When I was a teenager, I came up with a concept for a game that I think still would be amazing. It would be called something like "Fate" and would explore that same concept. The idea is that you have certain goals to achieve as a god (whether benevolent or malevolent) of a civilization, pitted against other gods, in a multiplayer setup. You can't make people do things directly, but rather you control the environment in a way as to create the circumstances that might achieve your goals (e.g. floods, famine, etc).
The kicker is that there are higher gods that similarly control your environment, whatever that might be. You're never aware of their presence, but you do end up impacted by various things outside your control, as you keep trying to achieve your goals. As you succeed, you just might ascend to the next level. Each level is won or lost through some interplay of your own decisions and those beyond your grasp. At some point, the whole thing wraps around and you find out that the first civilization you controlled was in fact the one most ascended.