the time is supposed to pass in the game even when it is not running,correct? i've been playing for almost a week and the first babies are still babies! a couple of times i have left it running too, and still time passes vvvveeeerryyy ssssllllooowwwly. is this normal?

The actual rate at which the game progresses depends upon the game speed setting, but it sounds like you are experiencing something besides the effects of game speed setting. I can think of a couple of possible explanations. First, you could be inadvertently pausing the game by pressing the space bar, which will set the game speed to pause. The other is that you've adjusted your computer's system clock after beginning to play Virtual Villagers. LDW's real-time games depend on the computer's system clock for proper operation, and the complex real-time engine of Virtual Villagers can be adversely affected by messing with the clock.

hmm....okay.

how long in real time does it usually take for a year to pass?

Again, that depends upon game speed. A year is 1 hour on the fastest speed.

hmm....so i just restarted the game....hopefully that will fix it?

Starting a new game has always fixed the problem the few times that we've heard of that happening.