Impossibilities inside Spore If you think about it, there's some things in Spore that just make no sense at all, except to the absent-minded(I'm borderline). Here's a few: How do creatures evolve from microscopic to 6 feet in such a short time? How can a creature go from pinsirs in its microscopic form to six legs, three eyes and two mouths(mouthes? mouthves?)in its larger life form? If creatures can communicate so well and form tribes and civilizations that fast, why isn't there superior and inferior life forms, instead of 'equal opportunity' for all species? Post your comments and more impossibilities.
It's odd that you should be pointing out the idiosyncrasies of the game and at the same using a quote of mine as part of your signature. Even so I agree that the whole concept is stuffed with impossibilities. But back to your signature. I consider the game is likely to fail to live up to the expectations of its pre-release fan-base. Either that or its sizeable band of prophets are nothing like the sort of people who've previously been associated with the Will Wright sim-series of games. In every respect I find that when I compare Spore with accumulated franchise that is The Sims, The Sims 2, Sim City, Sim City 2000, Sim City 3000, Sim City 4, I come up with nothing in the way of a match. It is like comparing Chess with Twister. Spore is not just one game. It begins like a centipede game (eat before you get ett), moves on to an almost as tedious 3D version of the same thing before transforming itself into scaled down Populous. People are so hung up on the evolution thing and it is not evolution and never will be. Evolution is about random mutations and the way those mutations affect the species' survivability. Yeah, it's cool that Will and his team have created an animation engine that will enable the game to figure out how a five-legged critter will walk, but that it is a microscopic part of the game. If Spore had any great potential for exploring the possibilities inherent in the great evolution, intelligent design, creationist debate then I am certain we would have heard more than whispers at this late stage of its development. My initial reaction to Spore was excited interest, but it is not just time that has faded my early enthusiasm. The distinct lack of of anything from Will Wright and Co. beyond the rather jaded little demos and big talk about "potential" is enough to convince me that the potential is not there. The late stages of Spore: global conquest and space exploration/conquest will no doubt appeal to a certain minority. It may well be a sizeable minority, but it will lack the broad appeal the franchise which gave birth to it. The appeal of the entire Simming franchise is that there is no goal. Spore is 100% goal and nothing else. It will not be possible to play the game and just sit back and watch your creatures evolve/develop. If you don't keep poking them up the backside with a cursor they'll get eaten (or nuked if in the late stages). That's not simming fun, it's hard work. Like playing Civilization, or Age of Empires. In short, what I'm trying to say is this. It doesn't seem nearly strong enough as a game to compete in the strategy game market and it falls at the first post in the simming market. Glad you agree with me that it is Creationism Gone Mad, though, Sir Stan.
I think the reason what you describe looks like an impossibility is that you're assuming that what you see is actually occuring in game time. For the purposes of fun gameplay, the evolution of life and civilization has been compressed into a reasonable timeframe for us to experience. I've always understood that the time you spend in the editors represents multi - million year jumps in evolution (or thousand year jumps in the case of the tribal and civ phase). Instead of making all those incremental changes as we play, we make large jumps in evolution. Incidently, this is why the adults present when you evolve your creature look like the creature you just created instead of like your old creature; your avatar is simply the latest birth in a long chain of evolution. A good analogy for this is to think of it like playing through a fossil record. For example, it is reasonable to assume that birds evolved from small bipedal dinosaurs through the intermediate evolutionary stage of Archaeopteryx. However, a very small number of the interveaning fossils have been found, so it looks like a evolutionary leap if you were to assume the fossil was the immediate ancestor of the modern equivalent.
Well Elodia, Have you ever heard of the theory of punctured equilibra, im not really sure how to spell it but heres the breakdown Punctured Equilibra: Is the theory that evolutionary changes occur in short and quick bursts.That could be what the game is referring to.
Even then, punctuated equilibria relies on random mutation and the selection of favorable mutations, still a very slow process. Spore is a combo of intelligent design and evolution, if such exists. Although I know jack of intelligent design, I've always viewed it as some lame attempt to legitimize creationism into the scientific realm without really having supporting evidence. Spore has intelligent design, you are the designer, therefore you playing His role. However, I do not think many people who ascribe to intelligent design would agree that "if your creation doesn't have favorable traits, it will go extinct" because that would make you (God) crappy at your job. Spore will punish those of poor design (having a leg sticking out of your mouth probably doesn't work to well) and will try to eliminate those creatures. The DNA point system obviously limits your ability to evolve by huge leaps and bounds (or to be completely created in one fancy step). Spore is just a hyper compressed intelligent evolution game. Like Civ 4 which compresses some 10,000 years of history into about 4 hours and skips a whole crap ton of inventions. The good thing with Spore is if you ABSOLUTELY love the creature stage, you don't have to advance. From the previews, Will has shown that you have to evolve to a higher brain, which you can always procrastinate.
