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Learning from Spore
Posted by Hsing Wei on 03-29-09One of the most anticipated game releases of the year was Spore. At the Serious Games Summit, journalist Margaret Robertson shared some thoughts on lessons learned from Spore in the context of serious games.
Despite some criticisms about the accuracy of the science of Spore, the response to the game was meaningful discussion. For Robertson “This is a game that caused tens of thousands of people to be forced to articulate their profound thoughts on who they are and their place in the universe…” While perhaps falling short on science, Spore perhaps fell right on in terms of stimulating thinking about beliefs and decision-making. As Robertson noted, “We don’t talk enough about the potential of games to be valuable as polemics… Spore isn’t god vs. science, but all of this grew out of this. What other debates could we be having… In other contexts?”
Current social impact games usually try to mitigate the possibility of misunderstandings about the issue they are addressing. Usually there is a clear message about what is good and bad. Usually players take on the role of the protagonist rather than the bad guy. Especially for the purposes of building awareness and learning within games, situating players within the role of those facing the problem or seeking to fix the problem is spot on. However, as social change games begin maturing as a genra, will we begin to see more examples of games intended to ignite controversy and debate? The creator of Harpooned recently shared how not everyone understood his game as a satire (end of this video clip). Have a hunch, we’ll be seeing more games experimenting with unexpected styles and uses of games.
Back to Spore. Its release also had some good lessons learned for social impact games hoping to reach children through schools. Some highlights of aspects to consider include: accommodating school schedules (releases that align with school planning), flexibility to classroom needs (ease of integrating into existing lesson plans and class time), and cost (potential of free versions to build buyers). More at Gamasutra.