It’s time for a new diversion. I considered making my own beer or cheese, but a fattening pastime isn’t really the best idea for me, especially in winter. The notion of watching and recording the types of squirrels that visit my bird-feeder crossed my mind, but that wouldn’t last long: the Eastern Gray Squirrel is the only member of the Sciuridae family to grace my deck, and I’m usually at work when they pilfer my seed. Annotating Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes is fun in moderation, but I want more.

Looks like rain over Foozitoonooland.
(source)

Here’s my new hobby, and I invite you to join me. I’m going to try my hand at emanating lower and lower spiritual modalities until a physical universe results, flowing forth from my self-aware, unmanifested sentience beyond comprehension. (Wikipedia) In short, I want to create!

I’m sure you’re the same, if you’ve ever felt the rush of making stuff. There’s no better way to put it than Hugh Macleod:

“Making stuff develops the ability to see, hear, taste, smell and feel. Making stuff is about problem solving, the openness to possibilities, development of skills, internal and external navigation and resolution, a sense of exploration and adventure. Making stuff transforms one from a consumer to a contributor. Making stuff is not passive. Making stuff involves making choices. Realizing you have choices and making them is empowering. Empowerment leads to confidence, and the courage to question and challenge the status quo.” (Macleod)

The empowering act of making stuff sums up the idea behind the PC game “Spore,” due out in the second half of 2007. In a recent interview at Popular Science, Will Wright (SimCity, The Sims 1 & 2,) describes the innovative gameplay of Spore where as a player, you design your own creature species and evolve it from a single-cell organism to a conquering, space-faring race.

Creature (Blackus Lagoonus).
(source)

“I want people to feel like they are Pokemon designers, Neopet designers, or Pixar designers, and the range of creatures is pretty astounding…I’ve had a lot of people, when I’ve demoed Spore coming up and saying ‘I’ve never played a game before, but I want to play this one.’ And I think those people are attracted by the empowerment of the tools, they would really like the experience of creating a Pixar character and having it come to life.” (Morgenstern)

The evolution of the species takes place in game levels until you reach the “space” level, at which point the game opens up to a sandbox-style universe populated by other players’ races, vehicles, cities, planets, where you play, build, destroy and progress.

“What it means to be human is to learn to use tools to basically expand your abilities.” (Morgenstern)

We built this city on click and scroll.
(source)

With the built-in tools to create important game resources and share those with others, Spore might be a game that, after a session of playing, leaves you feeling able to confidently create and share in the real world. At the very least, it moves you from “consumer to contributor,” from idea-sponge to, well, idea-garden-hose.

“Making stuff and sharing it is a social and political act, which opens avenues for communication.That can help prevent us from becoming mindless drones subservient to the mass media, politicians, advertisers and commercial interests…” (Macleod)

However, since it will be several months before the game comes out, I suppose I have time to make a little bit of beer, count some squirrels and try to figure out obscure MST3K references.

References

• Macleod, Hugh. "Why Make Stuff? ", Gapingvoid: "Cartoons Drawn on the Back of Business Cards", 30 Nov 2006. Retrieved on 28 Feb 2007.
• Morgenstern, Steve. "The Wright Stuff", Popular Science, Feb 2007. Retrieved on 28 Feb 2007.
• Wikipedia contributors, ‘Emanationism‘, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Feb 2007, Retrieved on 28 Feb 2007.