Waiting for Spore

Back when they first announced the release date for Spore, I pre-ordered the game. I thought that this would be a good game for the boys. They love constructing things. They have recently taken to some of the Civilization type games on GameTap. Spore, in all of it's "massively single-player"-ness seemed right up their alley.

I can't help but say I am a little fascinated with the game concept. I really think it will be interesting to see what the game will bring.

The release date announced was 07 September. This, was 2 days ago, on a Sunday.

Why is it that I only just received an e-mail this morning saying that my pre-order was being shipped?

In the past couple of days, Spore has been all over various media. Specifically, there has been a lot of conversation about the protest over at Amazon and the number of single-star reviews the game has received, both for game play and the rather draconian DRM employed.

I'm currently a little upset that people who didn't bother to pre-order the game are already playing it. And that my copy is still being shipped. Why did I bother buying the game right from the publisher?

What is someone waiting for a game to make of the DRM applied? What am I supposed to make of the 1,700+ single-star ratings on the Amazon page for Spore? Why is my pre-order arriving 3 days later than the retail release?

I'm actually a little concerned right now. Will this game be another disappointment? Will the DRM push one of my machines into the realm of instability?