Sporenography

So it's after Christmas and the boy has brought over one of his new gifts, "Spore", a game in which you create and evolve your creature from single cell to galactic empire. And I'm curious, in part because I've seen Will Wright's Ted talk so we install it on the computer and he walks me through the first couple of levels.

I'm intrigued by this game, the graphics at the cell stage are remarkable, and beyond the graphics I'm curious as to how the game itself will evolve. I've decided to be a carnivore the first run through, and when I evolve onto land begin by making a feast out of any neighboring animals I can digest. The boy is concerned, I'm not doing my best to make friends of the neighboring tribes of animals, and I'm curious too what repercussions this will have upon my evolution.

The possibilities for a game like this are endless, and at first the game is an exploration as to what extent the possibilities have been realized. Is it possible to starve, because one has extinct every species on the planet? How will these actions affect my creation later in the game?  And then there is the diversion of the character editor, customizing your creature, adding horns, limbs, mouths and other features to make it unique. 

The boy interrupts me to check on my progress and looks with disgust upon my creation.

"There's a word for that. Sporenography." he says.