n. Complete domination of the mind by one idea; a fixed idea.  (Websters)

I've never really been a fan of shoot-em-up games.  I found a few that would keep my interest, usually involving reaching some goal or solving some puzzle.  Most of the time I was just as willing to be a spectator to some one else's more skilled manipulations.

Hamurabi style games, where the goal was to create a stable system, were more appealing.   I played the original Hamurabi, many variations, and eventually discovered the Maxis Sim games starting with SimCity.  These were more interesting because I needed to think rather than just react but they still did not satisfy the creative side of me.   Of course as home computers became more powerful and disk and memory became cheaper the games became more elaborate.  Castles by Interplay incorporated an element of creativity by having you build a castle that you could actually see while managing the crops, peasants and food supply.  The Maxis Sim games provided better graphics with SimTown being the best example of this. The game belongs to my daughter but I think I played with it more than she did because I could create beautiful parks and aestheticly pleasing communities that were actually inhabited.  SimLife, however, quickly became my favorite because I could create new "life" by tinkering with the animal's characteristics and selective breeding.  Still, something was missing.  Little icons moving around on the screen just didn't have any individuality. 

I tried virtual pets; I carried a Tamagotchi look alike around for a while.   I found it annoying.   I have a job, a husband, two kids and a life beyond a piece of electronics that screamed at me all day.  My kid's virtual pets were even worse, they expected me to take care of them when they were in school.  The computerized Tamagotchi was an improvement since I could put it in daycare but it had limited interaction and died when I didn't have time for it for a few days.  Still unsatisfied I continued my search for an artificial life form that had personality and with which I could express my creativity.

Then one day in early 1999 I was in Fry's Electronics alone and strolling through the game aisle when a particular game caught my attention and quickly became my obsession.