Maniac & Spore

Well, it’s almost midnight and I decided that I think I’m going to start my Spore Blog!

So, seeing as this is my first ever post, I’ll start with a little bit about myself and also how I came to find Spore…

My real name is Mike, I’m 17 years old, and I live in Ontario, Canada. Aside from gaming, I live and die for sports. I play on the highschool football and hockey teams, and I enjoy watching just about every sport there is. I’m also part of my older cousins pit crew for his stock car. He races once a week at the local track, and it’s a lot of fun! But, aside from athletics, one of my true loves is gaming. In particular, PC Gaming. Don’t get me wrong, I like consoles too (I own a PS2 and a Wii, looking to buy a 360 as soon as I can afford it), but PC Games is where I find the most fun. I mean, with PC gaming, there is so much more than just the game. There’s always some sort of community to go with it, and with that community comes not only mods and such for the game, but new friendships. Although it’s not a normal go-out-for-coffee kind of friendship, I find that some of the people you meet online really can be considered friends. I’m proud to have met a couple people, that even after 2 years we can talk like old buddies (and trust me, I know, 2 years is nothing to some people).

So, that’s a little about me .. now, what EVERYBODY loves most right about now … Spore !

I came across this game sometime in 2006, and I thought it looked awesome. However, given my knowledge concerning the games industry, I told myself, “Yeah, it looks great, but lets just stay away from it for a bit…” And am I ever glad I did. By ‘knowledge concerning the games industry’, of course I mean that I know initial game release dates are rarely met lol. So, of course, I really was glad I stayed away from it for a bit, because it would have been hell waiting out this game for as long as that. And to all the people reading this that HAVE been waiting since that fateful day the GDC 05 video was released, God bless you !! Anyways, time went by and I forgot about the game. Then, earlier this year (around March), I purchased an issue of PC Gamer Magazine, and on the back cover was a huge ad for Spore. Right away, I remembered what I had heard about it so long ago, and this time I told myself, “Ok, NOW you can get jacked for this game!” I went to the official Spore site, learned about the core concepts of the game, but again left it at that.

It wasn’t until last week I decided to REALLY get jacked for the game. I started surfing around for fansites, and I eventually found HoSP. In all honesty, I’m really glad I did because it is one of the best fansites I’ve ever seen! The main page is great, all of the features are fantastic, and of course, I feel that there is a really great community here. I’ve only ever been part of one other online community, and that’s because the people there, for the most part, were awesome! Easy to talk to, and nearly everybody shared the same interests! That’s what I’m finding out about this site - I share a lot of interests with plenty of the people here. And I am REALLY liking the looks of my future here at this site. Spore is going to be one of the best community based games ever, if not THE best. I’m really glad to have found someplace I’m so comfortable with, that I hope to eventually consider it a ‘home away from home’. I mean, sure, Spore is going to be great to play by yourself, but it will be even better when you have a great community of friends to share your experiences with!

So, here’s to hoping we all can share some great stories after September 7th !

Cheers!