Spore is the latest creation of gaming guru Will Wright, the creator of the Sims and the Sims 2. As with the Sims franchise, players will find themselves playing with godlike power, but this time around, the focus isn’t limited to humans.
Spore extends through five stages of evolution and civilization, allowing the player to design first the creature itself, then the clothing it wears, the houses, factories, and town halls it builds, and finally the spaceship the species will fly.
The Five Stages of Spore
- Cell Stage
- Creature Stage
- Tribal Stage
- Civilization Stage
- Space Stage
The goal of each stage is basically the same. A player and their species have to survive and develop through interaction with other species, empires, cities, or tribes. In the Space Stage advancement comes through achievement badges.
Spore combines different types of game play, fusing elements of a Civilization game with Space colonization games like Sins of a Solar Empire. For players that aren’t fans of games that involve managing a city where empires struggle for resources and power, the last three stages of Spore might suddenly seem to drag.
It may be that the Spore experience will be fleshed out and enhanced with further expansion packs, and cheats as time goes on, as has been typical for The Sims and the Sims 2, also products of EA Games and Maxis.
Spore Sharing
One of the most interesting parts of Spore is that it automatically shares players’ creations with one another. All gamers who acquire the game must make an account with EA and their creations are shared via the Internet. This has led already to some interesting, and sometimes obscene, exchanges between players. Be prepared to see giant walking genitalia, animals with altered sounds or body parts, and offensive names.
Why share? The idea has come and gone before, usually with limited success, but Spore persists in it because it can enhance game play, and more importantly, it offers a choice. Some players will enjoy Spore for its creative aspects. They will enjoy engineering houses, spaceships, vehicles, and their animals. Other gamers will easily tire of the continuous creation. Rather than waste time designing something new these players can choose from someone else’s design.
If players are wary of the sharing there is a way to limit it. In the initial signup players are offered a choice of sharing only with friends. This will limit the animals that they are exposed to in their game. However, it does not stop Spore from sharing the creatures these shier gamers create. A player that decides to restrict what their Spore account downloads is not keeping their own creations from others.
Anticipation and Reception of Spore
Spore’s release was anticipated for three years. Before its release the Spore Creature Creator came out as a teaser for waiting fans. The Creature Creator excited many, building the expectations that gamers had for the game.
When the game at last appeared in early September, many fans had a negative reaction to it. Some have complained that it lacks “depth.” Others find one stage or another tedious, boring, or even childish. Occasionally there are even gripes about the evolution presented in it, with protests to the “Intelligent Design” that takes place in the Cell and Creature Stage.
Whatever the complaints, considering that Spore has fused so many different playing styles into one game, something no one has done before, it still manages to be quite a feat.
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