Did you try blowing into the cartridge?

first off, while it has been said in previous posts in this topic, I believe it's important enough to repeat: Wizards of the Coast doesn't hold a copyright on collectible card games, it holds a patent on it. That means that, instead of having sole control over all CCG's made, it has control over royalties and stuff that must be paid to them from others who make card games that fit the criteria outlined in the patent.

Second, Spore could very likely fall under that patent. What WOTC's patent outlines (patent 5,662,332 by the way, if anyone's interested), and therefore what a CCG is defined as, is this:

-It is a method of playing games with two or more players, with actions in said game that involve drawing, playing, and discarding game components

-the player builds and customizes a collection of game components from a large reservoir of game components

-trading and purchasing said game components

-players taking turns using game components from their hands, and drawing and discarding on a playing surface

...blah, blah, blah. It goes in that vein for a good while. What WOTC seems to mainly hold the patent over is the actual progression of the games that it develops, such as drawing cards, then paying upkeep, then playing cards, then attacking, et cetera. If Spore's card game follows a fundamentally different game progression then the chances are better that it will be able to go unscathed.

However, the worry for me is that, while the cards are creatures and planets and such that are player created, they DO make up a pool of cards, and you DO pick and choose which ones you want to use. That IS part of the patent. May bring them some trouble.

Again, on the bright side of EA and Spore, from what I've read there seem to be those that question the legality of WOTC's patent. While I don't think EA would fight a legal battle over it (Big companies hate fighting and would rather just settle like wusses), if it did come to that there may be a chance of them winning.

However I feel that simply paying royalties to Wizards would be the most logical and likely course of action in this case, if Wizard so wishes to be paid. It's really hard to tell whether or not this is considered the same kind of CCG as say, Magic the Gathering, because we don't know a lick about the card game other than it will be using the same cards that you find in Spore, in the form of the Sporepedia.

Oh, and Magic is a -lot- bigger than you think. No, I don't think it makes as much as the entire gaming industry, but that doesn't mean it's pitifully tiny. A lot of people play Magic. A lot a lot.

Notice in the PC Gamer series of pictures, the number in the lower left decreases as more parts are added. Perhaps this is a tonnage or cost limit of some sort, to keep the vehicles somewhat balanced with each other? I also wonder if, by doing research, you can increase this limit.

Hmm... I wonder what the stealth rating of trees will be then... and for that matter, the attack rating as well.

So, by that token, the legs aren't REALLY legs, because they don't have bones, OR muscles in them!

Well, since in all technicality the creatures of spore are made from silly putty, sunshine, and farts, whether or not they classify as anything is debatable.

We must remember, when discussing this, that the data being transferred is incredibly small. As such, the downloading will almost certainly be completely invisible to the average user in terms of bandwidth loss.

The way I believe it will work, based on what little we've seen and also how I've seen other games do it, is that the game will pollinate a 'buffer zone' around you. When you first start the game, the tide pool will be created. When you leave it (or right before hand,) the planet will be generated. When you are ready to leave your world, the solar system will be generated, and so on and so forth.

In addition, I suspect you will be able to add content manually to Spore using a system similar to that in The Sims 2. You'll probably be able to pull things from both the spore website, and from some sort of menu in-game.

As for getting certain specific content, I imagine there would probably be an option to 'override' content in the game, allowing you to replace a random planet with a specific one much in the same way that you plop down pre-built lots into neighborhoods in The Sims 2.

Remember, however, that this is only speculation on my part, though I consider myself to have a pretty good chance of being correct.

I'd prefer to try some pie, but you sound like an angry person so I think I'll pass.

Back on topic, I might pay for spore cards, depending on what their use is. Personally, I think owners of the game should be able to somehow print off cards that they've found in-game, and then be able to supplement that with decks that could be bought through conventional means. Why should I have to pay money for my own creations?

On the other hand, it'd be hard to make a large profit from the card game if you could print off found cards, should someone find a way to abuse that ability, but I'm sure Maxis could manage turning a smaller profit in exchange for doing what's right. I mean, they're going to be making untold millions from just the computer game itself.

...Then again, it's not just about Maxis, it's about certain EA whores as well, and they like their money.