I've always had a soft spot for world building/god games. For me, those games are not really about winning, they're about just enjoying yourself. I've seen a lot of examples of these types of games where the authors have complicated things way too much. It seems like some people think that making one of these games is about creating an accurate simulation, and then throw a couple of gameplay elements on top of it. In fact, the best games of the genres are the ones which keep things very simple, and one of them is Serf City (also known as Settlers).
The game starts with you selecting a place to build your castle. It's a good idea to build near mountains and lakes (as that will make it easier to start mining or fishing). You can then place various industrial buildings (lumberjack, farms, bakery, blacksmiths etc), and build roads from them to the castle. Every time a building is completed, a little person walks from the castle to occupy it, and every time you build a piece of road, someone walks there as well, assigned with the simple task of carrying stuff from one end of the road to the next. Managing your road network is key to efficiency in this game, as it determines how fast you can get things back into your keep, ready to be used.
Almost everything in the game is controlled by building. Even expending your territory - you just build a guards house along the border of your kingdom, and once inhabited by a knight, it will expand the land you control. There's very few things you control directly, and they are kept very simple (setting how big portion of your men should be soldiers, how aggressive your forces should act and a couple of more things).
All in all, it's quite a simple game, and that's probably also why it is so much fun to play. I wish more developers made games like this, realizing that more features usually doesn't make for a better game - but quite the opposite.
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