Hello All. Let me introduce myself. I am Aesop. I've been an avid console gamer (currently 360 and wii) for years and never really got into the pc gaming scene. Recently I bought my first desktop in probably 10 years and figured I was pretty much obligated to get the best rts game my machine could handle. I've loved the genre since starcraft and obviously controls on a console don't lend kindly to it. I've only had sins for 2 days and am still in the early learning phases so I was hoping you could humor me and answer some extremely basic questions about the multiplayer and the game in general.

Game length: I've read (either online or in the manual or somewhere) that games can take hours, days, weeks or months. How do you play a game that takes months? Does that statement refer strictly to single player or is it touching on multiplayer as well? I don't even understand how you would play a multiplayer game that takes days. Obviously no one can sit at their computer for multiple days straight. So is there some way to save a multiplayer game and pick it back up later? I'm all for epic battles but I also have a job...

The classes: I've played a few 1v1 single player games with the Advent. I picked them simply because I liked an Advent avatar picture the best when setting up my player. I originally thought their strength was brute force, but that wasn't the impression I got in the short time I spent with them. So please set me straight. TEC - commerce, Advent - culture/influence?, Vasari - brute force.

So there are my questions. I know the internet and gaming subculture in general (at least in the console world) is a cynical and unforgiving place but I'm hoping you will take my admitted newb-ness with a grain of salt and assuage my foray into the pc gaming world. Thanks.