PC Gamer

THE HISTORY OF GOD GAMES

Many videogames furnish the player with godlike powers, but surprisingly few have tried to simulate the complete experience of being a god. A specific sub-genre of management sim that emerged in the late 1980s, god games lend players control not merely over a specific institution or social structure (like a theme park or a city). They give you power over reality itself, letting you shape worlds, create life and destroy both on a whim.

God games are dizzyingly ambitious, and perhaps because of this, only a sparse pantheon has ever been made. Even then, the status of many of these as god games is debatable. Many canonical god games either neglect to acknowledge your role as a god, or outright reject it, expressing the emergence of life through natural processes, rather than divine intervention.

The history of god games doesn’t start with a bang or a command. It’s more primordial, a confluence of ideas that merged and – dare I say it – evolved over decades. Bits of god games can be seen as far back as 1964’s The Sumerian Game, and 1968’s Hamurabi. Both these games cast players as Sumerian kings, tasking them with managing grain harvests in the face of random disasters. Then there’s 1983’s Utopia, a two-player game in which each player runs their own island, Utopia is credited as being one of the first games to include city-building and real-time strategy elements.

The holy spirit of god games looms large in the history of PC

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from PC Gamer

PC Gamer8 min read
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
RELEASE23 April 2024 DEVELOPERRabbit & Bear Studios PUBLISHER505 Games LINK rabbitandbearstudios.com There are several ways I could introduce Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I could tell you that it’s a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series
PC Gamer2 min read
The Spy
The Spy doesn’t believe in money. Sure, The Spy has seen the coins and notes you parade around, and heard tell of their ability to be exchanged for a Greggs Steak Bake. The Spy understands these coins and notes are then gathered up and given to the p
PC Gamer3 min read
Armored Core VI
RELEASEAugust 24, 2023 PUBLISHERBandai Namco DEVELOPERFromSoftware LINK bandainamcoent.eu I would like to apologise to the person I rage quit on in Armored Core VI. I don’t remember your name, I just remember your build: lightweight on Nachtreiher

Related Books & Audiobooks