Would you be in favour of getting Spore through the EA downloader?
While it is still in its teething phase so far its trial with Battlefield 2 has been a very positive experience and a definite learning experience for EA with visible improvements
Personally I'd love to see it be available through digital distribution with official updates and patches available in seconds and no need for a hardcopy if you don't want one.
The Steam platform has been a great success for VALVe, why not for Maxis and Spore especially if they can link the player database through it 

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As it stands now Spore aims to be recognised as individual to its peers that involve slaughter and war and set its stall out as intelligent, complex and educational.
All well and good - it's a game concept that the industry and consumer has been crying out for.
However, I am worried. Politics does that to me some times.
Why politics you ask?
Well Evolution is the scientific explanation du jour that best describes our own development and that of natural history.
Spore aims to educate.
Problem.
Spore does not reflect anything scientific - its editors are artificial constructs where we impose our will on our creatures. We decide their destiny, their arbitrary and construed appearance as god-like creatures, omnipotent and whimsical.
This is not evolution. This is an argument for intelligent design.

Intelligent Design is one of those little things that makes the rest of the world giggle about hometown, smallville, middle America - something that is as flimsy a theory in theory let alone in science up there with timecube in ridiculousness. Now for the god-fearing among you this is not meant as an insult, whether something created the universe we reside in can not be proven at least for the forseeable future - but that doesnt take away from the fact that I.D. makes absolutely no sense.
Whether Will Wright has an agenda is well to my mind unproven and probably unlikely despite the Sims and Simcity having interesting cultural additions/omissions (condoms, nudity, religion etc.). What I fear more is the potential that this game may have on the education system - where conservative educators, legislators and representatives globally may hold this game up as the messiah of gaming -
1 assuading their fears of computer gaming as a negative phenomenon which most would welcome
but
2 using the game mechanics as a vehicle for their own agendas and belief propogation.
It has been well-documented how the law, literature and media has been altered, adjusted and in some cases created to propel a right wing theology driven agenda in the US in the past decade. I fear that this video game will soon be another tool in that arsenal, only now Spore has the power to achieve more than a thousand books or films or teachers.
Such power is quite frightening, has Will Wright created a potential monster....?

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