Spore for Windows and Mac is a game in which the player creates a single-celled organism and proceeds to guide the creature to sentience, civilization and eventually galactic domination. It was developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright, the renowned brainpower behind The Sims and SimCity. When the highly anticipated life-simulation game was first announced, there was already controversy concerning Spore's treatment of intelligent design versus evolution. Now that this multi-genre game has been on the market for a month, people are taking more pronounced sides in the debate.

The concept of the game revolves around both the creation and evolution of life. At the start of each stage, the player is prompted to create his creature. He can manipulate the creature's size, bone structure and features: arms, legs, mouths, eyes and natural weapons. User-created content, or the element of the game that consists of "playing God," is central to Spore; the role of the player is, essentially, to be an intelligent designer, and this is why Christianpost.com stated in a September article that the game "helps players understand intelligent design" and that the "intelligent design community. says [the game] supports their cause."

But the creature's evolution also plays a vital part in the game. In fact, the only way to progress in Spore is through the creature's development. The player discovers new body parts that either give new abilities or enhance old ones, and sooner or later the creature's brain size increases, and your creation becomes capable of making tools and socializing.

The game-makers were not oblivious to this argument of intelligent design and evolution. In their official TV ad, the voice-over casually remarks, "Do you believe in Creatiolutionism?" addressing the presence of both creation and evolution in the game. Will Wright, a "strong evolutionist-basically atheist," as stated in an interview with Paste Magazine, remarks in the same interview that Spore started off as a prototype "where creatures were evolving out of your control and you were picking from a selected set of mutations of your creature." The designer also told USA Today that the world created by Spore players is "definitely not a creationist universe." However, Wright believes that "players with either evolution or creationist views would find that Spore could accommodate both," as cited by GameDaily.

Most Brandeis students responded fairly neutrally when asked, "Do you think Spore teaches creationism or evolutionism?" Scott Evans '12 believes the game "wasn't intended to teach either. It's just a fun game made to make money. Any particular view is just an interpretation of the game."

Alex Bernstein '12, however, feels that Spore contains some lessons of natural selection. "I think the game focuses more on evolution, because the creatures change over time and gain beneficial features."

Spore is not the first game to bring up scientific and religious controversy. Will Wright's SimLife was one of the first games to simulate evolution, while The Sims was labeled as a "God game." Lionhead Studios' Black & White actually puts players directly in the role of a god, watching over worshipping tribes while competing with rival deities. Forbes lists these games, among others such as Populous, Darwinia and Afterlife in its "10 Games That Let You Play God."

Spore has sold over one million copies since its launch, and some say that it was one of the most anticipated games of all time. College@Home mentions the educational values Spore brings in its list of "25 Best Sims and Games For the Classroom." To see the extent of Spore's impact, readers are invited to visit the amusing Web site antispore.com, run by the AK47 Project.