'Spore': The evolution of gaming

— -- Spore has landed, and the long-awaited video game brings with it an evolutionary shift in how players interact with — and help create — games.

The title, in development for more than four years with The Sims creator Will Wright at the helm, breaks new ground in several ways. For starters, Spore (out this week for Windows and Macintosh computers, $50; special edition $80) takes the "god game" genre to extremes with players guiding single-cell organisms through the entire evolutionary process from land creatures to galactic explorers.

Another Spore game-changer: Everything players create is transmitted to the game's network, run by publisher Electronic Arts and becomes part of a constantly updated universe. All players will encounter material designed by others, from a menagerie of creatures to buildings and vehicles, in the spirit of sharing that has gained millions of devotees for sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

"A lot of what we had modeled in terms of the social features of Spore was based on social networks," Wright says. "You are creating stuff as you play the game and, with that, basically everybody becomes a creator."

Wright also stars in How to Build a Better Being tonight (10 p.m. ET) on the National Geographic Channel.

User-generated content has been a part of online computer gaming long before YouTube. Back in the '70s, homegrown text-based multi-user dungeon, or MUD, games began cropping up on networks. And games such as Doom, Quake and Half-Life came with tools to create modifications ("mods") and new levels.

But Spore makes user-generated content almost automatic. "You are sort of creating without even knowing you are doing it," says PC Gamer magazine's Kristen Salvatore. "With a few rare exceptions, (user-generated content) has been used only among the hard-core community. It has not been that easy (or) accessible for casual or mainstream gamers."

And that seamlessness keeps the quality high, Salvatore says. "It's all so wacky and fun and rendered so beautifully. It's not like you ever feel like you stumbled out of the professional part and into the unprofessional."

Spore may be leading the way, but other titles are catching on:

•In EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (out now, Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3), players can post videos of remarkable shots and issue challenges (long drives and closest-to-the-pin shots) that will show up in other players' games. Posting and vanquishing challenges earn points.

•Rock Band 2, out Sept. 14 for Xbox 360 (later this fall for Wii and PS3), lets bands issue online challenges worldwide, and an online store allows players to purchase 3-D figurines and T-shirts starring the characters and band logos they have created. And Guitar Hero World Tour (out Oct. 26) includes a music studio that players can use to create instrumental tracks that can be shared online.

•The next major game to feature user-generated content, LittleBigPlanet, out next month for PS3, has extensive character customization and lets players create "stages" that other players can download to explore.

"Things like YouTube and Facebook we could see were becoming really popular, and it was trying to apply some of that essence to games," says Mark Healey, co-founder of LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule.

As video-game development costs rise —Spore is estimated at more than $50 million — publishers need ways to recoup investments. Used properly, user content "can extend the life of the purchase and the product you have worked on," Salvatore says.

That also gets the more than 40 million homes with Internet-connected game systems "to turn on their consoles on a daily basis," says Michael Cai of Parks Associates, a Dallas-based research firm.

Cai estimates that global online revenues from games played on consoles will grow from $1.3 billion this year (mostly from Xbox Live) to more than $8 billion in 2013. "You buy clothes for your avatar or you download another song. It all adds up," he says.

Spore also has an online store that lets players buy T-shirts, coffee cups and baseball caps sporting their creations. And Spore offshoots are available for the Nintendo DS and Apple's iPhone and iPods.

"Fans will have a huge vote in the direction we expand (Spore)," Wright says. "I feel like we are only halfway through development here, and now is the really fun part where players can have a huge creative impact on what the game becomes."