Will Wright's magnificent Spore has been voted Time Magazine's 20th best invention of the year, in the influential mags run-down of top tech and other inventions in 2008.
Spore came in at number 20, in the same list as such other breakthrough tech and science as the retail DNA test', the Tesla Roadster' and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Time claims that it was "blasphemy, brilliance or both to take the entire evolution of a species — from a single-celled animalcule in a drop of water to a space-faring, galaxy-exploring sentient being — and turn it into a video game. But that's exactly what Will Wright has done."
Cultural legitimacy
Not bad going, Mr Wright! Another superb achievement for one of the greatest minds currently working in videogame development. If this doesn't add cultural legitimacy to gaming, then what can?
The report continues: "Wright is the man who created The Sims, a game about everyday life in suburbia, but apparently he found the vast panorama of human experience too confining, because he then spent seven years creating Spore, in which players design their own life-form and then manage every aspect of its progress through the centuries, from savagery to civilization."
For more on Time's top inventions of 2008, check the mag's website.
