G-Empires is a real-time network strategy game. The game is entirely internet based, accessible by a web browser, pda, or a secondary client which graphically displays the "universe". This secondary client is only available to those who have the capability of viewing a map in the game.
The Premise: The game takes place in space, where the object of the game is to build up your empire in order to become "The Emperor".
Races: There are four playable races in the game, Humanoids, Silicoids, Insectoids, and Plasmoids. The other two races in the universe are Forerunners and the Targons, which were built by the Forerunners. The Forerunners are an extinct race and were extremely sophisticated. They left artefacts all over the galaxy, which may or may not be helpful to the player.
Game play: The game has a characteristic of being extremely complex and large. From the website, "The Universe consists of several galaxies. The distance between them is about 20000-45000 light years". The player starts on one planet which is far away from those who have played for a long time, and closer to those who have not played as long. This provides safety in numbers against sheer power.
The player's ranking is important, and the player cannot be attacked if their score is below 1000. Above 1000, everything changes: The player can be attacked and lose ships, defences and hypergates. Above 5000, any unsettled planets in their star system can be destroyed via planetary destroyers. However, no player can attack those who are less than 6 military ranks below them.
Alliances play a large part in the game, for it is rarely ever a good idea to be isolationist. Players can make new alliance groups, or they can join existing groups to form an alliance with a plethora of other players. A pro of being in an alliance is the player can stay around an ally's planet. This may ease trading or lend a protective hand to a less fortunate ally. The negative side of joining an existing alliance is that the player will inherit all of the alliances' enemies. This can turn an untouched area into a bloody, rather, a debris-ridden battlefield, or as my friend so eloquently put it, "it can turn your little piece of heaven that no one bothers going to, into a living hell of death and destruction".
The market system within the game is refreshingly realistic, where the player posts bids for buying and selling goods at specified prices. This differs from the overwhelming majority of games, where a store has a generally fixed price depending on the area, and not necessarily depending on what people in the game are actually buying or want to sell.
Pirates: One thing that's cool about the game is pirate activity. The player can command ships to board stranded vessels who have run out of fuel. If one of the player's ships has a boarding module, it can board the stranded vessel and move the opponent's cargo to the player's vessel. In doing this, the player gains pirate rating (not to mention 100% profit), and the opponent loses military rating.