Slashdot Mirror
Spore Creatures Now Outnumber Known Earth Species
GBC writes "AFP is reporting that, as of a week ago, the number of creatures in the "Spore" database exceeded the number of known species on Earth. They are created using 'Creature Creator,' which is available in a free (with limited parts) or paid download at the Spore website. Will Wright seems extremely happy with the progress so far: 'We hit 100K in 22 hours and a million by the end of the first week. The numbers are just blowing us away.'"
Well I think the time for worrying about such things is long past. Make your peace.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
I guess this takes the concept of Wikigroaning to a whole new level.
Rob
My skins cells also outnumber known Earth species. Is that relevant to anything? I believe someone commented yesterday (when this was news) that obviously this only implies that the criteria for "creature" is less stringent than for "species".
I've mostly been staying away from Spore because of the fairly restrictive DRM it's supposed to be shipping with. Anyone know if the creature creator tool also installs the DRM?
I just recently re-formatted and re-installed windows, and I'm trying not to bog it down again with crapware like DRM systems that drag down my system performance.
Personally, since I can't get the full game without DRM, I'm not sure I'm too interested in the CC even if it *doesn't* have the DRM, since it's not *much* use creating a creature but never playing the game.
Apparently, Will Wright and company weren't at all satisfied with the idea of people creating monstrous amounts of after-market content for their Sims games. Not only have they whet the appetites of all the people who enjoy the Creture Creator for the retail game, but they also get to sell Spore right out of the gate as having "millions of creatures available online." The only expense involved was building the software for creature creation, and they would have done that anyway. Brilliant!
Hey now, just 'cos I think OP was OT doesn't mean you should start hurling insults. I'm NOT Buckley.
I can be funny when the situation demands.
Have you been to the Arctic? Tundra is not barren.
It is treeless, but thats a long way from being barren. Many areas are covered with flowers, moss, lichen, and are host to all sorts of birds, insects, mammals, etc. The huge caribou herds are the most obvious wildlife. Lush, no. Beautiful, yes. There's nothing quite like coming over a hill and seeing the entire side of a mountain covered with blooming purple flowers.
You're right that oil drilling will disturb only a tiny fraction of the area in the reserve, but the effect will be greater than you would think from that areal ratio because it would ordinarily consist of criss-crossing the area with a network of roads and pipelines. The total area won't be much but the impact from that would be, especially because tundra environments are quite fragile compared to many other settings. Even dragging the equipment across the surface necessary to do seismic studies (the early stages of exploration) will leave scars on the surface that will be visible for decades. I know, because I've seen plenty of examples in the Arctic that date from the 1960s and 1970s. The effects from melting permafrost are *really* difficult to control if anything is disturbed on the surface.
All of this means that while I think you are right that drilling could be done, it would have to be done carefully. Doing it the way it was done at Prudhoe Bay, which is an absolute MESS that wouldn't be tolerated down south, is not appropriate. Pointing this out -- that it isn't barren rock and dirt and it is extraordinarily fragile compared to most environments -- doesn't make people "environuts". It means they understand what the real situation is, and want an appropriate balance between the short-term need for oil and longer-term preservation of a mostly pristine environment in as intact a state as practical.
I'm all for doing it, but doing it to the VERY high standards that should be expected in a wildlife reserve. That means flycamps only during exploration (no roads), specialized exploration techniques to limit damage to the tundra surface, complete remediation of drilling sites, and if a pipeline is put in it has to be engineered to be easily pulled out and the conditions restored when the production is finally done a couple of decades from now (assuming they find anything -- there's no guarantee).
People who use this stuff also need to put things in perspective: just because they aren't tearing up *your* back yard looking for black gold doesn't absolve you from some responsibility to make sure they aren't tearing up your neighbor's back yard to satisfy your binge consumption of the stuff.
With the irony of him complaining about other people inappropriately showing penises...
You seem to forget it does not only effect the places you drill, but you need to build roads, pipelines, accomodations for the workers, basically tear into every area of alaska that is still untouched. Just because some selfish wingnut like you needs to drive his SUV doesn't mean the human race should risk losing some of the only land on the planet that hasn't been raped by mankind. The Porcupine Caribou herd relies on the land in ANWAR as they migrate every year drilling in ANWAR will lead to the demise of the 120,000 caribou herd not to mention all the northern communities who rely on the herd for sources of food, clothing and materials. But hey what do you care about things like heritage, compassion, thousands of human lives, and houndreds of thousands of animal lives? as long as you can save some money filling your gas gussling vehicles, and spend your weekends cruising thats what's important right?