Spore is the recently released game from game design genius Will Wright. Reviews have been somewhat mixed, ranging from good to great, with a few occasional mediocre reviews. For the most part, I think this is due to excessive hype, and the impossible expectations caused by following The Sims. But make no mistake, Spore is an excellent game. I recently completed a review titled: Spore - A Detailed Review of the latest Will Wright creation. An exerpt:

The open ended gameplay, the enormous variety of options, the opportunities to express one’s creativity through creation or storytelling, and the sheer fun and joy you get from playing Spore are all major reasons this is such an excellent game. The potential for replayability is great, while the potential to keep playing a single game is equally great.

There is a lesson for all POW developers from Spore. Give your players a way to express their creativity and imagination, and you give them unlimited content. Probably the only thing still keeping City of Heroes alive is the amazing character and costume creator. It is a shortsighted shame when a POW fails to give its players tools to create their own content, customize their characters, and customize some part of the world (generally a house, but other options are good as well).