Intelligent Design in Spore
Huh… this is from a 2006 NYT article I saw while I was looking for Spore info online:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08games.html?pagewanted=all
” “I’ve had a few people ask me if I think Spore will help teach evolution,” Wright said, “and the ironic thing is that, if anything, we’re teaching intelligent design. I’ve seen a few games that relied on evolution — I’ve even designed some of them — and it’s just not as fun.” But, of course, there’s one crucial way in which Spore breaks from intelligent design. The universe of the game is not dominated by a single, all-powerful creator. It’s a universe governed by a million intelligent designers, each unleashing his or her creations to be fruitful and multiply, to conquer and befriend, to fly spaceships and fashion planets.”
Funny, because I was wondering earlier whether the game would receive criticism from intelligent design groups. Of course, just because Will Wright says it’s not about evolution doesn’t mean that it’s not (wow… negatives), but, something to mull over I suppose.
Man, I’m so jazzed to work on this.
One Response to “Intelligent Design in Spore”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
April 17, 2008 at 11:29 pm
I would definitely categorize spore under “intelligent design”–or at the very least not evolution. If the game were about evolution players would tweak constants like “food supply” and other environmental factors. From everything I’ve seen the spirit of Spore is very much about influencing the “natural order” of things to reach personal goals. Darwin definitely didn’t have a chapter on character editors, Genesis does however.
Remember, few creationists argue against microevolution: the human race has plenty of diversity which they have to explain. After all, the Bible argues everyone we see today descended from first Adam and Eve then later, Noah and the survivors of “the flood”. Serious evolution, macroevoltion, takes a long time and gradual but natural change.
I do wonder how creationists will react, that is an interesting question. I have some opinionated theories but then again, they’re a terribly unpredictable bunch.
Congratulations on the prospects man. Though, I gotta say… I was kind of hoping the development was largely finished by now