Sordid, I'm not some kind of neo-luddite (I think that was the term), I don't hate technology. I don't despise science as a whole, just current, "modern" science. Back when they invented electricity and computers, scientists were trying to do new things, and succeeded. Now, anything that is "too new" gets shot down either by the government, or the big corporations, for being "too unsafe" and "too cheap", respectively. Here in Russia, electric cars are not street legal. The exact reasons for that are unknown, but I somehow think the whole "Russia has 70% of its profit in export of oil and gas" thing is a factor.
But that's not the point here.
Imagine that modern scientists decided to abandon gene splicing and do things the normal way. They take a crapton of vegetables and plantlife, and shove them in the general direction of Mars with another crapton of water to make up for its lack. If the plants die, do it again with more/other plants. At some point some plants will actually survive and start adapting to the environment. They will evolve into a new species of plant, and humans can now grow cucumbers on Mars. Was that done with intent? Yes. Humans intended to create a new kind of plant and artificially changed the environment of normal plants to do it. The result was natural -
natural evolution of plants. You can call that adaptation, breeding, or whatever. It's still evolution. Not "Evolution", with the capital "E", that created life on Earth. Just evolution, the process that all living things do when their environment significantly changes.
Now, back to the original thought behind this useless discussion on old-fashioned nomenclature. What would be a game of evolution? Or a game
as close as reasonably possible to actual evolution, for those of us so sure evolution can't happen with a human in the system.
Right now I see it as, well, something close to Spore, except with good physics simulation and a different view. Instead of a whopping 2 stages of creature development we see in Spore, these creatures would procedurally generate themselves with a simple simulated DNA and random "mutations" taking place at times. The time in the game would of course be horrendously accelerated, but that would have no factor on the actual pace, much like in DF. I can't say I can imagine an interface for it yet (too vague of an idea), but some gameplay elements are: a generic "power bar" that refills when your creatures successfully increase their numbers, cataclysm controls that allow causing volcanoes/earthquakes/meteorites, possibly mass teleportation (that would stretch the evolution thing to the limit, but as long as it cannot work with specific creatures it's fine). Actual random events would happen as well, and other creatures would be present in the world, simulating a basic ecosystem. The goal of the game would likely be to raise your creatures until they form a society, or (a much more ambitious plan) until they ascend into space. The controls won't change one bit btw, even if your crab-people down there are already finishing their third megapolis.
A scenario I can think of from an earlier stage:
<Alright, my three-legged barely-sentient squid-donkeys have finally managed to reproduce enough for me to get a major event started.>
<Hmm, that giant forest over there looks like a perfect place. It seems to have great fruit, some small birds are munching on them like crazy.>
<Oh, there's a canyon in the way. Wait, I can cause an earthquake to reroute a major river into it! My creatures can swim well, because it says so in their profile!>
<Alright, the water's in. Let's cause a little drought over here to make them move.>
<Look at 'em go! Over the ex-canyon and into the forest. Fruit-munching shall commence! I still need to get those last bits of carnivore habits out of their heads.>
<Ouch, are those fruit poisonous? These fellas are dying by the thousand. The river dried up, and they have nowhere to go now. I don't have the power for a teleport, what do I do?!>
<Hmm, the death rate is in decline. I wonder what happened? Oh wow, they've developed immunity to that posion thing! Nice.>
<Yikes, an earthquake! That one wasn't mine. Hmm, it seems some creatures are migrating over the new landbridge from the southern continent. I wonder what those are?>
<I NEED POWER! They are monstrous predators! I can't even drop a meteorite on them! Oh how can I save my population?! Oh, wait. The predators are dying now. What the... ah, the poisonous fruit. Interesting, the creatures adapted to poison and are now too dangerous to be eaten! HAHA! Alright, I got enough power now. Let's beam some five million over to those frozen plains in the distance. I need some fur on these monsters of mine...>
^^Something like that.