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

My wife and I just got back from a publishing conference, and I’m still recovering. Between shoveling the driveway at 3:00 a.m. before our flight out, and a week of stuffing my brain with new ideas, I’m just now easing back into writing. So in addition to plugging away on the next Mercy for Hire mission, I’ve been unwinding with one of my current favorite games.

Ever since they revamped the game with the 2.2 patch, I’ve been on a Stellaris kick. For those who 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.

So this week’s question is: what are you guys playing?

If you want to talk games, join the chat in the comments or in the Facebook discussion: https://www.facebook.com/192825210843758/posts/1940018026124459/