Virtual Villagers is an offbeat "life sim" game in which you control a village of castaways on what seems to be a South Pacific island, helping them to build something like an adequate life for themselves. What's unique about it in comparison to other life sims is that "time" progresses even when the game isn't running--in other words, if you don't come back to the game for several weeks, you may find that something fairly horrific has happened to your civilization.
Conversely, while it's entertaining to watch the villagers move about, there isn't actually all that much you can call upon them to do at any given time. As a result, gameplay is quite different from other sim/tycoon games. Basically, you start up the game, give some orders to your villagers, see what's going on, and close it down--coming back in a few hours, or the next day, to see what needs to be done next. Short, frequent game play sessions, in other words, rather than the long marathons typical of most games.
Quite odd, but interesting--and innovative, to be sure, a value we prize.
