Gamespot now has the demo version of Galactic Civilizations II! If you're still on the fence, this demo should give you an idea of what the game is like.

 Apolyton has an article in which the designer Brad Wardell recounts the days following the 2003 release of Galactic Civilizations and early ideas on how Galactic Civilizations II would be like. The screenshot seen here is of an early post-Galactic Civilizations concept.

Apolyton.net has an on-going audio interview series with Stardock's Brad Wardell with regards to the design philosophy and state of Galactic Civilizations II.  A lot of common questions are answered directly. Here is the series so far: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. For the latest info on the game and some of the ideas behind the design, check them out! And be sure to check out Apolyton.net itself for the latest in Civ-gaming news and community.

TotalGaming.net is one of the fastest growing electronic distribution channels for PC games.  With award winning games from Stardock, Strategy First, Ubi Soft, Take 2, and numerous indie developers, it allows users to purchase and immediately download games without having to hassle through the pains of digital rights management. For Christmas, Stardock has made available 3 free Christmas games that anyone can play.  North Pole Showdown, Elves, Inc. and Stack N Sack.  Check 'em ...

The holidays are almost here. Putting together a New Years eve party and looking for more people to invite? WinCustomize has a Frappr community that gives the locations of many WinCustomize users.  Find out what potential friends may be living right down the street! Add yourself!

Leading Civilization community site Apolyton.net has been providing extensive coverage for Galactic Civilizations II.  This includes: Exclusive screenshots such as: Runner series of screenshots Moreover, on December 5th Apolyton will be featuring an audio interview with Stardock's Brad Wardell that will go over a lot of the background on Galactic Civilizations and is full of insider discussion.

In my last article, Rewriting DeviantArt history Link I talked about how Scott Jarkoff, the main founder of the art site, DeviantArt, was unceremoniously terminated. After my article, somebody else posted a link to a leaked email http://probingthetruth.blogspot.com/2005/08/subject-truth-about-deviantart.html that gives rise to some serious questions as to the motivation of why Jarkoff was fired. Scott was asking some tough questions and even though he's a stock holder, he didn't seem to be...

Editorial: deviantART is possibly the most popular art community on the Internet. Its community has been friends with our community since the beginning of this site. Its adminstrators have hung out here and WC's admins have hung out there. With milliosn of visitors a month, dA seems on the precipe of huge success. But last week, the company that owns deviantART fired the popular community founder Scott Jarkoff (aka "Jark"). More troubling has been the seemingly rewriting of history. Mos...

Many WinCustomize.com users use Macs as well. MacOS X Tiger has a new widget enabler called Dashboard. But as Mormegil pointed out, Dashboard has some limitations with its widgets. Link . But thanks to a new program called Amnesty, Dashboard widgets can now run on the desktop much like Konfabulator or DesktopX letting Mac users decorate their desktops with Dashboard widgets. If you have a Mac, check it out.

Here's a site that has its own view on how computer UI might be done. Check it out.

Is realism something you really want in a space-based strategy game? Because here's the thng, space is big. Really big. GalCiv designer Brad Wardell talks about what realism would mean to a typical space strategy game.

I've been playing World of Warcraft for awhile now in terms of calendar months but never have the time to put into it necessary to really getting up in levels. I've heard rumors that Blizzard is working on an expansion for this Winter. Anyone else hear about that? What would you like to see in such an expansion?

SkinYourScreen.com has an indepth interview with Stardock's CEO, Brad Wardell.

I've seen a lot of people trying to say that liberals have no moral values. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of liberals try to say that conservatives come from "Jesus Land". Conservatives believe in a smaller government in which families and local communities take care of themselves. Liberals believe that a larger government with more resources can help take care of the entire society in a more fair and equal way. Both sides have their pluses and minuses. Let's not forget that.

Voting for US President is a choice between two men. This year's choice is between George W. Bush and John Kerry. It is the most important job in the world - in the most literal sense.    With George W. Bush, we know his positions. His positions are plainly stated and ones he consistently keeps - sometimes to a fault. In our post-9/11 world, I think we need to know where a candidate stands on certain issues, especially foreign policy. We know that George W. Bush will aggressively f...