We're too old to have grown up with computers and cell phones and texting and Twittering and YouTubing every moment of our lives. As Boomers, we're in the Computer Age, but just barely. This is despite the fact that, as I may have mentioned, I began using computers in 1971, when I was at Dartmouth College, where the President, John Kemeny, was the one who invented BASIC. (End of bragging that I was the first Boomer, ever, to use a computer. Back to you, Al Gore.
Granted, there are some video game/computer entertainment outlets that I just don't get. I don't do Rock Star or Guitar Hero, or any of those music playing games. And although I am awed by the Wii, and even bought one to give away, I don't play it or PlayStation or XBox. I did, however, adore SimCity, the very first one, which I could not stop playing. And now, there's Spore.
Spore, the enemy of creationists everywhere, is a gorgeous, addictive, terrifyingly clever game in 
which you (the player) create a single-celled organism. Slowly, it evolves into a creature, that you design, a tribal member, a civilization, and space explorer. I'm a little dim-witted about how to do this well, so I'm still in the Creature stage. Here is my creation, which I've called Kipper, after a certain dog. That's my new critter, just after he (she?) emerged from the egg, newly redesigned by me, with wings and fancy new feet, and some horns. I feel my lack of artistic ingenuity deeply, because my poor little guys are not nearly as cool-looking as the ones romping around the planet we're inhabiting. I don't know how the thing works, but I think it's populated by creatures that thousands of other people have designed. (Engineer Boy claims to have seen my guys roaming the forests in his separate game.)
Spore allows you to take photos of your screen--like a proud parent wanting to document every moment of a newborn's life. (This is an earlier incarnation of Kipper. The possibilities are, literally, infinite.) You can also take video, which I might figure out someday, when my creatures look fancier and have evolved to be, well, more impressive than they are now. I opted for the Carnivore mode, so I have to kill and eat prey to stay alive. And they end up hacking me to pieces a little too often, and I have to retreat to my nest to recover. Once, I accidentally ate some vegetation, and it must not have agreed with me (uh, my creature I mean), and I was throwing up all over the place.
This game should be Required Play in states like Arkansas and Alabama. It will cure at least eighty percent of those plagued by Creationism. Go Spore!
