Spore is a Game

I had my first visit to an Electronic Arts office a few weeks ago. A friend and alum from my undergraduate program is working there as a producer and he invited me for a tour while I was in San Fran. He's currently working on the much through a section anticipated Dead Space, he even let me play which was something like Silent Hill crossbred with Bioshock on the sound stage where they shot Doom. Fun stuff - great atmosphere and gore, just have to wait and see if the gameplay holds up.

So it makes sense that EA employees get a company discount on games - actually seeing the 'EA Experience' store full of freshly released games for $10 was still a shock to my senses. Omer, my inside man, was kind enough to get me a copy of Spore. Turns out I'm pretty glad it was only $10.

Ever since the free trial of the Spore: Creature Creator was released, there has been a lot of talk about how Spore is a 'Toy' rather than a 'Game' - the theory basically that because the experience lacks a specific linear goal based narrative it is meant to be played with as a toy would, without any expectations for closure. This isn't a new concept, it's been the hallmark attitude of Will Wright's past game's as well. In Sim City, or the Sims, one could argue that both programs has a specific end goal: a sustainable happy virtual city/family. Those of us who have devoted more than a few hours of our lives in that pursuit quickly realize that the real fun is in the events that happen along the way and not in attaining some sort of final 'end game'. The same, of course, can be said of real life. I'm sure someone has said it. That's what make's Wrights former games so compelling - they're experiential, organic, and offer unpredictable emergent enjoyment.

Spore is all about goals. Goals in a simulation aren't in themselves a bad thing, in the Sims for example if your character became hungry the player dealt with the goal of 'Find this Sim food' which led to the goal of 'Buy a Refrigerator' which in turn led to another broader goal of 'Make Money' which led to the goal of 'Get a Job'. The cycle doesn't stop. Sorting through the causality web of the simulation is what makes the experience interesting. No where on the screen did the creators have to print to screen a bubble of directive - the goals in the Sims, and in Sim City as well were emergent.

That's the key difference which make the Spore experience in many ways more of a game than any of Wright's previous titles. Throughout the first 4 stages of the game, each in their own way a game in themselves, the player is presented with a near constant barrage of non-diegetic goals to achieve. To make matters worse the goals fall into only two categories. Kill X and eat the remains OR Sing, Dance, and Pose your way into X's heart. The final 'Space Exploration' stage is equally goal oriented, providing the player with a multitude of missions. And after playing through the game's evolution cycle twice (from cell to space), I see now that the Song+Dance / Kill metaphor continues throughout. And for better or for worse, killing is a whole lot easier.

One can understand that at a conceptual level, the process of evolution captured in a simulation would be full of emergent elements. Before I played the game I was expecting a continuous experience in which I simply tried to be fruitful and multiply - my success or failures determining the characteristics of the species I became. Achieving this type of game play seemed possible in what Wright had produced in the past. Given how long it took Spore to come to market I image things were more complicated than i can begin to imagine. Nonetheless, I would have rather seen a game that fully captured a single stage of evolution (A mere 500,000 years or so) rather than attempting to squeeze 5 games into one toy.

I actually met Wright in 2006 at a conference where he presented elements of Spore. He is no doubt a genius when it comes to creating virtual experience, i still can't stop playing Sim City 2000 (circa 1993). Plus he gave me Iraqi money, so that's cool. And Spore is cool, it's just not up to the standard I hold Mr. Wright and his team to. I did find myself emotionally invested in my race of Haliwaxes (pictured right).

The real fun in Spore is creating stuff, rather than actually playing with it. For the first 48 hours with the game installed I was glued to the creature creator. Somehow I had arrived at the belief that the subtle decisions i was making regarding the placement of a mouth, the number of legs, or the bifurcation of genetalia would have some effect on how my creature expereinced virtual life, and in turn how I experienced the game. Alas, at the creature stage and even beyond into the final frontier, for all the creativity the game gives you the player's decisions are relatively meaningless. When I realized that, my motivation to play, to create, basically disappeared, and I found myself short cutting through designing yet another vehicle of religious conversion so that I could just beat the damn thing. I've never experienced that feeling before with a toy, or with another of Wright's creations. But that feeling left me no doubt. Spore is a game, and guilty of some of the most tedious associations that come with that qualifier.

For what it's worth, Spore introduces an unparalleled canvas for the user to create their world on. And for that I give Wright and his team major props. Hopefully in future sims the open ended creative potential showcased in Spore will finally be put to good use.

Overall Take: Find a copy for $10.