I’m battling cyborgs, building Dyson spheres, and corrupting primitive societies with advanced tech…

I can’t be the only gamer around here, can I?

There are plenty of games that I play in fits and spurts. Obsession for a few months, then I don’t load it up again for a few years or until a major patch comes out with something that sounds particularly fun.

For me, one of those games is Stellaris. 

If you don’t know Stellaris, it’s a 4X game made by Paradox where you start out as a species that has just developed interstellar space travel. You’ve got one planet, a few ships, and a whole galaxy to explore.

What I love about it is the game rolls in just about every sci-fi trope they can lay their hands on. You can build Dyson spheres, have your robot workforce turn sentient, teach advanced tech to primitive societies, and face alien threats ranging from Borg-like cyborgs bent on assimilating your whole species to ancient races who view you as insects to be ignored—unless you piss them off.

Stellaris fits a niche of “chill” games I try to stay within these days. Gone are the days when I could let myself dump entire weeknights and whole weekends into World of Warcraft. Also gone are the days where I had the reflexes and focus to play shooters. I mainly focus on two types of game: ones where I can count on snippets of gameplay that give ample opportunities to get back to work (my workday is basically “when I’m not otherwise occupied”), and ones where I can pause/save/stop at any point.

Stellaris is comfortably in the latter category.

But it’s also thematically so similar to much of what I write, that it’s great for RP playthroughs related to my books. And as I’ve started streaming on Twitch, this was my first pick for that reason.

Curious about the game in general, or want to watch the VODs of my past streams? (Incidentally, also chock full of book-related Q&A.)

Bonus question: What are you playing? Respond in the comments!