Spore [video games]

Much of the geeking out about Spore that’s been splattering about in the modern-day primordial ooze of the Internet has done a good job of appropriately hyping this game. Taking a critter from a single-celled state through to space exploration is made surprisingly easy and fun, but it’s also a treat that the other critters in the game competing for resources are drawn from the online pool of creepy-crawlies blueprinted by other gamers out there. For that reason, a lot of them seem to be highly phallic (and carnivorous), but maybe that’s my own Freudian issue seeping in.

But what I like most about playing Spore is that I can imagine that there are children out there who are giggling as they make their little penis monsters and seek to sack other tribes with them who are learning about evolution without realizing it. Ah, yes. Finally some edutainment that doesn’t teach kids about the virtue of killing hookers (fun though that is) and might actually undermine the real-world evil forces of Creationists. Perhaps that’s a stretch, but it’s easy to underestimate the power of a video game to shape its players; I still get mildly aroused by yellow triangles and I haven’t played Zelda in years.