I am addicted to Oregon Trail.

Let me explain.

Last weekend, we were out Christmas shopping, and Sarah spotted the newest version of this game, and we bought it as a present to ourselves. Or, perhaps more correctly, for Sarah (we thought) as she had played the game during her childhood and had enjoyed it.

Oregon Trail, for those of you who either grew up before its popularity or later, when Parappa the Rapper passes for educational, is a game where you manifest your own destiny by hitting the trail and moving west to the burgeoning lands of Oregon or California. Along the way you fight disease, injury, wagon tipping (the damn things fall over a lot), starvation, etc.

I wasn't thinking that I'd get too into the game, but got hooked fairly quickly. I'm a fan of simulation games anyways, even ones that are targeted for my nieces and nephews, apparently.

I guess there are two things that make me like this game. The first is the way you can make each trip very different by changing your origin and destination, the month and year you start, your former occupation, number of people you're taking with you, and so on. My first few games were pretty straightforward, with a character whose starting bankroll and past experience made trail life relatively easy.

I challenged myself yesterday by starting out earlier (when there are fewer trading posts and forts along the way), heading to Oregon City (which you have to get to by rafting, using what in this day in age is a fairly comical looking video game interface), and having formerly be a pastor, which gave me little money and no practical experience.

My first time out I did get to do one thing repeatedly that a pastor has experience in: officiate at funerals. Lost one kid to cholera, and my wife and other kid to scurvy when we got stuck in the mountains over winter. I died from scurvy not much later. I was hoping for a Donner Party sort of moment, but I suppose facing 9 year olds with the spectre of cannibalism may not be the educational milestone The Leaning Company is shooting for.

Ever ready to face the challenge again, I tried the same trip a second time but tried to learn from my mistakes. I got three quarters of my family to Oregon City (one kid died of some sort of injury, damned if I can remember what now), in rough shape and with nothing but salt-cured fish to eat (though we could have killed an ox for food if needed; I've had to do that before).

My next challenge will be to either (a) make the trip as a teacher, who is at the very bottom of the pay/experience scale, or (b) start trying to lead wagon trains. Not sure if I'm ready for that yet. Hate to be the idiot who take a train bound for Oregon to the Sacramento River valley.

I've asked for The Sims for Christmas, so perhaps I'll be able to report how I torture various people there sometime soon.