Friday, December 5, 2008

I Have Experienced Spore, and These Are My Conclusions:

Since the semester is drawing to a close and I don't know how many more of these blogs I'll be writing between now and the end of school, I wanted to be sure to dedicate a post to serve as a type of reflection of the overall topics I've discussed and my experience of playing Spore.

In the beginning.....there was a name. That name was Will Wright. This name attached to the project Spore created a recipe for one of the biggest hypes in PC game history. When I first heard about Spore from friends and watching demo videos online, I instantly understood what the hype was all about. I couldn't even fathom what the scope of the game would be from what Wright was saying about it. As for the creativity factor, I couldn't wait to try it out. As a fan of The Sims franchise, I was definitely looking forward to seeing what Wright would do with the customization aspect of the game. With the release of the Creature Creator, I was able to have a hands-on preview of what this creativity would look like. Needless to say I thought that it was a lot of fun to be able to create a series of creatures as simple or outlandish as possible. And so after this, I waited along with the rest of the world in eager anticipation for the day when Spore would finally be released. In a very exciting twist of fate, I was able to download the game early and start playing before the millions of other people started uploading content to Sporepedia. I was very excited and when I first started playing, I felt that my expectations would be easily met. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way. I started to realize how quickly I was flying through the phases and knew that I had to slow down to make the game last for an entire semester. The lack of complexity also contributed to the speedy gameplay. However, I soon started to see that it was actually a good thing that I was having to take my time. It gave me a chance to step back and observe my surroundings and the little details of the game that many other players may have missed. Despite the fact that I was playing a relatively short game at a slow pace, I never found myself losing interest in it. The balance of creativity and strategy was, I thought, a great way to keep the player engaged if there was one aspect of gameplay preferred over another. After this semester, I plan on playing Spore again at a normal pace and at a harder level and see how my experience differs from my first time playing. I'm predicting that I might get worn out after a while, but we'll see.

I would have to say that my favorite part of the game would actually have to encompass two of the phases: The creature phase and the civilization phase. The reason why I enjoyed the creature phase so much was that it catered to my creative, social side; the side that also found satisfaction with The Sims. This phase was the one that reflected the style of The Sims the closest. It is also, I'm sure, the phase that drew in the female gaming crowd with the most ease. It was great to be able to customize every single aspect of my creature in order to really make it my own. Being able to socialize and perform different actions was also a nice change from the cell phase, which was basically a fancy Pac-Man game. The civilization phase was probably my ultimate favorite because of my love for strategy games. Spore did a pretty good job on this genre, however I wouldn't have minded if it was a bit more challenging. Still, I definitely enjoyed the whole aspect of taking over other cities primarily via military force. There wasn't a moment of this phase when I wasn't active, which kept me engaged and immersed. Overall, these two phases were the ones I had the most fun with.

Looking back on my blog, I'm amazed by how many topics I was able to relate to this game. Initially, I thought this would be a basic project where I would write about my gaming experience and tie it in with some of the most popular concepts surrounding it such as science, education and its massive appeal. I had no idea that I would be pulling up topics like the Christmas Truce of 1914, Sporn, inventions, and immersion. Also, the literature I've read and different forms of online media I've viewed in creating these blog posts has been more than I would have imagined. All of these materials I've read and viewed have been extremely interesting. It's incredible to see the variety of material I was able to find online while looking for topics to write about. Spore has crossed into so many different realms of discussion and debate, both scholarly and simple, in such a short period of time. I was genuinely amazed to see the response to this game and I was happy to be able to add to the online material.

Of all the topics I discussed and blogs I wrote, I have to list these two as my favorites:
Can I really compare Spore with the Christmas truce of 1914? Let's take a look...
Sporn: Take It or Leave It
I enjoyed the first topic here because of the surprises it contained. First, for some reason I hadn't thought about the issue of religion and Spore until I came across the online blog post I wrote about. Even though it was fake, it really made me think about this deeper issue of Spore and the debate posed between evolution and creationism. It's interesting, because now I can see Spore as being both promotional for evolution and intelligent design. I experienced another surprising moment when this subject somehow reminded me of the Christmas Truce of 1914. This event is, I feel, one of the most important events in the history of games and play because it shows that even two nations at war can come together through the cultural medium of play. The Sporn blog was also a great topic to write about because it just goes to show you that people can find offense in anything. We all knew that Sporn was coming, it's amazing to see the horrified reactions that have come with it though. Ours is such a sensitive nation after all.

As I begin to wrap-up my first run-through of Spore and finish the GL&S class, I've come to appreciate this assignment, despite the dedication it's taken to post regularly. I feel that I understand Spore on a much deeper level than I ever would have been able to had I not written these blogs. It's a bit ironic because in studying serious games, we're each playing a game for this class as a way to emphasize the significance of video games and their impact on learning. However, it has been in writing this blog that I have received the greatest meaning. It's a cycle where I've moved from traditional classroom learning, to non-traditional learning through games, and back to traditional learning through reading and writing. It's pretty interesting to see how that worked out. Although it was playing the game that inspired each of these blog posts, so the serious games can still take the most credit in this situation. Before taking this class, I had never really realized the true significance of play and games. After taking this class, I now have a very elevated understanding of their role in society and learning and I hope to continue incorporating what I have learned here within future learning. Who knew that there was so much you could get out of just turning on the computer and EXPERIENCING SPORE

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