What Hath God Wrought

I don't normally write about video games, and not because I know nothing about them, but simply because I never play them. Oh, I've played them before, but that was a long time ago, and I realize other people play them and that's fine.


Now, having said all that, anyone who has ever read this blog must certainly know by now that not knowing what I'm talking about has never stopped me from offering an opinion, and so I want to talk about this new game that is being released next Sunday called Spore. I've never seen it nor played it, but I know that for about the past 5 years it has been one of the gaming world's most hotly anticipated games.

Spore is the latest creation of Will Wright, the video gaming genius behind the mega-selling "Sims" franchise (which in and of itself speaks highly of the game's market potential), and, as I understand it, the idea of Spore is that the player attempts to take a lowly single cell protozoa and evolve it through gameplay into a highly intelligent being that colonizes the Universe.

Keep in mind that Will Wright is a game designer, not a microbiologist, so the educational potential of Spore is likely to be low. Parents shouldn't be confused into thinking that playing 500 hours of Spore will get their child into Harvard Medical School. From what I can tell so far, Spore will be less like science and more like Intelligent Design. That is, the player will be given a small opportunity to play God and evolve a species.

Interesting idea, huh, evolving your own species and all. C'mon, honestly haven't you ever found yourself peering into a microscope and quietly wondering quietly what your life would be like if you had been born an amoeba - feeling the things an amoeba feels, thinking the thoughts an amoeba thinks? I've got to admit I'm a little intrigued. Just what do amoebae think about? Lacking brains it can't be anything too deep. They swim, they eat, and every now and then when they're feeling lonely they unchain their genes and split down the middle. A pretty self-absorbed existence, if you ask me; one best suited to either movie stars or bloggers. Now that would be the scenario I'd like to play - to see if I could evolve the lowly amoeba into Sylvester Stallone.

Actually, I don't have a clue how this game will play, but it's an interesting premise. According to the website, Spore will be available for Windows and Mac and the graphics requirements aren't too steep so most recently purchased computer should be able to run it. Like I said, I'm not a gamer so I think I'll wait for the reviews to come out before I plunk down any cash. If it lives up to the hype, though, it sounds like it might be fun.

And while we're on the subject of science and technology I just have one more thing I'd like to mention. I bought a little portable USB mouse for my laptop the other day, and while that usually wouldn't merit a mention even in a blog as useless as this one, I did notice one thing. Isn't it strange that here we are almost 9 years into the 21st century, and still no one has managed to invent a package that is incapable of being opened?

Think about it. We've split the atom, we've mapped the human genome, and yet we still haven't invented the totally unopenable package. Not that we haven't tried. The plastic packaging that my USB mouse came in was certainly a valiant effort, but with the aid of a blow torch and a couple of hand grenades even that was ultimately openable.

There is clearly much more to be done in this area.