Spore

Okay, now I'm not really a gamer...but every once in a while I get excited by the very idea of a game. It happened when I first heard about Second Life: the online game without any actually established point of play, just an open world in which to create and explore social and environmental situations, virtually.
A place where artists have as much installation space as they want. Where they can help carve out the landscape, and turn the environment into whatever they dream.

So as the experiment played out, whole communities emerged with forms of commerce, democratic government elections, and a police force. There's even a virtual jail to banish rule breakers to. I was excited to hear that people were making a real living (read $) by actually "living" inside the game. The in game Linden dollars are currently trading on the real world markets. There are even imbedded journalists making in-world documentary films to be displayed in some of this world's first virtual film festivals! Check out this to have a taste: http://www.idealworldmovie.com/short/
Here's an introduction: Second Life

But my next gaming Oooh and Aahhh goes out to SPORE. It's taking Evolution to the gaming streets. Take that Creationists! Check out the site for a taste: http://spore.ea.com/
Or here for a demonstration: http://www.video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8372603330420559198&q=spore