Steve



Steve is the pilot of the spaceship (although some insist that he is the ship) that can be found in the Galactic Core. He is the only character in the entire game that speaks the selected language (except for Greek, Russian or Portuguese), and awards the player with 42 instances of the Staff of Life (known in the development stages of Spore as the Genesis Device). Your discussion with Steve will also add the tenth Galactic Objects to your collection.

Steve's spaceship, itself, is an Easter egg. With the exception of the loudspeaker on top, it's a near-perfect replication of the UFO featured in the Sim City 2000 game cover.

Speech
Upon entering the Galactic Core, a cut-sequence is played, where a mysterious speaker (Steve) greets and congratulates the player for their progress.

A deep voice makes the following speech during a series of animated 3D vortex scenes:

 Greetings my friend! You have traveled very far and overcome many obstacles. Along the way you have encountered many of your diverse, far-flung siblings-- precious few of them will make it this far. Your heroic efforts have proven you deserving, worthy of advancement to the next level of your existence. The universe you inhabit is but one of many countless worlds, unseen but yet connected. Your creative efforts have not gone unnoticed. Indeed they have spilled into these other, unseen worlds just as your world has been enriched by them. It is now time for you to join us-- Join us! Mwahahahaha!! No, just kidding. It's not scary. Indeed. The times ahead, they are good. Really, really good. Some of you may ask, who is this mysterious voice who knows so much and possesses such great powers? I'm glad you asked...

After journeying through the Galactic Core, your ship drifts through space until it comes across a diminutive UFO, accompanied by an equally diminutive/squeaky voice and cheesy game show-style music.

I'm Steve! You are now to be given the power. Yes, that's right, THE POWER. The power to create and spread life, intelligence and understanding throughout the cosmos. Use this power wisely. Use this power so that we may one day become AS ONE... that is... I mean... in a metaphorical sense. Oh... one last thing. We are nearly sold out on the last phase of a wonderful time-share opportunity on one of our larger stars--and a rare planet in its orbit. If you are in the neighborhood, we'd love to have you by for a free breakfast and short presentation. Just look for the third rock from Sol.

The player is then awarded with 42 uses of the Staff of Life, before being returned through the Galactic Core- after which the journey can no-longer be taken.

The Cut-scene in Technical
At the first 2 seconds, the ship flies in with 3D effects trailing behind it that resemble blue, cyan, and purple round circles formed by visible waves of energy.Near the end of the tunnel llamas are shown round the sides of the tunnel. The camera then jumps to the side and your ship moves very slowly forward from the right for about five seconds. Steve's UFO model rushes in from the background on the left and your ship immediately ceases motion. Steve's speech above is performed for the remainder of the scene.

As the spaceship moves around, heavy but low quality blur effects are applied on the spaceship as he moves around in sinusoidal motions. His four arms also move around in a pattern. The movement and blurring in this scene may vary depending on your graphics settings.

Less than a second after he says "I'm Steve," the camera switches to view the front of Steve's spaceship above your own (it appears that your ship is closer to the camera but below Steve's ship). In this point of view, it appears as if he has a top-right to down-left bouncing motion at the same length/distance from his first primary position when he does his speech. In the background, you can clearly see a background effect of purple 3D screen blended (meaning the color will have more brightness when layered on their own particle objects) "cloud" particles placed around the scene. The radius from these particles increase when Steve talks during this part.

The camera then begins to pan up-left, This motion gradually decelerates and ends until Steve ends the sentence: "...The power to create and spread life, intelligence and understanding throughout the cosmos." During the scenes, golden-yellowish pixie dust flows around in the background.

Then, the camera jumps to the left and views the ship slightly down and at an angle between 0 and 45 degrees from the point of where your ship is facing and starts to zoom out slowly. The back of Steve's loudspeaker is shown here for the longest time, about 14 seconds.

After Steve says "In a metaphorical sense." The camera jumps out to the side of the camera and rotates around the ship and jumps back to face Steve's ship when it's completely facing your spaceship. This jumping happens right at the first word of the speech fragment: "...a rare planet in its orbit."

