Major kudos!! I've been playing almost nonstop for 2+ days now, and loving it all, just can't "put it down". I've liked all the VV games but this one is smoother, more tantalizing in its challenges, and more "doable" as Cindy522 just said.. I have no temptation to look at spoilers to get past my current head-scratchers. It's a beautiful setting too.

I have found a nice bug, though, which probably will make everyone else jealous!! For at least a couple of hours that little Rascal has been trapped in a landscape feature and can no longer chase my villagers. I'm not complaining! The Heathen concept is great, once I figured out that it was loss of belief in the real game-"god", myself the Guiding Hand, rather than some religious mystery. Finding different ways of converting them is fascinating! The different totems make me think outside the box, and the solutions are often amusing.

You've outdone yourselves again, LDOW, and I thank you so much for your creative, high-quality, engrossing games!

I just finished the game. Yes, I loved it, and Yes it was much more fun to play than the previous games.

As opposed to the previous games, this one had a guide, that if followed, actually walked us through the game. Well done LDAW!

Personally I saw no religion as such. I felt that as each totem fell the power was in knowledge, and assimilation was a very positive thing.
I am looking so forward to the next game from you all.
If I have one problem it is that while the Villagers lived longer, as I neared the end of the game I was totally lacking in children!
That is, until I remembered we could rejuvenate an Esteemed Elder and have a child that way!
~~Kathleen

I loved it.

I actually like the game, despite one major aspect I find distasteful. I was, however pleasantly surprised at the newer concept, again, even however much I dislike the overtone. I'll leave my comments on that later.

I was prepared for "another VV game" and really wasn't all too excited about its arrival. Though some of the basics are pretty much the same, there have been new concepts put into it which make it feel it is it's own game and truly an addition to the VV saga. Tearing down totems and using powers to solve puzzles is refreshing.

Now for my soapbox. Anyone who reads this, please understand from the get-go that this is my own opinion and is driven by my own view of religion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and beliefs. I am not, nor will I ever belittle one's faith.

I have read some of the previous posts and I have to agree with some of what I read. I almost did not get the game due to its religious overtones. My first negative reaction was to see the word 'heathen'. That turned me off right away. I think it would have been better served to refer to them as 'savages' or 'natives', as they were supposedly there before "my" tribe arrived. Developing "god" powers was not the best term to use either. Maybe if 1) there was a way to lowercase the word 'god', that may have been better or 2) just refer to it a a spirit. A Tree Spirit, or a Wind Spirit. or "The spirit of the first Tribal Chief". Even if the ghosts from VV _ The Secret City had come back to grant you these powers, it would have taken out the religious overtone and the parts of organized religion I dislike.

This game brings 2 things to mind. One would be the "Door Knocking" religions that feel compelled to "convert" everyone to their way of belief, and secondly, it brings to mind the way some religions have settled in a land and built missionaries and temples and set out to "educate" the original people of the land.

Now, I have read the story in the game. I realize that the object is to make the "lost" believe in what they once already believed in, but the terminology and catch phrases and imagery give it a different appearance than what is meant and the realization we are supposed to be giving back the hope and faith to a people who once had it, yet lost it, came too late in the game that the original thoughts and feeling are already set.

There have been debates on this site regarding religion and boy have they become heated. I am not looking for debate. Nor am I looking for agreement. I am simply stating it as I see it in my own head. I was fine with the VV games when it was not so "religious' in nature. True, there has been some aspect of it in past VV's but they were nondescript and fit the ambiance of tribal times and stereotypical primitive tribal ways based on the earth and nature.

Although I made a mod of it, and I may seem hypocritical, I also didn't like "The Hand of God" Idol, with its emitting rays of Godly power. This is why I chose to place the plant with a mystical gem that may be just reflecting the rays of the sun like any prism does.

This to me kept this good game from being what could have been a truly awesome game and worth a rating of 5 out of 5 stars. I personally know of 2 people will WILL NOT get the game for what it appears to represents. It's a shame. I, myself, try to disassociate what I see and try to weave in the past games methodology.

This has spoilers, I would mark them if I knew how.

I love it, thanks! It is very addictive!

Biggest problem I seemed to have at first was that it took a long time to get a Master Builder. I had been building for 2 days straight, built all the huts, the statue, still did not have a Master Builder.

