From 2nd Life to Spore

You don't just create a fully developed avatar (online version of yourself) in Spore, you start from cellular-level scratch and develop yourself and your world over time in the forthcoming game that its creator - (SimCity creator and "videogame god") Will Wright – believes will help mankind. Big vision, but if it becomes the blockbuster some analysts believe it will, it just might. According to The Register, Wright sees the game as "a learning exercise." He describes Spore (expected to be out later this year) as "a 'philosophy tool' that will force people to spend extra time 'contemplating the meaning of life' or considering the complex workings of civilizations. You might, for example, be forced to manage a planet battling global warming" or deal with real life threats. The Register steps away from its usual slight cynicism to concede that "Spore does look to place higher demands on users than your typical brain-shrinking garbage such as Second Life or for that matter television." CNET and Business Week covered Wright's keynote at a recent game developers conference (note his comparison of videogames and film in CNET and the more "player-centered" aspect of games he describes in Business Week).