Spore has been labelled as the first MSPOG (Massively Single-Player Online Game) or MSPM (Massively Single-Player Metaverse). You can clearly see the word Massive in there, which supposes that it will compete directly with the MMO market.

It's being hailed as the quintessential blend of casual and hardcore gaming appeal, but will it really be that big?

I'm going to step out on the plank to predict that while Spore will achieve critical excellence, it won't do as well as Maxis' Sims games. That's an easy prediction really, I mean geez the Sims games & expansions have pretty much held a top 10 sales position since their first release in 2000. Expectations to top that are not likely to be met, seriously.

I hope Spore does really well though, but I'm still having troubles picturing how much I'd want to play it. I enjoy a good sandbox game now and then, but for me even, Spore seems a little too esoteric sandbox. I also have difficulties relating to non-human entities. Call it a lack of experience but I just don't put much caring into strange three-tentacled beasties.

Penny Arcade's early take on Spore pretty much summed it up.

As for being "first" in the single-player metaverse type stuff-- Plenty of games (including all of The Sims) have toyed with players sharing data online, this doesn't seem that much of a stretch more, perhaps just refined.

Maybe Spore will shake some players out of their WoW obsessions, but I think it's more likely a parallel market than a competing one.