Why Do Games Like Spore Satisfy Us?

I recently finished the fourth phase of Spore (Civilization Phase) and decided that it is thus far my favorite phase of the game. There are several reasons for this. One of the most important reasons has to do with the fact that I have always loved playing PC strategy games. I have added many games to my list of favorite strategy games over the years, but I have to say that my top two games would have to be Zeus: Master of Olympus and Black & White II. Now, I’m sure that most people are at least somewhat familiar with Black & White II because it was a pretty recent release. However, you may be a little less familiar with Zeus. It was released in 2000 and received pretty good reviews across the board. In the game, there are a series of quests (or levels) that increase in difficulty as you complete them. It’s a city building game where you create Greek city-states, manage an economy, invade neighboring nations, expand your empire, slay mythical creatures and fulfill the tasks of heroes and gods. I’ve been playing Zeus off and on for years and I still haven’t completed all of the quests, it’s that good. Even today, I still enjoy playing this little game and I’ll probably never be bored of it because I love the challenge that comes with it and thinking that has to be put into strategy games.

I believe that my enjoyment of other strategy games can be important when discussing why games like Spore are so easily accepted within the gaming community. The whole idea of control is a very important concept here. As individuals who have ideas about how a country should be run or the ideal way individuals should interact within society, strategy games give us the ability to put some of these ideas into action. There’s something extremely satisfying in being able to take a god-like role over a society of people (albeit a society of computer-generated 0s and 1s) and know that their destruction or survival relies on your click of the mouse button. The Civilization Phase of Spore is where I really started feeling this dominating sense of control. I found myself really concentrating as I was getting into this phase because there was a lot more going on that I needed to pay attention to. This was especially true whenever my city was being attacked or I was invading another city. Once I captured my first city, I couldn’t stop; I felt a strong sense of accomplishment in having accomplished my first goal and I wanted to dominate the rest of the map as soon as possible. I didn’t stop playing until the phase was over. Even though Spore isn’t nearly as challenging as the other strategy games I’ve played, it was still just as fun.

Will Wright’s reputation with the SimCity series also guaranteed a following of players who found satisfaction in these world-famous strategy games. Game designers obviously note that players enjoy this sense of power and control gained from manipulating other people’s lives and capitalize on that. This concept worked even better once Wright decided to remove the strategy element and focus solely on governing people’s lives with the simulation games of The Sims and The Sims 2. The world confirmed this by making The Sims the biggest-selling PC game franchise in history. Spore definitely works to continue this following by incorporating a complex level of simulation and customization into the game play as well. Combining simulation and strategy is hitting the best of both worlds in my case. It makes for a very enjoyable game.