Spore, The Evolution of a Game
by Miss Baker
I’ve been hearing a lot about Spore, a new game invented by the SIMS creators. The game involves a unicellular organism that the player will control as it evolves into a more complex organism. There’s a lot of buzz about it in the science world, although many scientists don’t like it.
As with any popular take on a scientific concept, there’s bound to be some good science coupled with bad science in the game. From what I saw in the video sample, the player controls the evolution of physical appearance, mating behaviors, inter- and intraspecific competition, and more complex social behaviors. Whether or not the science behind it is any good, it does look like fun.
You can already download a trial of the Creature Creator. The competition on youtube sounds pretty fun, too. The game will be released September 7, 2008.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:14 am
That game sounds really fun and it sounds like there’s a lot of scientific concepts involved that we studied throughout the year. I’ve always been a fan of the SIMS.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Hey that sounds pretty fun I would be glued to the computer playing that game expecially being fond of the Sims. I can see why most of the scientific community would be upset. Because they want real facts and feel that this game doesnt show it. By controling the animal but you can relate to an animal being held in captivity and having to mate with another animal that humans provide it with.
At least it will get more people interested in science.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I’ve been hearing a lot about Spore. I’ve watched a lot of interviews and videos on the game. While I do completely agree that it may be scientifically flawed in areas, Will Wright the creator, is no doubt introducing a fascination of Science and Biology into the hearts of many many kids, teens, and adults who otherwise might not have known much about evolution.
I think this says a lot to teachers around the world when they will see first hand how education and entertainment are a strong duo when teaching kids, especially in this day and age.
September 10th, 2008 at 8:55 am
O_o ok then, cool. sounds better then regular homework
September 10th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
This game sounds pretty fun. I agree that it may have it’s defects in being scientific in some areas, but it is still inspirational for people who want to learn more about science. The science that it does have in it may be enough to encourage video gamers to look deeper into the topic of evolution. i still think the game should have more factual information in it.
September 10th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
This game, although not scientifically accurate, looks very interesting. I could easily see how scientists could be upset. What the scientific community believes, and what a game designer makes can be opposites. A game designers job is to make it fun and interesting, so that people play the game.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
This game souds like it would be a lot of fun to play. Even though im not a huge fan of the SIMS, I think im going to check out the video sample and the creature creator. I think that it would be exciting to meet new species to communicate with. I agree that the science used in this game is inaccurate, because its a video game. I think scientists dislike Spore because its more about entertainment than it is about learning. Adding on to what Ryan J said about the game designers, they are just focused on making money.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Although this game is geared toward the process of evolution, I think it is almost impossible for game designers to put in all of the details of the complicated process of evolution, and still make it fun. In the game you start as a unicellular creature and work your way through the ranks. This to me is far off base from the real thing. As many of you know advanced evolution was a BIG FAT MISTAKE. Many things of chance had to happen for any organism to thrive, and the game doesn’t have this aspect incorporated into it. If these aspects were in fact worked in somehow, a players organism would keep dying out and players interest would too.
Although the game is bad in a scientist’s eyes, but in the eyes of a naive game-player this a cool and interesting game
September 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Wow, i did some research and found out that spore is alot like how the universe was made, first you start out as one cell, and then you advance to the creature stage, a multi-celled organism, and then you can interact with other multi-celled organisms to form tribes, and then band together to form communitys. The final stage of spore is exploring space for other organisms, i found this information at http://www.spore.com/what. It looks like this would be a really cool game to play.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I was able to get my hands on Spore the other day and it is truly an amazing game. Although Spore does not stay too close to reality, it does demonstrate some facts such as the process of evolution and species to species interactions (ex. predator and prey relationships). In the game, you start out as a unicellular organism and begin to evolve into larger creatures through time. As you become larger and larger, you attempt to take over the space-like world where you build your own cities and create your own armies. Needless to say, this is one of the unrealistic parts of the games. However; the creators of Spore spoke with several Biologists about the process of evolution in order to stick close to fact. Marine Biologist Tierney Thys said that it may not be a true mirror of nature, but it will help get young people interested in science. From what I have read and experienced in the game, it allows you to choose from being a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore and then leads you through five stages of evolution. The game then switches you from being a creature creator to commanding these creatures in a sort of real time strategy game. I’m still playing through the initial stages of the game but I can’t wait to see how my character evolves. If you want to read more about the game, check out this link.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I am a fan of SIMS, but in my opinion, this game has some flaws. Most SIMS games have all real things that you can do or buy, such as houses, jobs, pools, etc. . . In this game, there are a lot of mystical-looking creatures. How will this give people an idea of how REAL species compete, mate, etc? Also, when on the website, (http://www.spore.com/) I saw some items such as a temple, some sort of car, and a starship. Most animals do not have the knowledge to use such things. Overall, I agree with the scientists who disagree with this game, and think that it should not be used as an example of mating, reproduction, competition, etc.