How Corporate Greed Sabotaged Spore's Success 

You did such a wonderful job talking about this game, explaining not just its (very valid) problems but also what people had actually done with it; design, contests, challenges, and so forth. As corny as it is, I owe Spore everything I have now and I was very excited to hear you mention artists using it as a means of creating art - it's absolutely what got me to take 3D art seriously in the first place! It's always fun hearing other people's experiences, perspectives and histories with this game and I really enjoyed listening to yours. I'm also a tad bit jealous you won one of the Darkspore creation challenges! The competition was fierce and I never got a winning entry, congratulations, and hopefully some day the Darkspore resurrection project will let us experience your creation up close!

It’s surprising how many held back games can have their failure summed up as “Then EA happened..”

EA had literal goldmine in hands. Too bad they blew up the whole mine.

EA: "It's making money, but not enough money. Cancel it"

I just can't believe how magical a Spore 2 would be with the technology of today's games...like hyperrealistic creatures, unlimited different parts, weapons, accessories, endless stuff to explore in the universe in space stage, more, bigger, better worlds, but the original experience, and essentially the same game rebooted. It would be amazing...

I was obsessed with this game and i’ve always hated EA for how they treated it.

Spore didn't live up to expectations but with today's tech, it absolutely could. It's been 3000 years but I would buy a Spore 2 in a heartbeat.

I wish we had a spore-like game made now. The idea was ahead of its time, but the technology was well, from 2008

You didn't touch on the grand disappointment the game was when compared to the tech demo that Will Wright kept showing. This game was supposed to be way more complex, but instead it turned into Sims in Space.

One day, one day there should Spore Remastered with additions of Cute And Creepy, Galactic Adventure, and Dark Spore bundle in.

When I was a kid I actually gave a presentation on design using spore as an example and I had the creature creator out on my moms laptop so people could try it out. This video threw me back into middle school where everything was interesting and all I wanted to do was explore and create. Such a huge influence on me, I honestly don’t think I’d be the same person today if I didn’t receive the game for my birthday. I still have the CD bundle, right next to my sketchbooks on my bookcase.

I was actually hoping this video had go in detail with the version of spore that never saw the light of day, the one shown by Will that included and aquatic stage, more realistic anatomy, active ecosystem and blood. To this day im still wishing for someone to make a game exactly like the Spore we never got to play.

The second stage was definitely my favorite one, it was fun to design cool wildlife.

Spore is a good game but I'm always frustrated with how much *more* it could have been. Literally every stage of the game could have a couple more mechanics added and it just feels kinda rushed to me. I've played it several times now and I always find myself rushing through the first 4 stages (ESPECIALLY TRIBAL) and I get bored after a week on space, granted, every game bores me after a week but I always think "I wish I could do this or that" and I just can't. There is still too much potential to this idea.

I see spore videos in 2020... I click.

I remember when lil baby me had the epiphany that parts can be used in ways they weren't intended. A mouth inversed becomes a frill that expands when the monster yells. Horns can be legs. Legs can be horns. Tools are used best in new creative ways. Ways they may not have been intended for. What a wonderful discovery to have at such a young age.

You should check the early trailers. The game used to have a 3d underwater section. I dreamt of making an underwater civilization which is why I was super disappointed

The SPORE modding community is already trying to bring back Darkspore… and EA aint even noticed!

Subjectively: “sorry we’ve been gone so long!” Me: *looks at subjectively content feed and sees last video was 2 days ago*

I feel the downfall of spore started before the games release, I feel the alphas and betas they showed before release where even better. The ability to exist underwater, more inclusive and diverse environments and even the ability of total free fly in space age. Removing all this was the beginning of the end for spore.

i wonder how spore could be reinvented- with more modern graphics and mechanics whilst still retaining as a tool for creative expression and freedom. Either way, despite the graphics being outdated its still holds up as a game.

Modern world in a nutshell: "How corporate greed sabotaged [insert pretty much anything here]"

Spore was literally a Santa present exactly how he described it. I can still remember playing that game on that Christmas with pure curiosity and enthusiasm. One of my Best gaming moments period.

I remember there was some early negative criticism over _Spore_ being transitioned from a more realistic art-style to a more cartoony art-style, as well as the loss of the Aquatic stage.

