Spore And The Long Zoom

“O.K., now we’re finally cooling off,” he said, clicking furiously on his computer screen. “The temperature’s going down, so we can get more water in here. Oh, now we’ve got way too much atmosphere.” While adjusting the planet, he paused long enough to say: “It’s kind of like that labyrinth game where you’re rolling the ball around the maze, trying to drop it in the hole. Except we’ve got these inertial effects, where your planet starts heating up, and you’re trying to slow it down, but you get these runaway greenhouse effects.” He turned back to the screen. “O.K., our temperature’s pretty good; our atmosphere’s pretty good. Now let’s see if we can add water.”

-- The Long Zoom (via kottke)

The article goes into some length about how certain imagery becomes emblematic of a generation - comparing Spore with Google Maps in this instance. Some pretty extensive talk on Spore itself, however, and how it's emblematic of Wright's own career.



tagged: game, gaming