I love that the submission is a direct link to an API endpoint serving straight XML and no one seems to even notice, never change HN.

The API seems to be documented here: https://www.spore.com/comm/samples

Conspiracy theory: the documentation I just linked uses "MaxisDangerousYams" as an example user. The user who submitted this on HN is "DangerousYams". I guess we have a Spore dev here?