Wright appraises 'Sporn'

  • By TomM_GScom, GameSpot
  • Posted Aug 27, 2008 2:26 pm PT

Although it can be difficult to describe what, exactly, Will Wright and EA Maxis' evolution simulator Spore is, it stands as one of the more anticipated games to arrive in 2008, thanks to its sheer scope and development pedigree. To heighten audiences' anticipation of the game and give them a sense...

Although it can be difficult to describe what, exactly, Will Wright and EA Maxis' evolution simulator Spore is, it stands as one of the more anticipated games to arrive in 2008, thanks to its sheer scope and development pedigree. To heighten audiences' anticipation of the game and give them a sense of the possibilities inherent in it, EA released the Spore Creature Creator in June, letting fans upload their unique creations to the online Sporepedia.

With Wright's design philosophy of giving gamers tools, sticking them in a situation, and then seeing what happens in full effect, it didn't take long before nipple-covered monstrosities began to flood the online compendium. However, given that the game is targeted at mass-market audiences, EA quickly stepped in, saying that it would censor all creatures that fell into the so-called "Sporn" phylum.

So how does Wright feel about players flooding his latest game with lewd content? "When you give players creative control, you have to expect they're going to do the unexpected," the celebrity designer told the Associated Press. "Some of it's really good for what they were shooting for. It's amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren't messing up the experience for others."

In addition to addressing the sporn epidemic, Wright also briefly touched upon the prospect of future console iterations of his ambitious game. "Spore on almost any platform is going to be different and tied to the unique aspects of that platform," said Wright. "Sitting in front of a console is very different from sitting in front of a PC. Whether you're using a mouse or a [PlayStation 3] controller or a Wii wand, that right off the bat is arguing for a somewhat different design."

Thus far, EA has only confirmed that a version of Spore has been planted on Nintendo's Wii, though the publisher has strongly hinted that the game will spread to other consoles in the future. Along with the PC game, Spore will launch on September 7 for the Mac and Nintendo DS. An edition for mobile devices was released last month. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

207 Comments

  • bblackout821

    Posted Mar 7, 2009 1:58 pm PT

    i think its just plane stubid and gross.

  • Marbas777

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 1:46 am PT

    lol i deleted bunch of ''sporn creatures''.YelloPussina and cockosaures sex was one of them ^^

  • nintendoboy16

    Posted Dec 8, 2008 4:09 pm PT

    Hearing this Sporn stuff sets my eyes on fire!!!

  • BrayneDrayne

    Posted Sep 29, 2008 2:51 am PT

    Maybe he's got a wierd pet name for it... Like "Muffles"..

  • dzimm

    Posted Sep 10, 2008 7:19 am PT

    He probably said "Playstation" or "PS3" and it was expanded to "PlayStation 3" for clarity.

  • nomu

    Posted Sep 4, 2008 7:54 pm PT

    ""Sitting in front of a console is very different from sitting in front of a PC. Whether you're using a mouse or a [PlayStation 3] controller or a Wii wand, that right off the bat is arguing for a somewhat different design." How do you say [Playstation 3]?"

    This made me laugh. What could he have said that wouldn't have worked without the bracketed insert?

  • skirlnik

    Posted Sep 4, 2008 12:41 pm PT

    "Sitting in front of a console is very different from sitting in front of a PC. Whether you're using a mouse or a [PlayStation 3] controller or a Wii wand, that right off the bat is arguing for a somewhat different design." How do you say [Playstation 3]?

  • XKat20

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 7:19 pm PT

    or live search or whatever

  • XKat20

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 7:18 pm PT

    GOOGLE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • savaghost

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 2:56 pm PT

    PLEASE WHEN Ä°S SPORE DEFÄ°NÄ°TLY COMÄ°NG TO EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!PLSSSS ANSWER PLS

  • savaghost

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 2:55 pm PT

    PLEASE WHEN Ä°S SPORE DEFÄ°NÄ°TLY COMÄ°NG TO EUROPE!!!!!!!!!!!PLSSSS ANSWER PLS

  • blackie8

    Posted Sep 3, 2008 2:12 pm PT

    man when will it come out for wii hurry up please

  • leafdj

    Posted Sep 2, 2008 12:21 pm PT

    Only reason I'm buying Spore, right there.

  • V-Nine

    Posted Sep 1, 2008 7:33 pm PT

    ..oh my...(covers eyes yet still peeks through fingers)

  • cd4113

    Posted Sep 1, 2008 3:43 pm PT

    so funny

  • menasure

    Posted Sep 1, 2008 11:21 am PT

    Sporn triggers mental images in the human mind -the viewer is equally to blame for that, not only the creator- and that's the fun of sporn. It's some kind of Benny Hill humour really, some appreciate it, some don't.
    But it's perfectly possible to build a fully functional sporn creature. That doesn't mean i want them in my game, because even for an adult in a game where size and shape matters little to be functional they would look 'silly' next to normal creatures. having said that i also don't like cute bright fluo pockeymon creatures clogging my screen because they would drive me crazy after a while. I'll just kill what i don't like probably. After all a cute 'little pony' or 'smurf' can be a dangerous thread for my planet in this game, many who're toying around with the creature creator don't realise that yet. :p

  • LittleDuck

    Posted Sep 1, 2008 5:32 am PT

    That and a giant penis or breasts will have a very low chance of survival left to their own devices in the world. I mean really, it's massive, so will be predated, it can't eat anything because it's a penis it's balls I'm guessing would do the walking, which would really hurt alot (you'd get alot of blisters) and more to the point, unless there was a race of giant vaginas, the entire species would be as gay as the hay.