Spore didn't die It's still lives in my heart😔

To be honest, I have used spore as a basis when designing. Sometimes I can't just draw what I think, and making a creature out of the idea has helped me finalize things. That being said, the spore creative community is still very active. And new games that intend to follow in spore's footsteps have started to come from the woodwork. Whether or not they'll be able to live up to spore, I cannot say. But we can dream. And get there one day. I also ask for people to download the game from steam, or origin of you have it. There are two DLC packs, and a plethora of mods to add. Including some that bring in models from dark spore. It's a game that can be used as an artistic tool if you want, or just have fun.

9:35 "Spore's first and arguably its only controversy was centered around its DRM". Uhm, no. That was neither the only nor the first controversy surrounding Spore. The first controversy was when EA stepped in and said "It's neat that you've made a deep simulation game appealing to science geeks, but we're going to need you to dumb it down, cut a lot of content and make it much more cute and cartoony, to appeal to pre-teens instead". The 2005 version of Spore looked so awesome and so promising, and what ended up actually being released in 2008 was underwhelming to say the least to those who had been following its development for years.

Omg nostalgia

I had a love hate relationship with this game... A lot of memories some good, some bad. The biggest disappointment came from its initial advertisements and showcases. I loved that vision, that game play, that intelligent design. Come to find out after I get a copy... that things have changed... a lot... now, I don't pretend to know that it was simply a design choice for feasibility or player accessibility or was because EA wanted to rush a product to as many people as possible, but the spore I initially fell in love with was a more diverse, complicated animal. Of course when it did come out, I did love the creativity that went into it and the community that developed around the game.... but I will always remember how it could have been so much more.

" it could have been more " > me in my childhood still spent hundreds of hours on this haha > most of which was creature stage to just walk around with whatever designs i could come up with; & the creator whenever i wanted to make something more " complex " > No matter how many times i replayed the cycle of evolution I loved it every time- up until the grox.

Spore is, and continues to be, one of my favorite games of all time. It's so awesome how I can create anything, put in complex strategies that only make sense to me, and scream in joy as I murder another defenseless Epic with lasers. Thanks for making it and paying homage to the awesomeness that is Spore.

Can't believe I'm only just now seeing this video, but even a year later thank you for making it. Couldn't have said it more succinctly, Spore was really a gateway into creation for others that wasn't difficult to pass through because of technical proficiency that other creative software demanded (Maya, Blender, Max etc...). While I think it's a shame that it could have been so much more, I'm still happy it existed for me and others, it brought me a lot of joy through the years. Despite the games limitations, there's still so much you can do inside of it.

"And every choice you make along the way will impact the skills and adaptations your species will have as they continue to develop over millions of years." That right there is the false marketing hype that made Spore a disappointment for me oh so many years ago. Every choice you make will have a very minor impact on the gameplay of the stage you're currently in; and once you move into the next stage, all those choices have barely even a cosmetic impact on the rest of the game.

EA ruins EVERYTHING they touch 😭

after years of knowing this game, I took advantage of the steam sales and got it ... I am 21 years old, I am forced to play from origin to have access to the servers, but all this is worth ... the game itself always gives you the opportunity to restart and never stop creating things and creatures that you will probably see again in the next game or even affect a game of others. this is what i love. everything is connected and unexpected leaving you with that feeling that what you create will be an indelible sign of your passage that sooner or later someone will meet as you can see someone else's creation

This game was pretty ambitious. I jumped into the franchise late, and through a DS spinoff years ago. Once I had the original game, it was played quite extensively. My favorite stage being the Creature Stage, with the second being the Space/Space Adventure Stage. At the time, I hadn’t thought of it as anything more. But, later in my early 20s. I saw it the same way some artists experienced Spore, a kind of crude, yet effective(with mods), 3D modeling engine. I would be lying if I said this game did not help me with proportions in anatomy, or, sending my creativity the path it has now. I’ve had a passion for evolution, biology, and aliens since I was around 5. Pokemon was a step into that, gardening years later, and access to the internet made finding information, and scientific facts easy. I had a lot of fun with this game, and I’m probably one of a thousand to say, I’d really like to see someone take this game as inspiration, and make something a step better. A Spore 2 perhaps? We can only voice interest, and hope from there.

