Travian

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Travian
The sort of thing that threatens to become addicting: "Travian is a browser game with a world full of thousands of users who all begin as the leaders of small villages." The use of dependencies and resources is interesting, as well as the merchants and trade. But most interesting of all, I think, is the dynamics of forming agreements and alliances. The massively multi-player online game is browser-based and required no download and only an email registration. As has become typical for such games, you can pay real money to get in-game gold (which is too bad, really, because it distorts the outcome). More...