Found 2 problems with the Guide document:
1. On Puzzle 5 it says a Master Builder is needed to start the work. Fortunately this is not true, I don't know if it is Trainee or Adept, but I was able to complete this without a Master. Otherwise they all would have starved.
2. Puzzle 7 is the one that requires Master Builders, not just to start it, but they are the only ones that can work on it. The guide does not tell this.

Also I noticed a bug that occurs in the hospital and the mausoleum. Whenever I place multiple villagers there, they think they are embracing, even when not touching. Also in the hospital, I have to place the villager in JUST the right spot or he will do nothing, not start studying medicine.

Another bug, children do not seem to be learning anything in school.

Finally, I am still trying to figure out how to convert the heathen with yellow and red masks. Evidently an earthquake makes blinking lights appear on top of their masks, but there is no way to tell how many times it takes for them to be converted. Haven't seen any spoilers on this, does anyone know?

One more thing, I wish there was some way we could make more villagers like to run.

I have to say that I agree with Gamemastr1's 'soap box' nearly 100%. I had a few technical complaints about the game itself, the final collectible in both lab and relic section were dropped by children after being chased off by the child masked villager, and still have yet to respawn.
While the mildly annoying and off-putting tactic of turning mothers into useless caricatures of true motherhood remained for the fifth installment, as well as a complete lack of ethnic diversity, *(which is not some insurmountable feat by the way)*
which is old news. And at least for myself; Was a minor irritation that I was willing to ignore for the sake of a good, clean, game that could be played by parent or child without any awkward concerns about what might come up during a game.

However,I found the thinly veiled Monotheistic theme to be over the line, inappropriate and shameful. Particularly so. for a group that was so proud to have received the the 2005 Parents' Choice Recommended
Award.
http://www.ldw.com/press_releases/VillageSim_award.pdf

I have been playing and enjoying the Virtual villagers Virtual families since the beginning and simply shrugged off elements in previous games that seemed to be uncomfortably ministerial in nature.

Virtual Villagers 5 simply went too far. The representation of the non-believers as "Heathens," "Aggressive Heathens," and even "Scary Heathens" was truly repugnant, intolerant, small minded and had to place in a game that had no age appropriate warning. The excuses that I made for myself, when I initially started the game, (eg. that The god being referred to was really the game player, etc) quickly wore thin. The ruse of implanting indoctrinating ideals into a child friendly game, truly repugnant,(I had an event wherein; This quote is obviously not referring to "The Hand" which is me, but to some (most likely)Monotheistic ideology.
Even the direct references to me/you/the gameplayer was subtly changed in this version, through the statue.
We went from occasionally seeing individual villagers, or events, where they worship "the hand from above" which was euphemistically the mouse cursor we used to move our little villagers about; To "The Hand of God." statue that they now worship at.
I won't even get started on "the Filthy encampment" where the non-believing 'heathens' are relegated after my little fascists whites take over the island.
Furthermore the fact that you have to scare the last few into belief seems terribly fitting for an immoral game that makes a mockery of both the believers of any faith, and non-believers alike. Shame Shame Shame on you "Founder" of LDW Arthur Humphrey and "Co-Founder" Carla Humphrey.

Below is in reference to the technical issues surrounding the ethnicity of villagers.
*As some may have already noted, the creators of the "rip-off Virtual Villagers game" titled "My Tribe," were able to give a broader representation of flesh tones without making race specific delineations that would have made some of the head graphics incompatible with some of the body graphics.*

I love the game!!!

At first I thought this one would beat me - getting a little gereatric here!!

The nice thing about the Forums Gamey and Wittious is that we can respect each other's opinions and still enjoy the posts!

Just converted (encouraged) my last heathern (I call them the Disillusioned) this afternoon. Yay!! No more hingahowas piercing my eardrums!! Perhaps now I can find the last of my collectables.

Well done again LDW!!!! :THUMBS UP:

That's an excellent name. It's a pity Arthur and Co. didn't come up with that; it describes them much better than "heathen".

I couldn't agree more on the names. Disillusioned doesn't have the intense negative connotation of "Heathen" and the variations of "Heathen" given to the red and yellow masks.

Hear, hear, Gamemastr and wittious.

I created a thread which was conveniently edited, locked and buried.

Shame on you LDW. If you want to avoid real-life subjects, then you should avoid real-life terms. You have lost my support.