I really hope we get some sort of successor to Spore one day It feels like there's still so much potential to explore

If they made a new Spore game I would be all over it

My favorite memory of playing Spore was when I'd really started to delve into the creative aspect of it all. I'd grown bored with the base game and just wanted to see how far I could stretch my creative limbs. So 14 year old simply made art. I made a LOT of it. From rainbow-colored spaceships that looked unbelievably complex to strange structures and even weirder creatures... I couldn't have enough of it. I created tidbits of lore for EVERYTHING I made. My inspiration started with Slartibartfast89 back then too. I admired his art and wanted to emulate it. Sure it took me forever to find my stride but when I did... The most magical thing happened. I'd created this sunset-looking ship that looked like a sideways cone. Except the center of it was pitch black while the outside fins had a - well - sunset coloration to them. They spiraled down to a sharp point at the end. I'd uploaded it the night before and the next morning, much to my surprise, I'd gotten featured! My fifteen minutes of fame came and went as people discovered my treasure trove of weird creatures, art, and sci-fi spaceships. It was unique, and it made me insanely happy. I haven't booted Spore up since, really. Fourteen year old and twenty-six year old me are do very different people, and I'm afraid I lost the patience and skill to do what I used to in this game. But... you might have convinced me to maybe install it one more time. . .

The thing that I would love to understand in a technical level is how they made a way to save creatures into PNG format!

I used to spend entire days playing Spore!

It's amazing how good Spore is even in its current state. This video just scratched the surface of the game's issues. EA doomed it from the start by forcing it to release far ahead of schedule, sans many game mechanics that Will intended to have, leaving it a buggy shadow of what it could have been.

Spore was, and still is, one of those games that just made my personality. It is a shame that EA owns it, but still. Spore is a great expirience even now. So much fun, so much possibilities. I feel bad for the fish stage

I remember loving the creature creator. I think if I had had my own laptop or PC back then I'd have spent SO much time just building new creatures. That said, the game itself was a mixed bag for me. I liked the cellular and creature stages, but everything above creature didn't interest me at all. Tribal was always the stage I stopped at, so maybe I would have enjoyed the space stage. Who knows.

Therapist: Spore Naruto doesn't exist, Spore Naruto can't hurt you! Spore Naruto: 13:19

7:50 “Sure you could say that some were better than others” Of course, nothing anyone will create from now on can compare to the sheer beauty of Butter.

One of my favorite parts is the amazing amounts of attention to detail, you can find your other saved games in the space stage, ally with them on one save. And it transfers the friendship to the other save too

i have strong memories with Spore, still remember my creatures design to this day think my only issue i had with the game was that i actually didn't like the shift from playing as an individual creature to then becoming a sims like game, i would have liked to have stayed as an individual in the tribe instead of being this weird force controlling my tribe think it's because i am more of a 3rd person game fan than a sims fan

I feel like every Subjectively video starts with "We're finally back! " Just an observation

Oh hey, one of my creations shows up briefly! (7:12 the "Let it Consume You" creature by Metalblaze) This game is definitely one of my favorites, even in the state that it is in with the disappointing level it came out to be, it's still a huge amount of fun. There really is no game like it.

This video almost made me cry lmao, im an artist and spore was a childhood favourite game of mine, i was never around during spores haydays, i started playing around 2012-2013, i used to have a vers of the game with less harsh drm, idk got lucky i geuss, i installed it on almost all my computers but recently the severs stopped working, i ended up being forced to buy it again on origin after the support claimed my code doesnt work on origin (bullshit i sent them photographic proof of it being a legitimate copy that existed before origin) to this day i loved playing it and i have my own entire storyline based off my main favourite races, a kinda polictal murder mystery dance turned all out war in space stage between these four races, its one of my favourite comfort games and i so wish for more, but i still play it for hours on end, I've probably played more than any game like skyrim or fallout or those tripple a open worlds, spore is so simple fun and creative and holds such a special place in my heart.

God I miss Spore. I put hours and hours into this game and literally met some of my current friends through it still

The moment you start spore it feels like a magical awesome game, then as time goes on it starts to feel like a sloppy 45 minute experience rather then a full fledged game. It could of been soooo much more but it feels like half way through design something changed.

Player Empire: **becomes ally with Grox** Galactic Council: FBI OPEN UP! (and thanks for the fish)

I honestly loved playing Spore when it came out. Sure, there was some unfulfilled potential and the game could have been even better, but I still had a blast playing it. I thought it was pretty creative for its time and it was fun progressing through the stages and using the creature editor.

