Spore: The Release Of A Game That Caused Some Varied Controversy

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A new game released earlier this month by EA has stirred the pots of religious groups as well as others. Spore is being labeled as an anti-Christian game not because of some horrible devil-like creatures taking over the earth or because of outright anti-Christian characters.

The game's premise, which is somewhat like The Sims in nature, is the scientific evolvement of a cell to a dominant being controlling planets in space. See the YouTube Spore Channel for more details.

Through player navigation, a microscopic spore develops and goes through phases, eventually into a creature with given characteristics and then onto a civilization phase complete with buildings, economies and even religious traits. Each phase is considered an advancement of the life form, from microbial or cellular, tribal, civilization and the final phase being the space, also known as the sandbox phase.

To advance to the next phase, the player must create an environment that enables the entity to successfully develop. This includes feeding, socialization, resting and clothing. It also involves evading predators and for some, engaging in war. For example, the evolution from the cellular phase into the tribal phase is described on Wiki:

After the player's species evolves its brain far enough, it enters the tribal phase. Physical development ceases, as does the player's exclusive control over an individual creature, as the game focuses on the birth of division of labor for the species. The player is given a hut, a group of fully evolved creatures, a mini-map of the world for the first time, as well as two of six possible "super powers". These are unlocked depending on the species' behavior in the previous phases.

This stage begins with a cutscene parodying 2001: A Space Odyssey. In this phase, the game is similar to an RTS (real-time strategy game). The player may give the tribe tools such as weapons, musical instruments, and healing or fishing implements. Food now replaces "DNA points" as the player's currency, which the player can spend on items and structures, or use to barter with other tribes. Creatures also gain the option to wear clothes, the editing of which replaces the Creature Editor in the 'Tribal Editor'. If creatures of a different species (Rogues) were added to the player's pack in the Creature phase, they are now used as pets. Additional creatures may be domesticated in the Tribal phase, which provide eggs for food. Contact with other tribes of the same species, or even different species, can take place in this phase, and creatures also learn to speak.

A game that is rated "E 10" for everybody 10-years-old and older and is currently only available in PC and MAC version as software but the XBox, Wii and Playstation 3 version are under construction.

Despite it being a game, with an unwritten "freedom to purchase" clause, some Christian groups are calling it bad news, according to an article in the news. It apparently goes against Christian-based values, but even the game's creator, Will Wright, says that this isn't an accurate claim, stating in the article

...that players with either evolution or creationist views would find that Spore could accommodate both since the game's starts with a single creature and doesn't go into details on how that creature got there.

Wright, who also created The Sims, also alluded to some criticism from the Atheist community for not showing enough evolution details in the game.

There is also some controversy from conservative media Lourdes over certain creatures that look like parts of the human anatomy. This creation tool is just that, an optional tool that goes back to the implied "freedom of purchase" clause, where they can actually opt to NOT download the phallic look-alikes to protect young players. Although, at the age of 10, being the young end of the spectrum, if they haven't a clue of what "one" is by now, there may be a problem.

The option for choosing a totally herbivore life and evolving through friendly interactions as opposed to being meat eaters and fighting, as we as humans have done before life as we know it, is available on the game. However, the battles on the game are said to be non-bloody, unlike a round in Halo 3 or even an vanilla episode of one's favourite real life TV police drama. Hey, but police dramas are real, right?

Religious controversy isn't all the game has created. Gamers themselves are upset that the safety feature found on the game prevents it from being installed more than three times. In protest to the anti-piracy feature, new creatures began popping up like the "EA SUX" creature. What would the computer world be without the endless time available to creative hackers? This feature has already spawned a class-action lawsuit against EA.

So with major parental control elements, creature banning features, options to go totally vegan and no real commitment to just how the first microbe was truly created, this game may be a lot of fun for those who enjoy seeing their creations evolve. In some small way, it actually puts a twist of reality on what children learn in science and history, making it a tool for knowledge as well.

As far as anti-Christian groups, who is to say that the microbe isn't indeed named Adam?