Okay.  I just colonized a planet.  I guess I was looking for a "colonize command" in the list of choices and only had visited uninhabitable worlds before.  Just now I was able to land on a "habitable" world.  I had GC I, but never had GC II (not sure how I missed that.)

So, we are touting GC2 as the tutorial for GC3.  Interesting tactic.

I do agree, though.  If you like GC1 and are interested in GC3, it is very probably worthwhile to get a copy of GC2.  There is a lot of fun to be had there while waiting for the Alpha developers to tell us it is okay to think that GC3 is fun, too.  (They are so strict!!)

Most of the people in the alpha are long-time fans of GC2, even GC1. Pointing the ones that are new to the series to GC2 helps everyone by giving us a common frame of reference when discussing new things, changed things, things that we think were better off *not* being changed, etc. There's a lot of reference to the Civ series and other strategy games, but GC2 is the closest analog to what GC3 will eventually be.

Okay, you twisted my arm, LOL.  Besides, for five bucks you can't go wrong--and includes all of everything.  Maybe it will help me with this Alpha!

Settle down there boy.

Play a game on suicidal, that's the best tutorial there is.

Losing is the world's best motivator :3

Honestly, Suicidal isn't that hard, you just need to maximize your production. Lower difficulties, even for lower players are sorta' insultingly-easy in my opinion.