During a recent hiatus from the online bigs (SWG, EQ and DAoC), I ran across this little game called A Tale in the Desert.  It had received a lot of positive press and came with a free 24-hour trial.  No credit card required!  Even better, since I usually forget to cancel subscriptions until years later when I wonder ‘what in the hell is this charge from Phat Gaimer Online?’.  Honestly, I am a long time subscriber to the bigs not so much due to loyalty as absentmindedness.
 
I’d tell you the object of the game if I had figured it out.  I THINK the object is to solve winky dinky puzzles and participate in grand role playing scenarios.  Never mind that though, because I never got that far. 
 
I started off on the noob island where I had to build a ship (somehow) to get to the Egypt mainland.  Although it took me forever to gather all the supplies, craft rope and sails, build treasure chests to store all the crap I had to gather and craft, and solve about 395 other winky dinky puzzles, I did get off noob island and made it to my preselected area of the Egypt mainland … which was completely deserted except for some female-type that was greeting all the noobs that had accidentally selected her portion of the Egypt mainland.
 
She welcomed us to her area of Hell — I feigned AFK (which I excel at!) and eavesdropped on the other noobs asking for directions out of there.  The nearest winky dinky puzzle houses were several regions away, and since I didn’t know how else to travel around the map (where is a damn druid when you need one?), I started hiking.
 
As far as I know, my character is still trying to hike up to the w-d-puzzle houses.  I only watched myself run for an hour or so and gave up.  I figured even if I did arrive, no way did I want to plant flax seed, weed, harvest, repeat.  And no way was I going to spend even one dollar for the privilege.
 
I can’t figure out who this game would appeal to except people without jobs that are curious what a job is like.  In that case, have at it — a job is real similar to that game, except it’s in the middle of Hell.