Spore - An Artistic Medium

The long awaited Spore was finally released on PC recently. Will Wright and Maxis have long described this game as their masterpiece.

Unfortunately, in many respects this game falls short of such high expectations. The product has received mixed reviews from gamers who believe it to be lacking in depth. In addition to this, the deplorable Data Rights Management stance taken by the publisher has caused many to ask why the consumer is being treated like a criminal. In short, Spore has not been received as well as Wright would have hoped.

However, it is my opinion that these game play and publishing problems have taken all attention away from moments of true excellence found in Spore. At the core of the game is the editors. These sections allow a player to customise their own species, buildings, vehicles and even spaceships that can be used in the game. Every shape can be resized, rotated and reworked to the players liking and a highly customisable painting section is available to finish the production. The development team has created a masterstroke with this tool by making it intuitive and easy to use without sacrificing the vast depth of possible creations.

In addition to this, all pieces created by a player are sent to a central server where they are on view for others and automatically get placed into their game. When playing through the campaign, it is common to stumble into all sorts of player generated content. For example, my peace loving, semi-amphibious species was under siege by a a vicious group of walking chainsaws that were created by another player. Luckily, a 200 foot tall incarnation of Trogdor managed to distract them long enough for my apple-munching fish men to get away. This unpredictable variety is simply exhilarating to behold.

Many detractors of Spore have failed to comprehend that this is not an average video game. Instead, Spore is a revolution in creative expression and a truly new artistic medium.

-The English Student