  • bonik

    Posted Aug 30, 2008 6:55 pm PT

    Deleting "sporn" is childish, because only the immature/children are interested in making penis and vagina creatures. If anything, it will offend the younger audience for hindering their creations, while the older audience couldn't give a rats ass because they see parts of the opposite sex every day/week.

  • tjzhere

    Posted Aug 30, 2008 4:39 pm PT

    ok you got to be kidding me... do you really think that a monster shaped like a penis is going to scar little kids?? there going to be the ones making it!!!

  • kelleroid

    Posted Aug 30, 2008 4:27 pm PT

    1. If I could find some P-creatures on MY starting planet, I would just kill them.
    2. If I could find a city populated solely by P-creatures, I would pwn them.
    3. If I could find a PLANET populated SOLELY by P-creatures, I would call a Death Star and rename the PLANET into Alderaan.
    4. If MY creature was a P-creature,..I, ugh, I could...erm,..delete it? Maybe?
    5. If my FRIEND makes a P-creature, I could: pwn his creatures or stop friending with him.
    6. If Will Wright could propagate P-creatures to make a WHOLE LOT of them,..I could, um, swarm whole galaxy with my ants and DESTROY P-creatures.
    7. If I get Sp*re, I could join 'Anti P-creature Army' and wipe all of them from MY (yes, completely my own) GALAXY!

  • ZeRo2545

    Posted Aug 30, 2008 12:31 am PT

    Humans are animals driven by sexual stimuli. Sporn is hilarious and inevitable.

  • luke_gt

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 9:32 pm PT

    haven't any of these people heard of redtube???

  • samfreak

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 7:45 pm PT

    did Wright just say "Wii Wand"
    uh.... wtf?

  • Darth_Xehanort posted Aug 29, 2008 3:38 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Darth_Xehanort

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 3:38 pm PT (hide)

    In that case, I'll wait for it to come out on the PS3. I'm willing to wait for that awesome an experience. I vastly prefer gaming on the PS3 to anything else.

  • CarCrazy709

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 2:41 pm PT

    It's times like these when I'm impressed by just how creative we people can be.

  • sadcow

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 1:01 pm PT

    hahaha ya i got suspended for 7 days because my brother made a creature on my account and called it the rapist. it was the last time i let him use my computer.

  • BLaZe462

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 12:21 pm PT

    nudity is not porn, nice try gamespot

  • TenP

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 11:34 am PT

    I admit it, I've made some Sporn monsters myself.

  • ZeshiO

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 10:26 am PT

    Sporn is ridiculous. I had no idea until I looked it up on google. I'm impressed people! And slightly disturbed too...

  • Kez1984

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 8:22 am PT

    Will Wright is Dustin Hoffman's long lost son

  • brian_13un

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 4:53 am PT

    wow i didn't knew there was a cell version already

  • 1of_the7

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 2:46 am PT

    ......and all this time i was looking at firiona vie...
    huh? imagine that?

  • king_bobo

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 10:50 pm PT

    This is inevitable whenever you give everyone freedom - there's always going to be people that choose to use that freedom in a let's say 'unusual' manner. It's really their choice if they want to use the software to create 'spornography', but I can understand why EA intervined when it was flooding the online Sporepedia. Anyway - looking forward to seeing this game on the Wii.

  • lucas182

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 8:38 pm PT

    hahaha.. i am soooo gonna google these sporn-ographic creatures now...

  • IXIWhistIXI

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 7:34 pm PT

    I wonder if EA will hire me to sit on sporepedia all day and censor all explicit creatures...
    That's one hilarious and easy job...and there will be plenty of work to get done especially at launch.

  • lev_six

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 5:22 pm PT

    Frog: Hahahah! Brilliant. I love it. Go sick, community, lets create some "offensive" monsters!

  • henrique2006

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 5:13 pm PT

    me too from brazil 2 days less lol waiting for september 5th

  • frog154

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 2:31 pm PT

    ...and it was from these primitive penis creatures that the company EA evolved...

  • MichaelSilva

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 2:05 pm PT

    lol yea, i made a few pretty detailed xxx rated creatures that i can't put on my page lol.. they're really cool and the animations are hilarious.. i was lol'ing fer realz when i was making them.. too bad i can't let people see my work

  • stevo_360

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:50 pm PT

    Will Wright is awesome.

  • Scsrhino

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:38 pm PT

    "...it didn't take long before nipple-covered monstrosities began to flood the online compendium."

    OMG I lol'd so hard...

  • Gamer_152

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:26 pm PT

    These offensive Spore creatures were something that were predicted way, way before the Creature Creators release, it's good the developers had the sense to protect the game against such content.

  • suikoden003

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:13 pm PT

    I'll be waiting 2 days less.

  • pimpnoah

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:08 pm PT

    i cant f****** wait till september 7 this is going to be the best game ever

  • pimpnoah

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:08 pm PT

    i cant f****** wait till september 7 this is going to be the best game ever

  • InsaneTyranitar

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 1:02 pm PT

    I'm guilty of creating a penis creature, but I never uploaded it. It's stashed in a folder where no one will have to see its phallus- like body again.

    Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) Sporn is going to have many more mediums to work with once the final game comes out. Buildings shaped like penises... Cars and spaceships shaped like penises... Mabye even CONTINENTS shaped like penises... It'll be a perv paradise.

  • monkeyb412

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 12:59 pm PT

    "was wondering how EA would react to this. Now we'll just have to see what the ESRB will think. My guess is it will be given an AO rating, unfortunately... they have given games it for far less. Oh well, pc games don't require ratings anyway." It was already rated E 10+ and says online interactions not rated. so yeah i think not.

  • colinisawesome

    Posted Aug 28, 2008 12:33 pm PT

    i love will wright!

    i really don't want to see sporn but if i go to a planet and theres a bunch of penises i would have a laugh

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