called lol..
6. Ezekel - May 14, 2008 05:38 AM
oh... i see. well i'm glad it did get changed then. since all along they've spouted the term "massive single player" and a singleplay game that requires an internet connection just seems silly to me
7. MatchNL - May 13, 2008 01:10 PM
Ezekel, that is the NEW proposed DRM plan. If you read the initial proposal, EA actually was going to make your game connect to the internet to authenticate every 10 days. A failed attempt would deny you access from using even the single-player mode! However, the new plan (due to the heavy negative response from the first proposed concept) is less intrusive and fairly reasonable.
8. Ezekel - May 13, 2008 06:26 AM
it's a shame that paragraphs get squished together on here... makes bigger posts hard to read
9. Ezekel - May 13, 2008 06:24 AM
MatchNL: thing is, that although people grumble about it, when push comes to shove, these people are still probably gonna buy the game anyway. i mean they're already been hooked by the media that's been put out there. fact of the matter also is that EA and other companies are aware of this. anyway, as far as i can work out, other than the 1st install authentication, there is no required authentication afterwards. what they are doing is saying that if you play spore without accessing the sporepedia and similar online stuff, you don't need to authenticate. however if you download content from them, the game has to do a hand shake with the server to proove it's legit. now the nice thing here is, they could have it doing this EVERY time you download something, but instead, they keep a window open. they did this probably to reduce bandwidth since the alternative is authentication on every download request (especially when you consider how many creatures buildings and other things you will DL). now i don't like this initial authentication requirement, as it does mean you have to be able to hook up the pc to the internet to activate your game. and lets be fair here, the majority of people in the world A: lack internet at all, and B: of those who have an internet access, most of them are almost computer illiterate anyway. so for those who have a seperate pc with no internet for their kid, working out how to set up a network'd connection, or simply moving the pc to a room with a socket and connecting it up is not possible. now none of the above affects me, but i'm not going to say "tough luck" or similar, because it really isn't that fair. since it IS the first game i've ever (pre-)purchased that requires you to register your game (that's pretty much what this is doing) rather than leaving that to you, i also got to state my distaste in forcing my hand on the registering issue.
10. MatchNL - May 12, 2008 12:52 PM
If you add up all the negative uproar that fans gave to the initial DRM proposal for SPORE and Mass Effect, EA was about to lose almost 10,000 customers instantly. Lol... Bioware's forum alone had over 115 pages of angry posts. Maybe EA will learn a lesson from this.
11. Mystify - May 12, 2008 10:41 AM
They aren't the same link. tonsOphon linked to an earlier article that did say that, and a link was later added to it to note the correction, which is what xAndy linked to. They are on the same sight, but the article numbre is different.
12. Draco18s - May 12, 2008 12:14 AM
xAndy, tonsOphon: I love how you both posted the same link. tonsOphon, you need to actually read the articles your posting, it says they removed it.
13. xAndy - May 11, 2008 03:50 AM
tonsOphon: read this about your 10 day wories:: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52618
14. FuBi0 - May 10, 2008 06:31 PM
What the hell? When I reload the page it reposts! Ok, I'm not posting anymore. This site is dangerous!
15. FuBi0 - May 10, 2008 06:24 PM
This looks like the same statement they made regarding Mass Effect. Only problem there is that if you can't validate once after install you can't play offline period. Oh and you can only install 3 times per hardware configuration. Upgrade or install on another machine and it uses up another activation. It may also be that even reinstalling after a system crash will use an activation, but that hasn't been clarified. Theres a huge debate over securom on many boards about the activation limit but I hope its not as big a problem with Spore.
16. Draco18s - May 10, 2008 03:25 PM
Damn it, I managed to post in the wrong place. x.x
17. Draco18s - May 10, 2008 03:25 PM
quaserti, stop being stupid. Didn't you hear about the PROCEDURAL GENERATION of textures? I means you don't have to load a 2 MB graphic into the video card RAM before rendering, instead you need 2 KB to mathematically produce it. Gods, why do these n00bs think that more VRAM required means better graphics? All it means is larger texture files and more of them!
18. Alterego - May 10, 2008 02:53 PM
tons0phun: No, actually this is the old news that she DENIED now with this.
19. tons0phun - May 10, 2008 02:32 PM
You also have to reverify your authentication every 10 days. Did she mention that too? http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52547 "If customers do not come online after ten days, the game will cease to function." She's a sly "politician" at that.
20. Roadkill - May 10, 2008 02:00 PM
@killath303 meh the game will be cracked and torrented within 1 week of release regardless of the protections they put on it. Atleast with having to authenticate an account to share with other users if you want to see how your creatures will do vs other peoples you'll need to buy.
21. OmniRapeasor - May 10, 2008 06:47 AM
WE GOT A GAME TO FINSH
22. Jesus666 - May 10, 2008 06:43 AM
Glad to hear they care about the community
23. Spedy - May 09, 2008 11:27 PM
Sheesh, this is a relief for me.. I was imagining the disk erasing when my internet cut out..
24. talon274 - May 09, 2008 09:15 PM
lucky711 by online it means that taking other peoples work/aliens/biuldings/etc...and putting the on your world
25. lucky711 - May 09, 2008 07:22 PM
i dont understand the letter! wat is he/she talking about, online?? please someone explain to me!!! Thank You!!
38 Comments