Spore was EA, wasn’t it? Developed by Maxis?
5 Likes
You know what you’re right 
they all blend together into a shitty publisher in my head. But fuck Ubi, It still stands that I haven’t bought their stuff since then. And I guess EA too.
6 Likes
Can’t afford it.
We provide no revenue for them. It’s a bit like how Brexit governments have been relentlessly shitting on British artists who actually represent Britain abroad to great success in favour of shitty little industries that employ very few people but don’t criticise the shitheads in charge.
Keep your heads down peasants!
6 Likes
Their podcasts “outside the UK” have copious ads attached to them.
5 Likes
According to my podcast app I have skipped 16 days and 3 of ads since 2019. One good thing living here is that few companies but ads on podcasts and they are usually radio ads for car stuff or malls or something as I skip em all.
5 Likes
But BBC sounds doesn’t, for me at least never had. So I guess I can get their ad supported stuff on podcasts where they make them available, I just don’t get them ad free anymore.
5 Likes
Some of the podcast weren’t available on BBC Sounds. If I tried to listen to them they would say you can’t listen to this or something.
4 Likes
Stuff moved in and out of BBC sounds. It was never an archive of everything. Particularly as those shows marketed as podcasts were often by independent production companies who likely negotiated rights reversions to take advantage of commercial podcasting after the free service. I’m sure the complexity of keeping track of all that fed into the decision to “fuck it, let’s just pull the plug on Sounds abroad”.
Must delete it.
Wait. It just started working again.
Were we annexed?
5 Likes
For years I’ve been told, “Want to access geo-blocked programs? Just use a VPN!”
Now for the first time I need to do that, I find they are totally useless.
8 Likes
Same for me. If I recall correctly Spore had really draconian DRM. (I remember the game being fun up to a point, but I think it was one of the ones I lost when I upgraded a computer.)
4 Likes
My impression of Spore was:
- the free creature creator demo they released in advance was more fun than the actual game.
- the first part of the game where you’re a microscopic organism trying to grow without getting eaten, was pretty decent
- the creature creator in the game itself had more restrictions than the free demo, and a creature’s parts actually had very little impact on gameplay or creature behavior, it was all just animations/aesthetics
- the village/civilization and spacefaring parts were just dull and pointless
- IIRC it was one of the first games at its price point (was that $50? $40? I don’t recall) and felt like a ripoff.
5 Likes
You remember a lot more about it than I do! I also realize that aside from the DRM issue, I think I’m mixing up two or three different games of that era. 
2 Likes
I had heard, though not sure on its veracity, that EA had asked Will Wright to dumb down the game and make a more straightforward game. Its possible the reality was that they just did not have enough time to add all of the things they wanted. I really liked the idea of Spore but the execution was just dull.
Also i was curious wtf Will Wright has been up to and i can’t say i love his current venture
his next game, Proxi, which is “an AI life sim built from your memories”
In Proxi, you type in a memory (for example, a trip you took with a college buddy) and the game turns that memory into an animated scene
This sounds like gamifying false memory creation and i am horrified
7 Likes
My first thought is telling the game that I outsmoked Snoop Dog and Willie Nelson, then ate 3 pizzas.
6 Likes
Yup, it was on my list until I learned about the DRM and then promptly forgot about it.
It’s on GoG now, but I still haven’t bothered.
4 Likes
You really shouldn’t
I don’t think I’ve ever created myself or even anyone associated with me in a Sim game. I’ve certainly created characters with some similarities, but even there the parallels only extend so far before I take them down a different path completely. I generally even avoid the “design yourself in this game system” tropes because I just don’t find it that interesting. This isn’t a condemnation of those that do this, I just don’t get it myself and definitely don’t regard this as some universal trait, no matter what Will may think.
Now I can see taking the idea and going different directions with it: I’ll describe this character and give them memories, friends, and scenarios to play out, but pitching it to me as described just leaves me cold and uninterested. I promise that whatever limited options are built into it, and they will always be limited, my concepts and ideas have already exceeded them.
3 Likes
When Sims 2 was new, one of my 3 roommates (let’s call them X, Y and Z) modeled us in it, as well as celebs for us to hook up with.
X fell into a deep depression due to lack of friends, and refused to go to work. Died in a cooking accident if I remember right.
Y died of overwork.
Z, a straight guy, fell in love with Ben Affleck.
Mila Jovovich and Lucy Liu hooked up.
4 Likes
Meanwhile the one time i did play the sims i tried to drown everyone in the neighborhood in the pool and build a massive cemetery with everyone’s remains.
6 Likes
I tried to play it a few times, and spent all my time micromanaging trying to potty train my adult characters and figure out how to get them to eat a bowl of cereal without dying in the process. I know some people who thought that was tons of fun. But I did not find it a fun game.
Nowhere near as much fun as Sim City 2000.