EA won't add Spore to my Origin Account

[CosmicSpore]

I originally purchase Spore back when it first released, the very day of release, and of course I had an EA account, a Spore account, and everything like that but when they released Origin they removed the main game from my account and never added it back. I have the Creature Creator still in my account for some strange reason, but not the main game. And for a while it even listed extra DLC creature parts on my account, which was from a promo a long time ago, which I would assume is still attached to my account but I wouldn't know because they took the game itself from me...

I've still got Spore data from playing the game attached to my account as well, and they would see that if they would just look. I can see it from requesting and downloading my data on the account page. Why can't they see this? It is ridiculous.

I've attempted to contact EA support about this several times but none of their reps ever know how to fix this. They just read from a script. They end up only telling me something really stupid like "you need to contact the retailer" as if it weren't EA themselves who were the ones that caused all of the issues. I get it that the typical rep probably doesn't have any authority to just add a game to my account that they can't see in their minimal data screens, but do they ever pass my ticket on to someone who can actually fix my issue or refer me to anyone else at all? Of course not.

I know that other people who bought the game before Origin had this same problem and I've HEARD some of them were able to contact support and get the game added back to their account. I have obviously not had such luck.

Others I know have just given up and either bought the game again on Steam or simply don't care anymore. But I'm not the sort of person who gives more money to companies who steal things from me and I'm not planning to ever buy an EA product again until this is resolved (if even then, since I'm now very frustrated by their lack of care for their customers).

Is there anyone here who knows anything? Should I be asking the reps to just forward me to an IT manager who actually knows what they are doing or something like that?

Let me know what ya'll think I should do, thanks!

[CosmicSpore]

Just to add, if I go to Spore.com I can see that I've uploaded things like a city-building and cars... As well as showing that I have EVERY game achievement.

How could I have done that if I didn't OWN the full game, EA? Please tell me HOW this is possible???

[CosmicSpore]

It even shows that I have the icons for both Spore, the full game, AND the DLC bot parts that everyone wants (as well as the creature creator, creature creator trial, etc)... That I can't even use because EA blocks me from using the game.

Clearly EA still has access to these servers. So why can't they just look at this data and give me my account back?

[Elliandr]

I had the exact same experience as you for multiple YEARS. In my case I was only eventually able to get any progress because I was lucky enough to get an agent who was actually willing to help. Every other agent literally says to contact the retailer. Well, guess what? In my case EA was the retailer! I bought the physical discs directly from EA! The agents don't know how to deal with that though. I learned that the problem is deeper than poor training though. The serial numbers for the game don't even appear to be associated with anything. Not spore, not the creature creator, and not galactic adventures. Like you I also had proof that I owned these titles because I registered with Spore.com and I even had achievements on my account proving that I not only registered the game, but had created content and played online with it. 

Now, once the account is "fixed"you have to download Origins and then download the game again from there, but I strongly advise against doing this! I deeply regret getting online because they did something to the Origins version that makes it less stable. Worse though is that when I tried going back to the disc game the new bugs persisted. Spore has always had stability issues, but these are the new bugs I experienced as a result of getting the Origins version:

- In the creature stage dying while migrating to a new base causes a crash half of the time now.
- Every single time I exit without saving the game in the Tribal stage the game crashes. It also frequently crashes in the middle of combat.
- Oftentimes the game will crash while opening the settings menu, which I have to do every game because it doesn't remember full screen settings ever.
- Sometimes the game will crash while saving!I have NEVER had this happen before in the last 15 years! Not even once! And now in a single game it happened twice in the Tribal Stage, 5 times in the Civilization Stage, and dozens of times in the space stage! In fact, saving the largest source of crashing in the space stage now! This is especially bad because the game still doesn't have an auto save! Thankfully it has a save backup slot, but that just means rolling back to the save before last which is horrible!

That last bug is the absolute worse! I haven't been able to make any game progress in the last 3 HOURS because every single time I save the game after making some progress the game crashes on saving!!!

Overall, this is NOT a good game anymore! And this is a worse situation than EA simply choosing not to fix bugs. EA actually introduced it on purpose! The problem is though that I can't figure out exactly what they did and where. Closing origins and blocking the process didn't fix it, and it can't be an issue with SecuROM because Spore already had that, but then what else could it be?

People in this forum say you have to repeatedly delete GraphicsCache.package(s) from AppData>Roaming>Spore but that doesn't help and it's not something I had to deal with before. Not in 15 years at least. People also say to run in compatibility mode and as an admin, but that doesn't help either. 

In any case, here's what I wish I did:

1.) Continue playing offline.
2.) Install the Origins version within a virtual machine or on a complete different computer.
3.) Copy the "My Spore Creations" folder from the computer you play on 
2.) Upload your creations from the second installation only. 

I hope there is a way to go back to stability, but until I know exactly what EA did to the game install, or what DRM is breaking the game, I can't. If it is DRM though the irony here is that the pirates probably get to play the game for free WITHOUT bugs meaning that paying customers like us who supported the game from the beginning are treated like garbage for doing.

[arnold197897]

I can't use my product code to get a digital version of Spore Galactic Adventures because Origin says it has already been used. I contacted a Game Advisor and they said it was redeemed in 2009. They said for me to contact the retailer. Whats absolutely stupid, is that they count using the product code to register an account for online services as it being redeemed for a digital copy. I tried explaining this to a Game Advisor as well as the fact that it is literally impossible to have redeemed my code on Origin for a digital copy TWO YEARS BEFORE ORIGIN EXISTED, but of course there's nothing that they will do because they are just told to tell the customer that the code was already redeemed and to contact the retailer. Imagine calling up Walmart today and being like, "Hey, I purchased Spore Galactic Adventures from you 12 years ago and I need a new product code that's located in the CD case. Could you tell me the code over the phone?" I need to know someone that I can contact about this that can acutally help me with this.