Somehow I missed this Penny Arcade strip about Catan. If all people who loved another genre of games previously and are now hooked on Catan are Broodax aliens, then I've been an alien for a couple of years now.
I play Settlers of Catan on MSN (my sole justification for keeping IE on my PC) and before that I played the boardgame. For me it's just one of those games that makes me think -- while it's not Go, and not chess, it's always a challenge to win, and it's not one of those games which is totally dominated by chance. There are strategies, but there is luck involved too, and it's the fine balance of luck, co-operation and strategy that keeps me coming back.
Catan is an Xbox 360 Live game, which means it's downloadable (and I assume multiplayer online playable).
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