I used the Galactic Adventures expansion pack in multiple school projects and it made me way more invested in those classes. This I.P. deserves a second chance.

Spore is such a masterpiece and remastered version has so much potential

I just recently used Spore again for a painting project, because the anatomy of the creature was so alien that I needed a 3d visualization. It was pretty fast recreating it ingame and a screenshot of my spore creature was the basis for my picture.

there was a time in my life where the only games i would play were zoo tycoon 2 and spore. good times

I never even knew Spore was well-liked or had a community. I always felt like one of few, with how opinions about it were within my bubble. I adored it, I always wondered what happened to it (I only ever knew about Spore+DLC, not the other Spore-games)

One of my favourite games growing up, the beauty of user created content allowed it to have a much longer lifespan, with many active communities still around today. Also you can make Lovecraft look like a chump with the walking dong creatures. E: Just realized that your snowman species is in empire into my main game, neato!

I never knew so many people loved Spore so much. I was super excited about the game before it came out, but then it did and it just seemed lackluster. Yes, you could customize your creatures virtually endlessly, but it didn't have the impacts I was expecting. You could make a super-efficient, sleek creature or a derpy dude with a mouth on the top of its head and a useless third arm flopping out of its back and nothing major would change. Based on this video I guess the difference was about playstyles. I didn't really care about the creation screen; making a new creature wasn't the part I wanted, I wanted to see how different creatures reacted to their environments.

Great summary of the ill-fated Spore. The DRM on Spore was unusual because while many physical CD games of the time had a CD-Key you had to enter (Starcraft 1, Diablo 1 & 2, etc.) they never had a limit on how many times you could use the key. I could go dig up my Starcraft 1 disc now and install it. The key was also not verified with any servers (AFAIK) for those games so you also weren't reliant on the company maintaining servers forever to keep your game. I beta tested and eventually bought Darkspore when it released. I had given them a lot of feedback during the beta and the team was listening and doing their best to take this wild idea and make it into a fun game loop. Unfortunately, they never got there before it was canned. There were a lot of redeeming qualities about it and the ARPG genre had a lack of games at the time so it could've done really well if it had gotten the support it needed and not been so poorly handled by EA. Unfortunately, this is the story of many games. Very few games get the backing and dedication they need to turn a dud or even a medium success into a great game. No Man's Sky is such a unique exception there and I think it's really only because Hello Games had nothing else to fall back on and nobody would have bought another game from them if they didn't fix NMS.

I remember I bought the game new from Walmart, and the code had already been used.. As a kid, there was no way I was going to call tech support and I never asked my parents to. Gotta love terrible piracy management software that, in the end, encourages piracy due to issues like what I had. Without it I wouldn't have been able to play Spore, even though I bought the game.

I really miss Spore! I played it so much in middle school😭

Respawn: Hey EA we made one of the best battle royales. Can we reward our players with some cool events? EA: yeah but make each character skin $18

I literally played this game so damn much throughout my childhood, hell I still play it now and again to make aliens from Darwin IV, to think this game ALMOST had its own animation creator that could teach you about animating and make your creature, no matter the shape, move fluently.

as soon as the video said 'EA' for the first time I was like: "Ah, that'll do it."

Spore was one of those games I was super excited for. I got it the day it came out and though I had fun, the actual game was so short it felt more like a tech demo. I was so disappointed.

Everyone: Such a throwback, i remember playing this back when i was in middle school! Me: In middle school, loves this game even though it's only a year younger than me and is pretty dead.

I still remember first getting spore roughly seven years ago for my birthday I had seen an ad for it in a pamphlet or something like that, and I just _had_ to get it. So glad I convinced my mom to get it for me, and it warms my heart to see that the spore community is still so active, especially the modding community, allowing so much more to be added on. And the whole darkspore thing, I never got to play the game and I had only just heard of it roughly two years ago after finding DarkEdge's channel and watching all her absolutely amazing UBD creations honestly, kinda sad I couldn't play the game as id love to try it, but I dont legally own the game(plus I _highly_ doubt anyone made a cracked version) so I cant use ReCap, the project you had mentioned that was trying to bring darkspore back. Currently, they have the main menu and hero editor working, so hopefully they can get some more smooth progress soon

I remember being so hyped for the release of spore, I even pulled all nighter so I could play it from when it released at midnight until I had to go to school the next morning. Finally getting my hands on it and being like "oh.. this is it?" Pretty sure it destroyed all future expectations of video games for me.

