settlers on microsoft

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters:

"'According to a press release posted at GamingReport.com, Catan GmbH and Mayfair Games have made a deal with Microsoft for the creation of the 'Catan Online Game', based on the popular Settlers of Catan board game. From the post: 'Available on Microsoft's Premium Game Service, the Catan Online Game will be accessible via both the MSN Zone and MSN Messenger. There will be multi-player online and download variants, each with rich graphics and a sophisticated AI.' Now we can play Catan endlessly through MSN.' This deal is in addition to Capcom's various versions of Catan for console and PC in Japan."

Part of this is really great because Settlers is such a great game. But why Microsoft? Of all places to go. There are already a few Java versions out there. There's also a GPL version.

I guess this is good because now you can just hop onto a server and find other people to play with. Nothing beats playing with a real board and little wooden pieces though. There's that aspect of human interaction and negotiation that net play will never replace. Not even with vid-conferencing or holo-conferencing.