^ Yes, I've also heard rumors the creature editor will come out earlier for free.

@Serpilian

"I probably should clarify my whole “Toys with political messages” bit. It’s not necessarily that toys shouldn’t be made with political messages, as some people do like them. Freedom and all that. I don’t, however, like them aimed at children with the goal of “changing the world”. Can we just teach them to think for themselves instead and let them make up their own minds? Or is that too dangerous?"

Like what they did with Happy Feet? It was all fun and games 'till the evil humans came.

@ Kommisar

More Scientific consensus than evolution... please.

remove religious interference and you will see both the scientific consensus and evidence is stronger for evolution than global warming (given that we have been researching it for many more years).
I like the idea of games like this but I would hope the makers take the time to fully research anything they add, by using it as an educational tool they have to avoid as much subjectivity as possible.

@Gil:

Seems like the majority of climate scientists supports the idea of man-made gobal warming:

---

Statistical analysis of consensus


Is there really "consensus" in the scientific community on the reality of anthropogenic climate change? As N. Oreskes points out in a recent article in Science, that is itself a question that can be addressed scientificially. Oreskes took a sampling of 928 articles on climate change, selected objectively (using the key phrase "climate change") from the published peer-reviewed scientific literature. Oreskes concluded that of those articles (about 75% of them) that deal with the question at all, 100% (all of them) support the consensus view that a significant fraction of recent climate change is due to human activities. Of course, there are undoubtedly some articles that have been published in the peer-reviewed literature that disagree with this position and that Oreskes's survey missed, but the fact that her sample didn't find them indicates that the number of them is very very small. One could debate whether overwhelming consensus is adequate grounds for action on climate change, but there are no grounds for debating whether such consensus actually exists.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=80

I probably should clarify my whole "Toys with political messages" bit. It's not necessarily that toys shouldn't be made with political messages, as some people do like them. Freedom and all that. I don't, however, like them aimed at children with the goal of "changing the world". Can we just teach them to think for themselves instead and let them make up their own minds? Or is that too dangerous?

Heh, I know what you mean, Spore is just a game, just to clarify, I'm not saying that Will Wright should write full atmospheric modelling into the game or anything, from the looks of things he's done an incredible enough job already

Currently it's being more and more accepted that the Environmental impact of humanity IS detectable in global warming and is influencing it.

For example, in the year 2000, the North Pole melted. Entirely. Something that hasn't happened in 50 million years.

Modern research suggests that now Antartica is melting faster than is expected and is being corroded from both above and below.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1678441&page=1

Worse still, not only are more scientists accepting it, but even the doubters are quite concerned at how quickly it is taking place.

@GoodRobotUs

"It more likely a combination of Man-made actions AND natural cycles."

Which of course makes it infinitely harder to explain to the common man... because when it gets complicated, they get all glazed over and ignore the rest of the explanation, followed by a "well why did they call it global warming then?"

I think what Serpilian means is that whilst the act of 'Global Warming' (which is a very poor choice of words anyway, since not just warming is involved) is a fact, it's far far more complex than simply 'Too much CO2', that particular belief was spread around by the media, not the Scientific community. It more likely a combination of Man-made actions AND natural cycles.

@jonc2006

When they talk about games as toys, they are referring to specific open ended games like SimCity, Sims etc. GTA and HALO are not toys in that aspect.

I like the idea of experimenting with the lives of a colony. I can't wait for it to be released. This topic goes quite well with the othe next one about the Canadian town's web game. If a game can make learning politics and social implications of your actions, then I say That's the best news I have heard so far.

[...] Original post by GamePolitics and powered by Img Fly   [...]

@Blitz
SimAnt was an awsome game. He should make a sequal to it.
And I can't wait for Spore. I have also learned a lot from his games like Sim City. We need more games like that.

i wish people would stop referring video games as "toys". people who are outside of the gaming community get seriously distorted or exxagerated meanings of games when it is put into that context. some games can be considered to be like that but its easy for the uninformed to generalize that all games are like that.

Whoa... i think I just ODed on nostalgia.

Will Wright... shit, to be able to think like he does.

Sim city was an amazing game. It gave me my first look at infrastructure. I was so proud the first time I payed back a savings bond........ then my power plant exploded because it wore out and I was going to fast so for 2 years my town had no power and everyone left. Im not going to lie, I hadn't saved, couldn't get it quite right again.... i cried.... a little bit. Then got back to building a huge map with arcos and everything.

"Players whose virtual species generate too much carbon dioxide, for example, will destroy their planet with the effects of global warming."

We all know that global warming was a myth created by socialist countries to justify destroying western economies through Kyoto... - Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper, Conservative

Nice idea though. Reminds me a bit of "SimEarth"... :)