I've heard of a few of these, Kristen Salvatore from PC Gamer got one for her Boobalicious creation. I think EA is taking a hardline because these things are going to be popping up in games played by children, can't blame them really.

So "gay" is a bad word? Children shouldn't know there are gay people* walking around? Imagine what could happen, everyone would prance around in pink shorts and oversized sunglasses humming Kylie Minogue and Madonna songs in no time!

* or T-Rexes

I think you'll only really get the profusion of cockmonsters initially. It's sorta taboo, and it's doable - hence, people will do it. Then they'll discover that it's not all that interesting compared to what's possible, and they'll move on.

Like when any popular game introduces a new class, suddenly that class sprouts up like mushrooms. Then the fervour of the new and shiny dies down, and people go back to being as normal as they were before the new stimulus got them all revved up.

How long before someone sues EA for homophobia?

Good for EA! This crap must be stopped!

People need to come up with far more subtle & clever names for their titcreatures and cockmonsters.

Badken I think has hit the issue.

So would you find the Homophobiatile offensive if I suited it up in army green?

I do think that if they're going to try, they'd be best off to aim to eliminate obvious vulgarity and obscenities. Going beyond that is a mighty slippery slope...

Spore is all about making YOUR universe... my point is why should MY universe be governed by EA and their thought police? I'm not saying that I wouldn't add filters my own universe to restrict content to what I would like to see... but the choice should be mine.. and yours.. and everyones to make. Hell they could combine it with a parental control system and it would make a really sweet system.. It would certainly remove the need to employ people to monitor content for this thing. Besides... we all know Will Wright's first creature was probably a massive Cockbadger.

And I have no interest in trying to figure out how filter out the kids and their homophobic, racist, and pornographic creatures.

I may just be clueless, but it never occurred to me that this is what Spore would lead to.

Yar, exactly. There's some incredibly pornographic content for the Sims out there, but it would be naive to expect EA to host those themselves.

Feel free to make all the cockwalruses and f*ckasauruses and vagina weasels and dildodos and testicle leprechauns and lesbian buffalo and oogababoons and sh*tmonkeys and masturbating sloths and scrotum sharks and butthole pterodactyls you want, and you can even share them with your friends and populate your game with them, just don't expect EA to host them for you.

Indeed, for the forthcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King, the Death Knight will be the sprouting mushroom counterpart to all those cockmonster Hunters.

Yes, that's exactly the issue. Given what we've seen of the maturity of teh interwebs, it's probably safe to block this from being used in all sorts of insulting ways. Not that there isn't a way to get around it, but it's a reasonable first-pass filter.

But, it certainly cuts both ways. What if someone's trying to use it in a positive way, eg. GayAndFabulous? They can't do that, either.

Your mother weeps for you.

Heh, a Dildodon (dildo toothed tiger) would be teh awesome!
It would certainly give the smiladon something to smile about ;P

I thought we were off those?