Spore took the world by storm nearly a year ago, and like any game, they had test and research periods before the actual release of the game. Somehow, someway, somewhere, these videos were then put on Youtube with the various user comments/banter etc. while playing the game. They're quite amusing and you can probably recognize some things you've done/said by watching this video:

 

The hyped Spore was released last week and the reactions have been many and mixed. Overall the game is well received, even if it has some things it could improve upon. One of the main things people have complained about is the DRM-protection SecuROM, but now it there's a new form of complaint surfacing – from Christian gamers.

The site Antispore.com criticize the game because of its concept of evolution, something that they feel are against their own Christian values. The site says that the whole game is propaganda focused against kids to teach them about evolution instead of creation or intelligent design. While the site is negative against Spore, they also take the opportunity to attack Electronic Arts and their employees, claiming they have low Christian morale.

While Spore isn't out yet – the creature creator is available and it allows you to make many different types of monsters. The lead guy for Spore, Will Wright has hinted towards how he might turn Spore into an MMO. To note is that Wright is the person behind Sims Online which did not go as well as he hoped.

Wright explains how Spore is well-known for being the first Massively Multi-Player Single Person Game, which might sound a bit confusing. However, Wright goes into details to explain what it really means.

"There was nothing between the two," he said, adding that Spore will cater to this space "where you have a lot of players connected through content, but it's not synchronous: it's asynchronous interactions."

"The biggest benefit I saw from that was the possibility of having a collaboratively built world, that's huge and always surprising," he explained. "So for Spore we tried to figure out, how do we get the best aspects of a massively-multiplayer game without all these huge design limitations?"

"I think a lot of these limitations were what sank The Sims Online: we didn't have enough user-created content; to a lot of the people that were playing The Sims, the idea of paying a subscription was a really big filter - a lot didn't even have credit cards."

Read more here.

Twenty hours ago we announced that the Creature Creator for Spore was released worldwide. Since then, there's been more than 250,000 creatures created with the Creatures Creator. Wow, that's quite the number in such a short amount of time.

The stats tell us that there's been more than two creatures created every second since the launch, it will be interesting to see how long that will last. I'm very happy that Spore is getting such a reception over their Creature Creator, makes you wonder how many will buy the actual game, what do you think?

“The response to the Spore Creature Creator has been overwhelming,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. “The creativity and passion that the community is putting into their creatures is spectacular. The development team has spent the last 24 hours checking out the amazing creations racing in from all corners of the globe – with peak volume hitting more than 1,000 creatures being shared a minute.”

Crazy, over 1,000 creatures shared per minute at it's peak! I'm definitely getting Spore when it's out, anyone who's even remotely curious about it and/or who enjoyed the Sim City games should consider it as well. I'll go as far as saying, everyone should, but then again I'd like to see what the final product will bring first...

Today Maxis, part of Electronic Arts, released the Spore Creature Creator. Got a great imagination? Then you should check out the new creature creator, there's endless of options and possibilities. This is an introduction to Spore which will be out in September this year.

The current trial version that is available today include 25% of the creature-making parts from Spore and allows you to paint, shape and play with your very own custom-made creatures.

You can later on also import the creatures you've made to the full version of Spore. This way you can prepare your galaxies before the game is even out. Full version of the creature creator is said to be out soon as a "pre-order incentive from EA Store and select retailers".

Another pretty interesting feature is that you can upload your creations directly to YouTube. Import and upload videos of your own creatures moves directly to YouTube with only two clicks. Check out the Spore YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/spore/.

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Spore Creature Creator Trailer var FO_53 = { movie:"http://dev.curse-gaming.com/static/flash/flvplayer.swf", width:"500", height:"350", majorversion:"7", build:"0", bgcolor:"#FFFFFF", allowfullscreen:"true", flashvars:"file=http://videos.cursebeta.com/stream2/premium/1660.flv&autostart=true" }; $("#flvplayer_53").click(function(event) { UFO.create(FO_53, "flvplayer_53"); $(this).unbind('click'); });

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Visit http://www.spore.com to download a free version of the Spore Creature Creator, sign up for the Spore newsletter or check out all-new screenshots and videos from the game.

For anyone that hasn't heard of Spore yet - it's a life simulation game being designed by Will Wright - creator of the now-iconic Sims series. To say this game is everything is well... an understatement of epic proportion.

Think of it this way: Pac Man meets Sim Life meets Sim City meets Command and Conquer meets Star Trek, and you have an idea of the different types of games you'll come across here - all in one incredibly massive game.

As you can see in this Spore Demo video from last year, you can fully customize the look of your creature, even as early as the embryonic stages of life.

All of that aside, Gamespot is reporting that the game will be playable at this year's Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany - August 23rd to the 26th.

You can read up on the Games Convention a bit more by visiting its website, and if you're curious about Spore, then you can read more about it by clicking here.