Error connecting to the Spore servers (Steam)
To get something out of the way immediately, this is not about the CD key issue. I already resolved that earlier today.
So, when I try registering a Spore account (this also happens when I try logging in as if I have an existing account), it fails and I receive the following message: "There was an error connecting to the Spore servers. Your computer might be offline or your internet connection may be having problems. Check your connection or visit Spore.com for additional assistance or server status."
Now, from everything I've read, the servers are still perfectly alive and well. Additionally, I know that the game is actually connecting to the login servers, because when I put in an incorrect password for the correct email, it gives me a message saying "The email address and password don't match anything in our system. Please try again; if you continue to have problems, please contact Customer Support." So I know that my game is definitely connecting to the login servers. And once again, I feel the need to stress that this should not be a CD key issue. It used to be one, but then I went through the process of linking my Steam and Origin accounts and having an EA support member fully add the game to my Origin account and I am now getting a completely different error.
Looking up this issue has resulted in basically no answers. So like, what gives? Does anyone know anything about this or am I just out of luck? Do I need to contact support again? If so, what should I even ask?
So, I'm going to post an update about this in case other people are looking for the answer to the account registration problem in the godforsaken year of 2022. I don't know how much longer this will be the answer, as it seems to change arbitrarily every so often, but yeah.
After an amount of time, for seemingly no reason, I started getting the "unknown error during registration" or whatever it says again instead of the error connecting to the Spore servers. This prompted me to do more research, and I actually found a thread from July 2021 with a solution I hadn't seen before: Apparently, there's currently a problem with the servers where you only actually get the proper entitlements to register a new Spore account if you own the Spore Creature Creator on Origin. It's normally $10, which is very unfortunate if you're strapped for cash, but I went out on a limb and bought it and that actually fixed the issue. I was finally, after a year and a half of encountering issues, able to register a new account.
So yeah, if you're like me and have tried everything else and still cannot register, that's what you need to do. It sucks, but if you really want to upload to/download from the Sporepedia, this appears to be the only option if registering your copy of Spore to your Origin account doesn't work. Also, this should really go without saying, but I really wouldn't hold out hope for EA fixing this problem. It's a miracle Spore's servers are still running in the first place, considering how old the game is and how it was a financial disappointment for EA (at least, from what I understand).
