# Spore **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951 "2006-03-03T20:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/21 "2006-03-06T03:16:01Z")
Well keep in mind that it’s still being made so information like that changes all the time. That being said, it does make sense – the dominent sentient lifeform on a planet all being the same, that is. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/22 "2006-03-06T04:52:35Z")
Yeah, it sounded to me like once you achieve intelligence, you start competing against other tribes of the same critter. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/23 "2006-03-06T06:14:37Z")
> [@ronincyberpunk](#): > > **Pochacco** : Anything you’d add that the video left off? Did he field any interesting questions or anything? It’s been almost a year since I saw the presentation. (It was Will Wright’s talk at the Game Developers Conference in March of '05.) I don’t remember a lot of details at this point. I posted most of my observations when I started the “Will Wright’s Next Game” thread listed above. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/24 "2006-05-11T19:33:18Z")
Look, all I want to do is make some kind of horrific alien that eats and kills everything it can find. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/25 "2006-05-11T20:21:46Z")
> [@Revenant Threshold](#): > > Actually, I heard that once you reach the tribal level the only other species at that level will be your own - so once you reach human-level sentience, your species is the only one you’ll have (until you go to another planet, it seems). I really hope that’s not the case. All I want to do is build up a humanoid civilization, to approximately a level equal to our civilization in the 1950s… … and then introduce a terrifying, primitive alien species which only desires to hunt them for food. Man, I loves me some B movies. I did this with SimLife, way back when. I made a humanoid species, going about their day-to-day lives. Then I created an incredibly dangerous and powerful blob creature which apparently fell from the sky in a meteor. Man, that was fun. Interesting note on that blob, by the way. In SimLife, the more powerful your creature is, the more energy it takes to move around. My blob was too powerful- it could barely move since all of its energy was devoted to maintaining its incredible attack and defense abilities. Some emergent behavior kicked in, though- I didn’t plan it, it just _happened_- my blob reproduced, and its brood (which was weaker and smaller than it was, and hence could move) went off and attacked the humans. Then they’d come back to Momma Blob, who would then eat THEM. I couldn’t have planned that better. ---
**Author:** ![H3Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@H3Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/H3Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/26 "2006-05-11T20:33:22Z")
Man, that blob story is awesome. Y’know I didn’t think of it way back when the Game Developers Conference video got out on the net, but a day or two after it did, [Brian Clevinger](http://www.nuklearpower.com/index.php) said something to the effect of; “You know, I always liked Sim Earth. It would appear that now we finally have the technology to do it right.” And that was the link to the video. Kind of on the ball, isn’t it? Anyway, I’m not as devoted a Sim-fan as others. But I can’t wait for this thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/27 "2006-05-11T23:28:45Z")
It might be good, but it’s far too early to say. We’ve seen in the preview that Will Wright can use the game interface to do _anything he wants!_. Which is cool. But it in no way implies that you or I could use the interface to do anything _we_ want, too. He built the game, after all, and the guy who builds a game can _always_ do anything he wants. Sure, in this case, the author seems to have put a special effort into flexibility, but even so, he designed the scope of his flexibility according to his own aims. That might fit with others’ aims, and it might not: We’ll have to wait and see. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/28 "2006-05-12T01:52:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It might be good, but it’s far too early to say. We’ve seen in the preview that Will Wright can use the game interface to do _anything he wants!_. Which is cool. But it in no way implies that you or I could use the interface to do anything _we_ want, too. He built the game, after all, and the guy who builds a game can _always_ do anything he wants. Sure, in this case, the author seems to have put a special effort into flexibility, but even so, he designed the scope of his flexibility according to his own aims. That might fit with others’ aims, and it might not: We’ll have to wait and see. I would assume this is the case because of some sort of sandbox mode. He had to bounce to a following epoch right when he wanted to and click on the eggs almost on command. I’d be willing to say that I think most of that video was prompted, at least as far as the nifty things he could do and how quickly he could do them. Kinda funny when he almost got eaten and when he tried to contact th enew planet and ended up blowing it up. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/29 "2006-07-31T13:13:04Z")
[QUOTE=RandMcnally] One question I wondered about was can you still evolve your creature after it’s reached sentience? [/QUOTE] My thinking was this: first, spend enough time to get some really cool stuff and make your creature as close to how you want it as you can – then start on the brains. A month and a half doesn’t really count as a zombie thread, right? ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/30 "2006-07-31T13:42:49Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Carrot] A month and a half doesn’t really count as a zombie thread, right? [/QUOTE] Not for that comment. Joining in with “OMIGOD I’m so excited for this game!!” would be some unnatural necromancy. It’s probably better for this thread to just continue trickling along until the game’s release (now stated as Q1, 2007). OMIGOD I really _am_ so excited for this game!! ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/31 "2006-07-31T15:56:37Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] It might be good, but it’s far too early to say. We’ve seen in the preview that Will Wright can use the game interface to do _anything he wants!_. Which is cool. But it in no way implies that you or I could use the interface to do anything _we_ want, too. He built the game, after all, and the guy who builds a game can _always_ do anything he wants. Sure, in this case, the author seems to have put a special effort into flexibility, but even so, he designed the scope of his flexibility according to his own aims. That might fit with others’ aims, and it might not: We’ll have to wait and see. [/QUOTE] Whoa. Necromantic. Anyway, I say another video where Robin Williams is pulled up to play with it. He gets the hang of the editor pretty quick. If Mork can do it, so can you! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/32 "2006-07-31T17:33:08Z")
OK, an example of what I mean: Suppose I wanted to use the game to create cockroaches. Cockroaches are highly successful, far more than are humans. They can eat almost anything, they can survive almost anything, and they breed fast enough that even the things they can’t survive, they can recover from. And they have absolutely no use for brains. Could I use this game to make cockroaches, and develop them to their logical conclusion? If some other line developed sentience in my world, could my roaches hang out in their kitchens, eat their scraps, and hitch a ride to other worlds on their UFOs? If I can, then I might start saying that this game is flexible. But I’ve a hunch that I can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951/33 "2006-07-31T18:21:22Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] OK, an example of what I mean: Suppose I wanted to use the game to create cockroaches. Cockroaches are highly successful, far more than are humans. They can eat almost anything, they can survive almost anything, and they breed fast enough that even the things they can’t survive, they can recover from. And they have absolutely no use for brains. Could I use this game to make cockroaches, and develop them to their logical conclusion? If some other line developed sentience in my world, could my roaches hang out in their kitchens, eat their scraps, and hitch a ride to other worlds on their UFOs? If I can, then I might start saying that this game is flexible. But I’ve a hunch that I can’t. [/QUOTE] Actually, you can. You just have to make your sentient race first, and the the roaches. They’d have to be giant roaches, of course, I don’t think the thing scales down that small after you leave the ocean, but you can’t have everything. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spore/346951.md?page=1)