Hmmm, in the vein of WoW - , where your actions (particularly on Raids) can have a good deal of influence.

And is coming out, where the balance of victories affects many things, not just the large scale Raid type victories, but the smaller one.

When playing God though I tend towards 'conquer the world/universe' games, such as Civilization, or on a smaller scale, X-Com. (Yes, I still play that. Thanks to the good folks that provided a link to the XP patched version. )

The Auld Grump

EVE Online!

that woudl be my suggestion. I currenlty don't play. Not because I did not like it but because I now have a familly and need to finish my PhD. In fact it is one of the best games I ever played. the game is played on one server, one whole galxy, the econmy is mostly run by those who play which is a lot so you can have a real ecominy. and most of the game univers is what is called 0.0 space where almost every thing is run by the players. You want to build an emipire, do it. You want to be a pirate, do it. You want to be a day tarader, do it. the game is also very well supported, they just had a major graphic upgrade. I think this is what you are looking for. But be warned it is a very open ended game, it becomes what you make of it.

Robert

Not sure about Sims on-line, but With the Sims, there is nothing more fun than driving your SIM nuts.

I created a SIM and then wanted to see how far I could push him.

Basically made his life hell by having his wife jump all over guys in front of him, wouldn't let him go to the bathroom, starved him, etc.

That was totally fun. To bad they turned the violence way down in the game to only bitch slapping people. I'd have loved to see him go postal spree

But even that gets boring after a while.

Not sure what will fill your need Mate, but if you find it, let everyone else know.

My BIGs think WOW is the shit, but I played the other day and don't like for the same reason I don't like almost all of the MMORPG's, you have to walk everywhere and you waste 90% of your time going from the place to that place. I did Guild Wars, mainly because there's no Fee (you buy the game and play... no monthly fees) but that of course grew old... run here..... run there.... run everywhere....

Did the Star Wars one, but found it lame too (thought have technology would make it cooler but alas no).

I have not done City of Hero's or Villains just because I am an UBER SH FREAK and figure I'd lose my day job cause I'd get sucked in. But then it is an MMORPG, which I have found on a whole are bland and not fun at all.

Just my Rant and 2 copper.

CCotD'

I think there is really good potential with Second Life but it suffers from bad presentation and information design. If you can get past the garbage in Second Life (furries, bling & sex locales) there is some underpinning of compelling role play in various themes. There's quite a massive StarTrek community there and they frequently role play all kinds of interesting scenarios.

I would like to see Second life in about 5 years from now. If they can up the realism graphically and focus more upon structured experiences with creative freedoms then I think it will be hard to beat. A bit like the classic movies "WestWorld" & "FutureWorld" but in a more virtual sense.

If you want to have an effect on the game world; EVE Online. Nothing else comes close in that aspect.

Personally, I'm partial to the fun and easy gameplay of City of Villains/Heroes because that, plus the customization options when it comes to your character's costumes really makes it my kind of game.

If they were to let you really customize the look of your ships in EVE, I would probably give it another shot, but the complexity of building a character and keeping abreast of the economy is mind-boggling to me.