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Anxiety of a Spore Creator |
That's it! I really think I’m losing my mind! Who ever thinks, "God had it easy", has obviously never played Spore. Single cell structure? Okay I got through that. I’ve been tested in the tidal pools. Now I’m on land and I'm really starting to feel the pressure! So here I sit at the creature editor. Over analyzing? You think? I doubt it. Here’s the deal; my choices and possibilities seem to never end. I love this game! I hate this game! I’ll probably never leave my computer again. Okay, time to get a hold of myself. Let’s think this through: 
Body -- How should I make the basic body of my creature appear? Logically, if it were very large I could easily overpower other creatures, right? I mean, look at the elephant. One of the strongest mammals on earth, the elephant fears nothing. Well, except maybe lions. Lions are medium sized, so they are fast enough to chase down game. If my creature were enormous I would not be able to get away from such a fierce predator. Okay, so instead of large, lets go medium. Yeah, more compact. Muscular, fierce, I could track down any and everything. Well… except for monkeys. They are much smaller so they can leap through trees and stay out of my reach. Hmm, maybe I should be smaller. I could go anywhere. Land, trees, scale large mountains. Okay, small could be good if anything were after me, I could go high in a tree. Let's just hope a large elephant sized creature doesn’t want me bad enough to knock that tree down. Oh well, I can worry about size later. There are other things to take into account.
Legs -- Two long strong legs with flat feet. Make that four legs. With four legs I could travel much faster. Of course, I wouldn’t not be able to climb move in small areas, would I? Okay two legs, two legs would make me much more maneuverable it tight situations. But then I would lose speed. What’s more important, speed or maneuverability? Hey! Why not have both? I could have two legs at the top of my body and two legs at the bottom? When speed was not important, I could walk around on two legs. Need to flee for safety or chase down a meal? BAM! Flip head over tail from one pair of legs to the other. That would be fast! Wait a minute. I could definitely see some co-ordination and balance issues there though. Why carry an extra pair of legs if I were seldom going to use them? Okay, enough on leg for now. I need to be able to manipulate my surroundings.
Arms -- Twenty arms! Arms everywhere! I could even have arms on my legs! I would be able to carry everything. I could hold five boards while holding ten nails and hammering them all in with five hammers. Okay, okay…not the best idea. The weight would be insane. Not to mention the fact that I would have so many places to be grabbed if I were being attacked. Okay so why not just stick with two arms? That’s they way we evolved and it seems to work fine. Well, except for when we need help from someone else. Four arms could be perfect. It would be as if we always had an extra person with us to lend us a helping hand. Okay! I’m not sure about body, or legs, but I will definitely have four arms.
Welcome to my hell! Thirty minutes of thinking and the only thing I have is two arms. Sure, sooner or later I will decide on a body size and type. I’ll even figure out how many legs and the strength or length of them. But it’s not over. It’s never really over. Where is my head? What about my mouth? Eyes? Ears? Nose? How many? Where should they be placed?
Freedom. Freedom to decide. That’s what Will Wright gave me with his new game Spore. That’s what got me where I am now. I am the creator of this species and I alone determine it’s success. Well, excuse me. I have to go get more coffee as I contemplate what color my skin should be. Blend in or stand out? Camouflage or attraction? Bumps, spikes, hair?.. ARGH!!!! 
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