Spore
Spore is a Sim-type creationism game, created to give players an experience of creating a creature from a cell stage and helping it evolve. It was created by EA, and released in 2008 for PC, MAC, Nintendo DS and Mobile. EA is well known for its unusual games which give the player a chance to control another beings life, for example The Sims. EA also have strong colours and environments in their games, and Spore is no exception. Spore is a game aimed at ages 12 and up, due to its theories and conflict, and also its creationism. Teenagers will be drawn to this game more than adults due to the popularity of Sim games and creative games with this age group.
The conflict in this
game is very natural as it is merely a conflict for survival. The
conflicts found in this game are means to kill and eat other animals,
or to create territory. It is conflict found in everyday nature and
give the game a sense of realism and survival of the fittest. The
struggle in the game is only your own, as other players are not in
the same world as you. The game creates creatures in the players
world that will lead to conflict, leading the player to battle
against them.
There is a significant
amount of interaction in this game, the main part would be the
customisation of the creatures. There is a substantial amount of
customisation options for the player to choose from, making the
creature that each player makes being unique. The player can also
control their creatures, making their survival decisions for them,
instead of clicking options for the characters. This makes the player
feel more involved in how this story is being played out, rather than
watching as it happens. In Spore, if the player was not interactive
with the game, this would be quite boring. The player would merely
watch as the cell grew into a creature and built civilisations etc.
There would be no feeling of a struggle for survival, and the player
would not feel like they are the creature.
The game itself is very
colourful and unique. The graphics are quite cartoon-like and this
gives a comedic feel to the game. The worlds portrayed contain
unusual life and plants, conveying that it is not like our own world.
The colours also help give this idea. Spore is a very beautiful game,
with its environments adding life to the players worlds. Visual
influences could possibly be The Sims, as well as Star Control. Other
influences on the gameplay could be Darwins theory of evolution,
which could also be an intertextual reference.
“Spore’s
fifth phase borrows heavily from games like Star Control 2 — which
is still better in various aspects like diplomacy, fitting out your
spaceship and a good mix of story line and free exploration. We
suggest you look out for the still maintained open source version,
‘The Ur-Quan Masters’.”
“Starting
as a cell, we watched as a meteor crashed into our randomly generated
land and we emerged. We were cute, a little blue with a beak and some
little tentacles. The perspective is top down and, in our mind, we
reminisced about Star Control before moving on.”
Spore has a persuasive purpose to make the
player be creative. It gives the player the opportunity to be
imaginative with their creatures to create something unique and full
of life. The games look and sound give the player the feel of being
this creature, and this makes the player think like an animal in
terms of survival and what they must do to survive.
In my opinion, I feel they have tried to put
too much into one game. The player can develop their creature to
create civilisations, but then there is a space era etc, and it all
gets quite confusing. The player should just be able to develop their
creature into civilisation stage, and then maybe the civilisation
increases in complexity over time.
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