In this last part, Steve's ship model is instead bouncing top-left to down-right. In his speech, he mentions a free breakfast and short presentation. The total length of the scene excluding the 3D vortex scenes is about 1 minute.

Trivia

 * Since he gives you such a thing, he is possibly The False God That Will Come that the Shamans and the Zealots speak of. Not to mention the fact that he mentions "... we may one day become as one, that is, in the metaphorical sense." This is a term the Philosophy of Life uses fairly often ("We believe that we are you and you are us and that together we are one!")


 * Steve's name may be a reference to Gaming Steve of gamingsteve.com


 * Steve appears to come from Earth, as he mentions "Third Rock From Sol", which is another name for Earth. Another hint that he is from Earth is his human name, and the fact that he is the only character in the game that speaks an Earth language.


 * The definition "third rock from Sol" is a reference either to Men In Black II or a TV series named Third Rock from the Sun... or the even older Jimi Hendrix song "3rd Stone From The Sun."


 * In a Season 1 episode of the TV series, "3rd Rock from the Sun" (Episode 17: Assault with a Deadly Dick), character Harry Solomon asks a man seated beside him in the police station what he's there for...

HOBO: "Well they picked me up for vagrancy -- but that's not the real reason. I'm here because they know. They know I'm from the planet Clarion in the barred spiral on the Cephius-Strakeland border."

HARRY: "Do you know Steve?"


 * Near the end of the trip through the tunnel, llamas will appear along the sides of the lighted tunnel. This is most likley an Easter Egg referencing the Sims series as llamas were always included comically in those games.


 * The fact that you get 42 uses of the staff is a reference to Douglas Adams's "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" series in which the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42.


 * "Improveverywhere" also uses a "Steve the Omnipotent Voice from Above" in its "MP3 Experiments."


 * The "tunnel" effect seen before and after encountering Steve may be a reference to the "My God, it's full of stars" sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, though similar effects occur in (at least) Star Wars, the first Star Trek movie, Stargate, Sliders, and Contact.


 * The Steve UFO has the same voice as the Jawas, in the computer game "Star Wars Droidworks".


 * When Steve says "We are nearly sold out on the last phase of a wonderful timeshare opportunity on one of our larger stars--and a rare planet in its orbit.", he could mean that pollution is destroying the planet, or has already destroyed it, as humans are no longer there.


 * When Steve mentions "these other, unseen worlds", he is probably talking about the Spore network taking ones creations and placing them in other games.


 * In Spore Galactic Adventures a statue of Steve is seen in Adventure Town's museum, with a description saying he was last seen selling timeshares near the Galactic Core, mirroring what he says about nearly being sold out on "a wonderful time-share opportunity" in-game.




 * The Statue of Steve seen in the adventures described above is actually named 'Masaari Statue' in the Sporepedia. this may be a take on the word "messiah" which means "anointed one" or the future king. This may strengthen the belief that he is the false god that will come, as it means future king.


 * Steve statue can be seen in Maxis adventure Concert in the Park with a description says that he is the founder of the planet. since he has the staff of life, this does not seem such an impossibility. The statue also appears in the Bahaha 500 Time Trials.


 * The cut scene of the mysterious deep voice in the galactic core could be Spode. Spode is finally answering the many questions of the universe. Then, when Spode is about to introduce himself, Steve butts in, making it look like a joke that there was a big booming voice when Steve's is tiny. If the above is true, it proves Steve's guilt of being The False God that Will Come. Also in one of the Scrolls, it says that they are not sure if the Grox are keeping someone out.....or keeping something in.


 * The cutscene mentioned above could also be a reference to "Wizard of Oz" in which The Wizard of Oz portrays himself as god-like being but is actually an ordinary man. He states "I am a good man just a bad wizard" following the Steve is Spode theory, this is a very suiting quote seeing Steve himself seems like a decent being but the Zealot portrayal of him as a vengeful deity makes him a bad "God".


 * In Over The Hedge, they call the hedge Steve because the hedge is great and powerful and so is Steve.


 * When you get to Earth, you don't get a free breakfast or a short presentation.