Spore was my childhood! I love this game, and it holds a special place in my heart. I haven't played it in a couple years, but I was super active back in the day. It's honestly a great game.

I really enjoyed Spore when I was younger. Watching my favourite RU-vidrs play it and make all these interesting things and species. Shame it's in this state now.

not me staring menacingly at my copy of darkspore

I have been a big fan of this game for a long time, in one moment I tought it was dead. But then... I saw a lot of spore videos on RU-vid, I tought they were old, but they weren't! I am so glad this game is still not completely dead.

man, this is a throwback. I used to play this all the time with my brother, and I remember I would get sad that his creatures looked better than mine. I wanted another copy for forever! I didnt know it was on steam!

I absolutely loved Spore and its expansion packs. It's a game that could have been so so much more, but for what it ended up being, I still loved it.

Great talk. Spore is one of my favorite games of all time, really a great experience to engage creativity. Not to mention the feeling of this explorable pocket universe, it was really something magical despite its "streamlining". It was interesting to hear how you believe it contributed to you becoming a designer today, I am also working in 3D modeling and animation, I know I there is a lot that influenced me to do so but there definitely might be a correlation with Spore as well. ^^

Im so mad i didn't find this video sooner. Its very well put together and i like that you pointed out the faults and actually got around to explaining why the franchise fell- I certainly can agree as I own Spore Hero and let me tell you starting it as a kid and then finding out I couldn't create just what I wanted like on PC I was so upset because it could've been done, my cousins have put more hours into that game than I have because its just not even the same- But I digress. Spore, like many, was life changing for me. I've met some of my greatest friends by playing the game with them and creating wacky creatures we would laugh about for hours on end, but also, creating creatures from my imagination really helped push forward my artistic passion, I used to draw these creatures as practice and it was always really fun and easy. I recently bought the game again on Steam and I'm not even embarrassed about the hours I've already put into it because I've already put so many years into it. I'll always recommend Spore to people who just want a game they can screw around and just have a fun time with because thats what it is. In terms of my art today, its definitely helped bring back my love for character creation and design, and no art school could've taught me the things Spore has. It'll always be my heart game.

Cell- Love Animal-Fantastic Tribal- Meh, I wasn’t a fan Civilisation- Amazing Space- Never played often

I loved spore as an art program. As a game the only really fun section was cell stage. (Which should become an arcade game). The space stage ended up being too big, I could never keep track of which worlds were self sustaining and well defended.

I remember I was obsessed with this game too when I was young because I found evolution the coolest thing ever, I watched a ton of videos on it but that was the end of it lol I was one of those kids with parents who didn’t allow them to buy any games, not physical nor digital so I never actually got to play it

Spore was SUCH a friggin cool game. I loves it and still play it sometimes. I just started playing again, that i get a recommendation for this NOW should concern me. But i am too busy playing.

I remember my friend and I finally getting to space then stumbling across the solar system by accident. Blew our minds.

As someone who also still loves the community and wants to continue, your video has brought to light the majority of technical difficulties I've been having as I keep changing computers and had bouts with customer service about spore even to this day. I'd love to keep playing If they'd let me. Gotten to the point where my account isn't even allowed to install the addons like creepy and cute or those dumb bots parts I won from a contest back in the day 😞 Don't need them to keep creating but not being able to view or have access to my old creations because of those errors is really frustrating 😑

Not gonna lie, this video makes me want to play the game again. Edit: Just bought the game on Steam with it's expansions and it only cost me $8.01.

I loved spore as a kid, I don't know how many hours I spent on it, I even learnt to record my screen just to make a movie with my creature... As I grew up I stopped playing, but later on I lent my copy to my cousin and she loves it!! It's a really good game

I cant believe im not the only one who remembers Mushroom Men, id love to see a video on it eventually lmao

The word Spore: *exists in the title* Me: *CLICKING*

The thing you talk about with the christmas tree in 2008 threw me right back memory lane... hard. My sister and I were OBSESSED with Spore, we played it together for hours on end and we loved it. The nostalgia is unreal, I swear... How we had to persuade our mom to buy us the DLCs for birthdays and christmas after... how we named our creatures weird stuff we thought was funny back then and how my sister was a literal master at creating them because she has an artist brain touched by the Gods lol Those memories make my chest ache. Simpler times, really...

