There's already been a post on this, but it's too old to respond to and it's exactly what i want to rant about.

The topic is "Reality Games" where there is no purpose. Now I dont know if the word "game" is quite right to describe what I am doing, but it's close.

I'm creating a Rich Internet Application using Macromedia tools. The application can be accessed online, or downloaded. Basically, I am creating a artificial "petri dish" and allowing users to create species, using mostly predefined methods, and introduce them into an environment. Originally my purpose was for users to try to establish homeostasis in the environment, but that in it self is quite difficult. I will probably continue with something more like high school bio class.

In class, we would observe different protists under the microscope. Then we would introduce other kinds of protists and observe how the environment changed. It was kinda like watching the poor slow gazelle get eaten on the Discovery Channel. It was extremely interesting the concept to allow users to "play god" in a sense, where they could throw in a new carnivoir that wiped out another species in a matter of minutes, or hours.

I was also considering, geared more towards an online env., users owning a single species, and having the user tweak the species and then reintroducing it into the collective online environment. So you could send your guys in there, and in a day or so, check to see if they all died, or if you created the new super-creature that is thriving.

If I added some type of mutational method, you could track your species' generational attributes and see how it has changed since you introduced it. So you could see that at one point, an agent evolved to be cannabalistic or something, and well, that's the end of the race.

Again, because it's outside of your control, it's not really a game. But then again, we could make it a gambling event. Pick your horse, and see if it gets eaten, or dominates.

Just getting the basic engine completed at this point, I will work on "purpose" later.