The Science of Spore

One of the things I've been thinking about during my Spore experience has to do with the science in the game. While it's been obvious to me from the start that Spore is teaching basic concepts of evolution and Darwinism, I wanted to find out a little bit more about what Will Wright's intentions were when he decided to create this science-based game. Can Spore be seen as a teaching mechanism? If so, does this make it a serious game? These are a couple of questions I wanted to find answers to.

There were a couple of interesting sources I found online while I was searching for information on the science of Spore. The first is a video on WeGame.com of Will Wright explaining this exact subject. Here he talks about how Spore introduces scientific subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. The game even begins with the Panspermia Theory in mind where life is introduced to a planet as a single cell, progresses through evolution and then spreads to other planets. While I can see these scientific subjects in the game, they are only present on a very, very, VERY basic level. There are basic concepts of biology in the creature creator, traces of sociology in the creature interactions, quite a lot of physics in terms of the game design itself, and as for chemistry...I haven't seen any. I honestly can't figure out how chemistry could possibly be used in Spore (If anyone has a better idea, please let me know). When Wright talks about the concept of evolution, he says it's a lot about the interplay between competition and cooperation. Competition and cooperation are definitely important concepts in Spore, so I can see his idea there. However, this is only a single aspect of a very complex subject. So, again, the basic science of evolution is there, but not to a very high degree. I really liked the final comment he made about how he wants the game to relate to reality. Even if the concepts are extremely basic, it gives the player a chance to experience these sciences and see how they relate to our real world.

The second source I came across was the article "Want to Learn Astrobiology? Pick Up the Console" on the news site Reuters.com. In this article, Wright talks about the same subjects he introduced in the video, this time including astronomy. Wright says that he and his team met with scientists during the four-year development of the game in order to make the scientific aspect more credible. I though that it was very interesting that Spore is being used as a part of SETI's educational outreach program to introduce astrobiology to high school students. This is a way in which Spore is being used as an educational tool. Even though the concepts may be basic, it's a good way to get kids to see how the concepts work and have fun while learning more about them.

From my eight years of public school experience and three years at the university level, I will openly admit that reading textbooks, memorizing that material and hearing teachers regurgitate the information in lectures is the absolute worst way to learn about a subject. I feel that much of my tuition has been wasted in this way because you only "learn" the material in order to get an A in the class and move closer to a degree. My most useful classes in the past have been those involving labs (biology, chemistry, anatomy/physiology, astronomy) and hands-on experience (visual communication, advertising copyrighting, Scribendi, and others). In this sense, I feel that Spore would be a good supplemental material to use in conjunction with different science classes because it could show how some of these complex subjects look in action. Honestly, any opportunity to get students involved with the subject matter, other than reading and memorizing, adds a great deal to the learning process. In this respect, I would think that Spore could be seen in some ways as a serious game because it's teaching players basic information about important subjects. The SETI program is a good example. However, I don't know if Spore is the best definition of a serious game in that it doesn't elaborate fully on these concepts and is easily more fun than educational. I suppose my final word on this idea is that I am divided on whether or not it is a serious game. There are easily reasons for both and I think the player ultimately makes this decision based on the experiences and outcomes they receive from the game.