October 11, 2002
Tropico, A Computerized Garden of Delight
It's been awhile, but I played Tropico last night. It has a knack for getting me in trouble with the Other Fearless Leader, since I spend too much time playing it, or as the case was last night, I messed up taping Friends while playing. And my excuse, delivered in a lousy Spanish accent, that the people need their el presidente doesn't go over at all with her. At all. Tropico is a fun game where you are in charge of a small Caribbean island. You build the buildings, you set the wages, and you can ruthlessly suppress the people or get voted out of office (your choice!). Most people would call it a strategy/simulation game; I call it a game about gardening. To me, it's a sublimation of the gardening drive, as all the activity involved is best understood as gardening - designing, planting, weeding, watering, eliminating pests, and expanding your garden. There are a bunch of games like this, starting with Sim City, the granddaddy of simulation games, and including Warcraft, Master of Orion, or Age of Empires to name a few popular titles.
Posted by Kevin Murphy at October 11, 2002 11:55 AM | Fun
