The question that continues to hang over Spore is just how many unique experiences a player will have, and whether these will be remarkable enough to make good stories. Already those who have played the game are swapping tales. Developers at Maxis recall being attacked by something resembling a giant whack-a-mole table; a fellow journalist talks of the time he saw two races of chair-like beings engaged in bitter warfare; we might tell you about the time we laid siege to a city whose buildings all resembled toasters.

Pointedly, however, most of these stories don’t find their origin in gameplay, instead recommending the power of its editing tools and the fact that Spore’s content-sharing system populates your universe with the many and varied creations of other players. How long will the novelty of surreally juxtaposed creations last, you wonder, and are the mechanics of play themselves suitably complicated for other scenarios to emerge that are worth retelling?

Even if Spore only manages to succeed in one facet of its staggering ambition – if it is only a brilliant toy or a comprehensive creation tool rather than a fulfilling game – then it will have achieved something worth noting. Already the vast number of creations, now well exceeding the number of known species on Earth, suggests that Spore has set a new benchmark for accessible editing tools and sophisticated content sharing. There remains much to admire about Wright’s determination to create a brand that promotes a playful and personal approach to science.



“And not just one science, but all of them,” says Wright, talking of what lies next on the agenda, including future Spore products outside of games. “A lot of people think that science is something that’s done in a lab by people in white coats – something that’s not a very personal or creative experience – but it can be.”