I'd be interested as well in any recent academic research in this. The best I've seen in the wild is Dwarf Fortress, which focuses on building interesting terr

I'd be interested as well in any recent academic research in this. The best I've seen in the wild is Dwarf Fortress, which focuses on building interesting terrain, a rich global history, and interesting local power structures and NPC behavior. I think the ultimate vision for the game is pretty ambitious, and it is slowly getting there, step by step, over the course of years.