The whole concept about this game would summarise into, not what evolution has done on this earth, but how evolution will take place in game. From the "Evolutionist" angle, people have been given the creature creator to create their best creations. But finally wether the creation of yours will survive or perish will be tested in the game. And only best designs of creatures will evolve and rule the game. People have been given the time to build their best creations, and I doubt even 1% of these creations will survive long enough in the game itself. Its a kind of battle of species. LOL.

Pitch your best creations against hordes of species. The Evolution starts when the game comes live. Till then, happy creationists.LOL.May the best win.LOL.

even so it would be a very interesting game, provide it is not cheating

I think it's going to be relatively difficult not to cheat because it's not much fun if none of the creatures will survive..

I therefore think more species than not will simply survive throughout the game.

It might me challenging to try to survive as long as possible

However Games must cheat and I dont think that Spore will make an exception simply because the scenarios are too complex for a true A.I.
The game should focus on some details but in this case it would be boring for most players
Even the supposed advanced AI of the famous Black & White 2 was rather a marketing issue, as far as I know

Well its suppose to be a game, and as far as there are players playing the game, there will evolution take place. Players will pitch more robust creatures for the survival. So evolution will be guided by sheer motivation for playing the game and surviving of players creations. LOL.

Think about it this way, we the super beings creating creatures for survival in virtual world. LOL. Its not about how evolution has taken place or what could have happened if something in evolution had taken other course, but its about what we the super thinkers can create in limited resources we have in the game. Just for record, take the case of no resources supplied for creating the human race in the game. But yet people have devised means to create all kind of humans from the limited resources. LOL.

Its going to change the attitude and prejudice of many regarding evolution in general. I see it as a means to experiment and satisfy my curosity regarding the whole evolution theory. I believe in the fact that evolution is the sole factor for us being here. Tools like these help us to understand why a particular design of nature(evolution) would survive or perish.

"Natural phenomenas" and "survival of the fitest" guide the course of evolution. Dont know how the game is going to emulate these features. I doubt the implementation of these factors in the game itself, because behind every creature there is going to be a super creature, guiding its destiny, we the best creations of nature, the humans, the players.

So it would be survival of the species but the survival of the player. LOL.

Well, I do think it was obvious that it was improved compared to the Black & White 1 AI, but I don't think a lot of the AI 'cleverness' in games can be noticed so much in that you really can say 'wow that was smart'.

AI in games by far isn't on that kind of level yet.

In Black & White 2 it has mainly been a matter of more actions, animations and so on I think. Not so much the promised life-like cleverness or so.

More NPC actions or possibilities still don't make NPCs or enemies look more clever. Especially when they decide to do something slightly unexpected in a certain scenario.

(For example your Black & White creature cheering and doing a happy dance because your beast has just stomped a few soldiers to death, while next to him a much larger enemy army is setting your villages on fire.

Another example; Crysis, enemy soldiers in boats respond to a alarm call made by some of their friends on a shore... instead of going directly to these soldiers to support them, they start patrolling around like zombies. All the animations and interactions look cool, but in a way their behavior doesn't quite make much sense. I mean, sure those reinforcements would be careful, but they would at least go to the persons that called for help, right? )