Disclaimer: Yes, it's possible (and perhaps even likely) that this subject has been discussed before. I tried a search for similar topics, but found nothing that really delved into this. If it has been discussed, I would certainly welcome a link.
Topic: Given the amount of information presently known on some stages of the game (cell, creature, space), what can we infer about the completion percentage of the stages we haven't been told that much about at all (tribal, city, and civ)?
My basic point here is that we've been given a lot of information about some parts of Spore, and comparatively little on others. In fact, the lack of information about the tribal, city, and civ portions of the game is a little scary to me, and I'm curious if I'm the only one who is concerned (or if, in my 2 month hiatus from this board, I've somehow missed a ton of updates on this stuff).
For example, in the Civilization stage.... We know that it's possible to win either through military conflict or through some type of cultural unification of the planet. We know that vehicles are responsible for the interaction between different cities, whether that be peaceful or violent interaction. However, as far as I know, that's pretty much all we've been told. I mean, what about resource management? Is there a unit cap? How about a point system? How is victory over another civ determined? Can there be alliances between your city and others, going to war with opposing factions? Are certain buildings required to build vehicles, or different types of vehicles?
Or how about in the tribal stage of the game? What's really the goal here? As far as I know, the few demos we've seen of this stage shows a developer dropping a fire, some drums, or some spears into the fray and the creatures play around those tools. But what is the player actually responsible for accomplishing at this point? What challenges are there to be overcome? Honestly, I don't even know how to formulate many questions around the gameplay of this particular stage, because I know so little about it.
Anyway, the point is, what do you think the reasons are for the lack of information on these "middle areas" of the game? I am concerned that part of the delay with Spore is because the developers are struggling to figure these sections out (hence the shortage of public information on them, and their general tendency to skip over them during demos). They may not be sure what to do with them exactly, or are having trouble making them feel fun. I only bring this up because we've heard several reports that the game is essentially done, and that they are mainly applying polish at this point, squashing bugs, etc. If that's really the case though, why the almost total absence of information on nearly half the gameplay? Are they just holding that much back to discuss in the coming months before release? Is it part of a marketing plan of some kind? Or (and I seriously hope this isn't the case), is it because there's still a lot to be done in these areas, and they aren't presenting them because there simply isn't much to present?
--TFGoose