God has always fascinated man and almost everyone wants to have God as powers if not to be God. One of those creations of man are video games that allow him to have perfect control over things in an arena. These games not only allow their users to play God, but also give them the option to be a good God or a bad God or even be a God with shades of gray. Some of the popular games that have been developed to quench the human desire to be God are The Sims, Black & White, Populous, God of War, Afterlife, Too Human, Viva Piñata, and Zeus. Below are the details of two famous games in which the player can play God.

Utopia

Utopia is considered the first among the Sim and God games and is also credited for being the first game in the real-time genre. The game was released by Intellivision almost two decades ago and has captured the interest of the gaming community. It has recently been relaunched for the Xbox 360 console and for Windows Live. At the beginning of the game, players must choose the number and duration of turns. Each player must select an island that acts as their kingdom. The player spends gold bars to develop his kingdom by building schools, factories, hospitals, housing projects, and farms to support the kingdom’s population. The game also allows the player to place rebels in the kingdom of the opponent who has been entrusted with destroying the resources built by the ruler of the kingdom. The income of each player is generated when the farms receive rain for the cultivation of the randomly generated rain clouds or when using the fishing boats to obtain fish.

Black White

Black & White 2 is a sequel to Black & White and has been labeled by Forbes as a ‘Let God Play’ game. It has been developed by Lionhead Studios and is compatible with Windows and Mac platforms. The game received positive reactions from critics and earned an average rating of 76% in Game Rankings. The game is based on “The Prophecy” whereby the most powerful power in the world will destroy the world’s tribes. The tribe, in turn, receives a God who is supposed to lead the tribe to his glory and dominion in the world. Creatures in the game include apes, lions, tigers, wolves, and cows, although the tiger is included only in the special or reserved edition of the game. The player can perform ordinary miracles such as fire, water, lightning, shields, heal, and meteor or perform epic miracles such as mermaid, hurricane, earthquake, and volcano. The God can be a Good, an Evil or a combination of both Good and Evil. The way of an Evil God is based more on destruction, while the way of the Good God is based on benevolence. The cities of these gods are a reflection of their nature. The game has been highly appreciated for its “rich” buttonless user interface.