Happy Darwin Day

Posted by Chris Vicari on 02.12.2009

Inspiration behind Spore and other videogames.

Today marks the 200th anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin's birthday, renowned man who had a profound impact on science. He challenged people's views on the origins of life, introduced the concept of natural selection and provoked thought about relationships between species.

Science isn't the only realm Darwin has influenced, however. Surprisingly, he's also had a big effect on video games too. His basic principles of evolution acted heavily as the inspiration of the ground-breaking video game, Spore. Spore gives players the power to create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other players, with every choice made bringing evolutionary consequences.

Currently, more than 35 million creatures are online on Spore.com's Sporepedia – that's 22 times more than the 1,589,361 species in existence on Earth.

Spore isn't the only game that has taken a page from Darwin's findings and theories, though. There are a multitude of other games you can thank Darwin for inspiring -- indirectly and directly -- that may be a bit surprising. The Sims and MMOs (social interaction), any shooter (survival of the fittest), and even games based on attraction (artificial selection).