I would add that most terms associated with gaming seem to get abused and misused often in a flurry of hype – e.g. augmented reality, and word of the moment, gamification.

I think my comment still more or less holds, though. I think “time management” is completely aspirational for the demographic in which these games are most popular. Consider that this is not an audience that finds the notions of “first person shooter” or “real time strategy” aspirational or appealing. But to be better at managing time? Totally sexy. The demo is primarily women who are already juggling 48377232 things in their lives, and time management games provide this little island where everything can be neatly contained, where the challenging dimensions of their lives are expressed elegantly. By contrast, “harvesting” is not appealing — the only possible substitute I can think of is “business sim”, which some of time management’s cousins in social games are called.

Farmville is not a time management game, in comparison. As much as folk have railed against the use of the “social game” monicker, I think it is equally appropriate insofar as it identifies the differentiating characteristic of the game mechanics. In social games you cannot progress without the help of your friends. They are excessively difficult, if not impossible, to solo (most of them you can buy your way through but this isn’t really a game mechanic; the expressive element of Farmville is also social, and part of why you would not play Farmville were it not connected to friends via the internet). The exchange of resources across the social graph is what identifies those games. It has appointment mechanics, which I could see seem like time management (you’re managing your real life time), but these appointment mechanics aren’t central, or you would also call Animal Crossing a “time management” game. The challenge is not in juggling ever-increasing tasks across small contained bits of time.

So I’m good with “time management games”. It’s a little awkward, but not within the space, and it seems to me that “real-time strategy” is far vaguer unless you’re also similarly cultured into hardcore games. :)