What I've been up to.

So, I've played God Games on and off since Populous came out around 1990. I think I've always had a version of Civ as well.

I recently found that I liked a game called Virtual Villagers. The premise is simple, you control a tribe of seven refugees from a volcanic explosion who find themselves on an island paradise and you must lead them to learn technologies, grow food, and multiply the tribe. The island is full of mysteries to solve and feeding villagers isn't always easy. The really interesting thing is that it's a game of strategy that, like aquarium simulators or neo-pets, continues even if the game is off. You go to bed with a thriving tribe and find that in the morning, you have to deal with disease or the fire going out or some-such. It's paced so that you don't have to manage it all the time and it's still fun.

I'm not their standard demographic. The game is in Target and Wal-Mart and lots of grandmothers talk about playing with their grandkids in the forums. But I enjoy it. It's got good game-play.

This winter I volunteered and was accepted as a Beta tester for Chapter 2, The Lost Children, which is now released for Windows and Mac. What I find really fascinating is how strongly they took feature suggestions from their forum or from the testers. There's just more to do.

It'll never satisfy your thumb-twitch needs, but it's a good game, in part because I worked hard testing it. Give it a shot. If you have kids, have them give it a shot!