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Why Spore Is Special
The New York Times is running a long piece by Steven Johnson, author of "Everything Bad Is Good For You." In 'The Long Zoom', Johnson describes just what is so special about Will Wright's Spore . From the article: "Despite the fictions, many of the themes of Spore are immensely valuable ones, particularly in an age of environmental crisis: the fragility of life, the connection between micro- and macro- scales, the complex networks of ecosystems and food webs, the impact of new technology on social systems. Spore's players will get to experience firsthand how choices made on a local scale -- a single creature's decision to, say, adopt an omnivorous lifestyle -- can end up having global repercussions. They will detect similarities between one level of the game and another, the complex balancing act of global trade mirroring the complex balancing act of building a sustainable environment. And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well."
"Despite the fictions, many of the themes of Spore are immensely valuable ones, particularly in an age of environmental crisis: the fragility of life, the connection between micro- and macro- scales, the complex networks of ecosystems and food webs, the impact of new technology on social systems. Spore's players will get to experience firsthand how choices made on a local scale -- a single creature's decision to, say, adopt an omnivorous lifestyle -- can end up having global repercussions. They will detect similarities between one level of the game and another, the complex balancing act of global trade mirroring the complex balancing act of building a sustainable environment. And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well."
With such simple, easy to obtain, objective like that I'm sure they will have absolutely no problem living up to people's expectations. After all claiming a compeletly open gameplay experience was easily obtained by Diakatana, and Black and White certainly lived up to people's expectations of a trainable, inteligent agent.
And traveling through a simulated universe, from cells to constellations, will, ideally, make them more curious about the real-world universe they already inhabit -- and show them that they have the power to shape that universe as well.
Yeah.. sure.. Let's get real..
Spore looks really cool and I'll be more than happy to play it for a few hours (assuming it truly is as engaging as it looks), but the first thing going through my mind was now "Wow, this has taught me that I can shape the universe," but something more along the lines of "Whoa.. I wonder if I can make a creature that kills everything on sight."
Hrm.. maybe there is something to this video games promotes violence thing...
XenoPhage
Technological Musings
I'm as optimistic as the next guy, but to think a videogame will make us more aware and caring about our environment is just pure shit. We have a plethora of other mediums all telling us this and we're still not listening, what makes him think a game can do it?
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
What amazes me about Spore (quite apart from it looking like a FANTASTIC game) is that it seems to have developed so rapidly, to be able to demonstrate such deep quality so soon, to have such enthusiastic support from all corners. There are many games that have managed one or two of the above, but how many manage all three?
I'm pretty sure this will be out next year, and will be one of those games that forevermore gets mentioned in the biannual "best games in history" articles that somehow get posted. And I'll probably agree.
Meta will eat itself
Now if spore was built as an accurate simulation based on parameters measured out in nature, maybe one could argue that we were experiencing 'firsthand'. Otherwise this is just nonsense.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I hate to be sappy, but I think there's a point to games that make people think about the real world. Hopefully Spore will make people think about Mother Earth, the Solar System and the Universe, the same way The Sims makes people think about their Mum, Family and Society.
Here is a message about The Sims titled "No other game has done this...", posted in April 2000 (one month after The Sims was released) in the alt.family-names.sims newsgroup (the Sims fans took over the alt.family-names.sims, newsgroup because there wasn't a newsgroup for The Sims game yet).
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
You may be wondering why Steven Johnson is writing about Spore. The answer is that he wrote one of the best books ever written about swarm intelligence, Emergence.
For a para-scientific book, it is very deep. It goes over the entire history of swarm intelligence and really explains how local actions can have global consequences. It is also incredibly fluid and easy to read.
In short, you are not a true computer-geek until you have read it, so check it out.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Spore could make me into a tree-hugging hippy? ... this is supposed to make me excited about the game?
Canthros
I don't think Will Wright is trying to make a statement about the Earth Goddess or the fragility of life or whatever. I remember some interview where he talked about how much fun it is to blow up planets in Spore. Maybe there's a P.C. option switch that allows you to change your UFO's weapon so that it distributes tofu and peace pamphlets to aggressive planets, but I doubt it. This game seems to be as much about the fun of destruction as the fun of creation.
All Sims games have had that. Who hasn't hit earthquake 10 times in a row in SimCity 2K? Or removed the ladder from the pool in the Sims and watched the little buggers swim around until they die?
What's going to be profound about Spore? The fun, man. The fun.
http://nerdcartoons.com/