'Spore' ads crawl out from primordial ooze

Spore is a massively single-player online (MSO) game that simulates real life, like Will Wright’s previous titles SimCity and The Sims. Only this time, you start as an amoeba and simulate the evolution of a whole new species. You wouldn’t know this from seeing the trailer, posted above. A friend of mine thought it was for a new children’s movie. (Can you blame him?) And Spore’s Internet campaign, “Inner Feelings from Outer Space,” (which is remarkably reminiscent of SNL’s Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy) also requires you to already know what Spore is. They do have a cool banner running on GameSpot. And they’re offering a free download of the game’s Creature Creator, which you can use to create a critter and enter it in a YouTube dance-off competition. But this is all food for the faithful. If you’re part of Spore’s cult following (and lots of people been waiting years for the game), the ads make total sense. If not, there will hopefully be another campaign out before the game’s launch in September.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

June 19, 2008 in Cullers | Permalink