the kneecaps?  I was wondering if that was it but it seemed a bit of a stretch.  Well, if you can see it then I guess I can understand the removal although I reserve my right to be as petulant as I can.  as for sending it to you, how would i go about doing that?  I can neuter him and have him back on my sporepedia profile which is just under lemurbouy if that works for you. -leeman

ps.  Am totally unbanned.  very nice feeling.

thank you for your kind words, Necrox.  I, too, was worried about what this means for the whole banning process for exactly the reasons you said.  It seemed to me that either someone was just having fun randomly reporting creatures or else maxis has very odd reasons for banning.  I'd like to be able to  contact a real person and not just get a form response from their customer service so things like this aren't so easy. 

To turn this from just being about me and into a possible discussion, do people feel Maxis has a responsibility to side with being too safe in order to protect themselves or do you think they could alienate much of their market with draconian content security?  Where should the line be drawn and God help you if you answer "Here, and no Further!"  -leeman

That was supposed to happen...

sadly, that did not.  how do I go about re-saving them?  Do I need to treat the .png files like downloaded content? -leeman

does the 'reatures' fix work for macs?

yes they did.  unless 'nudiyt' is some hot new thing I'm missing out on.  -leeman

I actually got banned Sunday and the whole process confused me.  Here's the note I received:

"Hello ,

Your Electronic Arts account has been suspended for 7 days for repeated
 or extreme content that violates the Electronic Arts Inc Terms of
 Service. We believe that the violation or behavior is serious enough to
 suspend your access to the service.

Violation: Inappropriate Content –Creature
<Nudiyt>
< Asset Name: Elmut>
 Asset Creation Date:  06.28.2008 >


Understanding the EA Terms of Service is extremely important, should
 you have any general questions or concerns please review the Terms of
 Service here: http://legal.ea.com/legal/legal.jsp?language=en. Should you
 then need additional assistance, or wish to appeal a violation, you can
 contact us here:
 http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=17.

Sincerely,
Customer Support
Electronic Arts, Inc.

EA.com Customer Relations"

I've put in Bold the area that concerns me.  It looks like just one person tagged me with "nudiyt",not even bothering to stop and spell it correctly.  Now, I've deleted the creature so there's no proof of what I say but here's my profile: http://www.spore.com/view/profile/lemurbouy so you can see the type of creatures I've been making.  The creature, Elmut" was, to my mind, not obscene in the slightest.  He had spikes running down his back and little bony protrusions on his knees.  No suspicious tentacles or soft bits.  So what I'm worried is that another user flagged me for fun and EA's instant response was to ban my account. 

Now, it's not so bad because I can still play and all my creatures are still saved; I just can't upload to the sporepedia.  However, if it just takes one flagging from one user having fun, I'm worried about the abuses that can come from this.  Has anyone else had a similar experience?  -leeman

I think the age, sex, and casual margin is going to be bridged very readily by Spore or at least, I think that's what Wright is aiming for.  The Sims were brilliant because you could just pick it up, enjoy it for a bit and then set it down but you could also go nuts for hours on end, losing track of time.  If Spore maintains an easy enough gameplay that anyone can just enjoy it to whatever degree they want, then I think it will be a smash.  Marketing doesn't hurt but there has to be some substance.

I also disagree with the statement about videogames going downhill these days.  As someone who played Karateka back in the 80s, I think games, like any media are bound to change over time and whether we play what's coming out, to dismiss them as bad is no better than people back in the day talking about how MTV was going to destroy music or how movies are just getting dumber and dumber.  Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these days?"  for it is not wise to ask that.

Possibly.  These days, I don't write as much as I should but I read a fair bit.  Any good things going on rpgwise on the board?