Re:SimEarth? (Score 1)

While I realize that the game still has a long ways to go, I think that the galaxy stage, lacking any real goal, also has the potential to get boring quickly, like Sim Earth. Although there is a trend towards more open ended games, has there ever been a successful game that hasn't had an (or several) ultimate goal(s)? Even in the Sims, there was the implied goal to create a more and more successful family--but what would be the goal as the controller of a godlike spacecraft? Unless there was competition between other space-faring creatures or something, I just think doing the War of the Worlds/The Day the Earth Stood Still/First Contact things Wil mentions would get old pretty fast.