Stuff Geeks Want

Every few years a game comes around that carries with it so much hype there’s no possible way it can live up to expectations. This year’s example is Spore, the game about evolution from the mind of Will Wright, the gaming wizard who has been doling out dozens of popular SimYouNameIt games for almost two decades.

Spore finally sprouted on store shelves this past weekend, about three years since word about it trickled out. While it’s received generally positive critical acclaim (“hello, Electronic Arts and your massive marketing budget we’d like a piece of”), users seem more luke-warm about the game. And that’s ignoring the thousands who have panned the game on Amazon’s reviews and elsewhere because of it’s stringent digital rights management.

In a nutshell: the game requires you to jump through more hoops to prove you actually own it than almost any other before it. To top it off, you can only activate three computers to play it, after which you need to deal with EA support to install it again. We don’t think this will affect most people, but we do know people love complaining when they can.

So that’s Spore for you: 50% hype, 30% controversy, 20% actual game. You know you want to check it out, and Amazon makes it oh-so-easy with their free shipping. Or, look at this way if you prefer: the game is free, but shipping is $49.99 (for Mac and Windows on the same tidy disc).