Does anyone know that there was a dsi version? Same type of game. But mostly 2d. It was fun, but I have never heard anyone talk about it.

I remember being so hyped for this game, my friend had brought in a /newspaper clipping/ to lunch and that alone had my whole friend group going bonkers over this game. I ended up playing this game with my friends for a solid three years, even when it came down to just me and one other friend making Adventures for each other in a map we decided we were the co-authors of. This game is ENORMOUSLY influential on my taste in games and my development as an artist, even if I only really draw as a hobby now I still sometimes draw with the SPORE ost in the background because I spent virtually every night I had with it open either doing homework or building something.

*Petition to remaster spore who’s with me*

Awh man the way you described getting spore at Christmas hit me hard with nostalgia. I can't tell you how excited I was when I got it.

One thing you glossed over was the role that Will Wrights development team played in fucking up Spore. Part of the reason it took 8 years to release the game is that around year 3 or 4 of development, roughly 50% of WIll Wirghts staff pulled a creative direction mutiny and wanted to remake everything into a cartoony and kid friendly playstyle/aesthetic, i.e. the spore we ended up getting instead of the more realistic evolution simulator that can be seen in the early footage Will Wright showed us before. The only thing EA did to fuck up spore was the DRM, they literally went out on a limb and gave Will a blank check to make the game he wanted and he failed to put his foot down and tell his developers "No, we're doing it the way we already planned to do it".

Luckily though, in 47 years or so, we can all play Thrive!

I remeber when I first played it on the DS, damn that game was a lot of fun. Really one of the few games that leave a mark and that I'll always love.

I wish there more stages in Spore, here are the stages I would want in Spore 2: Aquatic Stage (in between cell and creature): Similar to the creature stage but underwater, like the Cambrian stage in real life, your creature will have to interact with other aquatic creatures to advance. City stage (in between tribal and civilisation): Going from basically cavemen to building vehicles and conquering the world is too big of a gap in technology. The city stage would focus on the development of a single city, such as development of agriculture, the progession of building from huts to huge castles, ect. Intergalactic stage (After space): The intergalactic stage is reached by colonising the entire galaxy, this can be done in one of three ways, destroy the grox, causing every empire in the galaxy to immediately ally with you, or ally the grox and wipe out every single other empire in the galaxy. To make it less time consuming a boring, if you choose to kill the Grox the entire galaxy can be recruited to help you, whereas if you ally the grox, they will use their resources to help you exterminate everyone else. You can also do both, which will be much more time consuming because you’ll have no allies, however the abilities you unlock in later stages are incredibly powerful. Once you reach the intergalactic stage, you unlock the intergalactic drive, which allows you to visit other galaxies. You make money by selling spices to different galaxies where that spice is nowhere to be found, and colonising planets in new galaxies to mine different types of spices not available in your galaxy and sell them elsewhere. Your ship is incredibly powerful to the point where space stage ships can’t even hurt you, but beware there is a whole universe full of intergalactic empires that you must either ally or conquer to advance, taking control of the universe. As you make money you buy upgrades for your ship, such as better weapons and a better intergalactic drive to visit galaxies further away, also, your ship and other advanced technology need energy, LOTS of it, you are tasked with generating enormous amounts of energy for your empire, such as building huge structures around stars to harness their power, this gives your ship full functionality and also allows your intergalactic colonies to function. The staff of life has also been reverse engineered and can be upgraded to to have unlimited uses, create your own planets, stars or even your own galaxies. Multiversal stage: (Final stage): After becoming the most supreme empire in the universe, you gain the ability to travel to other universes and can conquer them, you basically become a god at this point and can even upgrade the staff of life to create your own universes, the vast majority of universes (with life in them) are incredibly easy to conquer as the lifeforms there are intergalactic at most, not many civilisations have reached the stage where you have, but there are a few, there is one incredibly powerful one that abuses its power and several other trying to stop it, the ultimate end goal of the game is to either destroy this cruel god or ally it and kill the rest, or again, do both and take over, it’s up to you, at this point the spore multiverse is yours to play with, the possibilities are endless

Spore was such a big part of my childhood it makes me really happy to see people talking about this game :D