Spore

[melster]

I've played parts of Spore and watched other people play other parts. It's fascinating and a great game, but it's not an accurate simulation, of course. In fact, if The Sims is like Playing With Dolls: The Game (which it kind of is), then Spore is Intelligent Design: The Game

Comments

[amatadlc]

I love the simulator games, most all of them acutally; the one I was most "meh" about was probably SimTower...

anyway, one that I really loved was an old-school DOS simulator called SimEarth. It was surprisingly hands-off, for a Maxis sim game; they aren't kidding when they call it simEARTH - the part that you have control over is the ecosphere of a planet. You tweak the environmental status, the atmosphere, the terrain, the scope of vegitation, etc... The point of all your eco-tweaking, however, is to create and maintain a planet capable of supporting and sustaining life as it evolves. And I'm serious about the "as it evolves" part - you have little to no hand in the evolution of your species on the surface (in fact, I don't recall any "zoom in and look at the creatures" option)... You just get little notices now and then when events and milestones happen

[amatadlc]

Okay, so I really don't meant to come across as snobby about gameplay... so please let me clarify a couple points:

(1) I mean to say, if you are psychotic and OCD (like me) - the mechanics are available to play that sort of nit-picky, evolutionary-centric kind of game.

(2) This is not to say that only that sort of game play is good, or that this is a lofty goal that normative gamers fall short of...

(3) I don't actually lay blame anywhere - my last paragraph was largely hypothetical and added for the rambling / philosophical effect... clearly I didn't make the "if I were to blame anyone at all" a large enough IF or a large enough AT ALL. Cuz I don't blame, cuz there's nothing to blame for

[amatadlc]

On the other hand... the game could have been designed so that all the body parts were already in the menu, and what you were doing during gameplay was not finding parts, so much as establishing patterns of behavoir in your species, and nesting in certain areas, that "unlock" body parts in a more "you might evolve this part, based on your creature's habits and environment" sort of way. Might have been a bit closer to "evolution" in that way...

Also, in such a case, I wouldn't doubt the gamer's powers to create lengthy game walkthroughs and FAQs for each other, saying things like, "If you want to evolve wings... here are the things to have your creature eat, and interact with, and places to live, etc."

Darn it, now that I've thought about it - I really wish the game had been designed more like I've just described. Shoot.

...

I'm gonna download a copy of SimEarth now. Maybe that will make me feel better.

[melster]

Yeah, I'm with you. That'd be awesomer and closer to what I'd hoped for in the game.

You should check out SimLife as well and see if you enjoy it -- it's just a teensy bit smaller in scale than SimEarth, it seems like. It's more continent level than creature level. (Ecosystem level, I guess.)

[kinabain]

See, this is the thing, SimLife and SimEarth both bombed as far as games go, so really, imitating them wouldn't really be the best idea. Remember, game companies are exactly that, companies. They are out to make money. Even if SimEarth or Simlife had done well, the game wouldn't have done as well since those games have already been made, so why would you go buy them all over again.

The thing is, Spore is a game. It is not an educational tool. It is not meant to be used to learn about evolution. Really, it is a role-playing game where rather than money, you get DNA, and rather than equipment, you get parts. I like role-playing games, and in particular, this one allows me to customize my character in ways not really seen before. It also takes my character through different stages that normally aren't seen in a game.

You seem to be stuck on what you think the game should have been, rather than appreciating what it is.

[melster]

Er, if you haven't played it, I mean. :)