Spore

I’m not really much of a gamer. I was when I was a kid, back in the Stone Age, and I’ve had my periods of obsessive game play as an adult, though it was more linked to specific games (Half-Life, American McGee’s Alice, GTA: Vice City, Tomb Raider) than to a desire to game in general.

Having said that…I really want to play Spore. It’s got everything I love — algorithmic generation, evolution, Conroy’s game of Life, interplanetary war, urban theory, fractal landscapes, music by Brian Eno…hell, Will Wright might as well have designed this game to my own personal specs. I have a funny feeling I’ll be spending far too much time in front of this game…particularly the Creature Editor, which looks like more fun than a barrel full of monkeys having fun.

Creature Editor

I’m also fascinated by the online, multiplayer aspect of the game, in which people can allow others access to their creatures and worlds. It would be interesting if Spore has a plugin architecture, wherein Maxis could update/extend the interactivity between players. It would be interesting to embed the functionality of other sim games within it; imagine being able to play The Sims with your Spore characters, on your own planet. Or extend the city-building functionality to full-on SimCity level detail and control. After all, Spore seems like a palimpsest of all the other Wright-created sim games.

Civilization Phase

Spore comes out in September, but you can watch a guy messing with the beta of the Creature Editor live (I think) here.