Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

ThreeMinds recently wrote about how video games, like LittleBigPlanet, are adding Web 2.0 functionality to the gaming experience. Another game pushing the envelope of user creation is Spore by Electronic Arts, which was released about a month ago.

When if first came out, I spent all day (literally!) playing this, and the concept is incredible: you begin as an amoeba, and move all the way up to space travel, and lets you design every aspect of the game you can think of as you go.

EA released their Spore Creature Creator quite some while ago, which allowed you to design creatures that you could use in the game. However, in the full game, there are 11 different easy-to-use but powerful editors for everything you can think of, amoeba, creatures, buildings, plants, trees, cars, spaceships - you name it. There's even a mini music creator which lets you make a little national anthem for your race!

Everything you create is uploaded into what EA calls "The Sporepedia", which creates a massive database of creatures, vehicles, buildings, spaceships, plants, and a whole bunch of other stuff which will appear randomly in your game as you go. So, every new game of Spore you play will be entirely different, and the content will be almost entirely generated of content made up by not only your friends, but the entire Spore community.

With user-created content in every new game you play, there are also a ton of advertising possibilities. For instance, we could make replicas of different Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep vehicles and make them playable in fantastic ways within the game. Because... why drive a Dodge Viper when you can fly one?

Daryl Brewer