It’s been a while, but I had to take Civ II off my computer in grad school or I wouldn’t have worked on my thesis at all. I also sometimes lost myself when playing Civ III, but not to that extent. And Civ IV, not so much. Maybe I’m growing up? It’s about time.
Ultima IV, V, and VI were the first RPG’s I discovered, and I lived and breathed them for months. Same with the Infocom games at about the same time. I have fond memories of PlanetFall . . . it was the first Infocom game I actually finished without a cheat sheet.
I played my own computer game probably thousands of times as I was working on it.
Perhaps you recall it… It was one of only a handful that came out with the original IBM PC back in … zzz. Wha! Did I nod off again? Showing my age.
Games which I have played without stopping for a break includes Freelancer (wish the campaign goes all the way to give you level 10 ships though), Chrono Trigger, some obscure Chinese-only RPG based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Knights of the Old Republic (one of the most accessible PC RPGs ever).
Civ II was, at least partially, responsible for my marriage ending. My ex-wife would be spending the day with her mother. I would beg off on the grounds of doing stuff around the house. When she would come home, 10 hours later, I would still be in pyjamas, not having moved from the office chair. I swear she would have preferred to find me in bed with a hooker.
City of Heroes, easily. I started playing it about a month after it hit, and my day would be:
Go to work, talk with other CoH players at work.
Go home, eat, see my then fiance (now wife) for a bit.
Go play until 2 am (6 hours a night probably).
Worse on weekends, I would let my wife sleep in so I could play all morning.
Finally had to quit. Once my main character hit 50, of course.
Every once in a while I reinstall Alpha Centauri, and then suddenly it’s 3am and I’m spamming obital power transmitters and save energy to build the space elevator and… gha.
I played Xcom: TFTD like it’s a OCD when I was younger. I still remember the layout of all the ships, and remember the dread of discovering a new alien colony (Dread because it takes hours to kill it. The gathered resources are actually pretty awesome).
This is me right now, just replace City of Heroes with World of Warcraft and wife with housemate. At least I don’t have any marital obligations to her.
Right now about all I can talk about is WoW. If I have something to say to a friend, it’s WoW-related. My non-WoW interests are currently pretty muted. It’s disconcerting, but I’m also having a lot of fun and have no real reason to stop yet, so it’s hard to do so.
I played Operation Flashpoint to death, both the campaign, mission editor, and online. I loved the hardcore military sim aspect of it.
TFC and Day of Defeat (both multiplayer mods for Half-Life) are two others I played to death. I still play Day of Defeat, as recently as a couple days ago.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing Grand Theft Auto III, San Andreas, and IV. The games are just so big with so much to do, or you can just drive around racing or causing mayhem.
Ultima 4: an ankh
Ultima 5: a Britannian coin
Ultima 6: your own personal Orb of the Moons (okay, a polished black rock)
Ultima 7: a Fellowship medallion
Ultima 8: a Pagan coin
Ultima 9: a virtue Tarot deck so you can present moral dilemas and sort your friends into classes
Underworld: a bag of rune stones
I bought Alpha Centauri in the spring of my first year of grad school. I left it sitting there next to my computer still in the shrink wrap where it teased me daily with the promise of a newer version of Civ II. The day I handed in my last paper that first year and tore open that package was akin to seeing a child born. It was glorious.
I feel like I could’ve been one of those people who died of exhaustion/dehydration/starvation (whatever those people die of) while playing EverQuest, if the people around me had let me. But I kept a job the entire time I was playing, went to college on and off, had a girlfriend at times, and somehow managed to keep all my friends (none of whom played), so I know I was by far not as bad as some people. But I was bad.
All the console games I’ve been obsessed with pale in comparison, but they would be Dragon Warrior (only game besides EQ I ever woke up before school to play), Mario 1, 3, World, and Galaxy, KOTOR 1, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, Rampage (NES), and Mario Kart 64.
I did that with Bioshock. As soon that Exam was done, I played it for 3 days straight over christmas. Let me tell you, 12 hours of Rapture in one day messes with you head.
Ultima Online. I started playing it shortly after it was released in the UK. I was hooked immediately. Back then we had free dial-up internet on evenings and weekends, but had to reconnect every two hours. That annoyance wasn’t enough to stop me. I would start rationing my pocket money so that I could play during the day. I would play it when I got home from school, completely ignoring any homework, and all weekend. I would be awake until 2am most week-nights.
My attendance dropped due to my addiction (and bullying). As you can guess, my education suffered greatly. I went from being a top student to almost failing most of my final exams. I tried going in to further education but dropped out after a couple of months. I spent the next couple of years, jobless, living with my parents, never leaving the house and depressed whenever I had to take a break from playing. I would form tight, unhealthy, relationships in the game and argue constantly and emotionally on the forums. I fell out with a friend because he used to cheat in the game, we’ve never spoken since. I fell out with an Uncle in-game and we’ve never spoken since. I abandoned all my ‘real-life’ friends.
I broke the addiction after about 6 years, with no help from anyone. I tried to quit the game multiple times before but I kept crawling back. I still play other MMOG games but I take a much more detached approach.
I found myself becoming similarly addicted to EVE Online later on. I would stay up until 4am most nights in order to accomplish one goal or another. I recognised the road I was going down after a couple of months and managed to quit.
I was isolated, never leaving my home due to a complete lack of self confidence, became absorbed in these kind of games. It wasn’t until I took on a part-time job as a carpark attendant that I regained some of my confidence. It’s a crap job, one I’m still stuck in, but it got me out and meeting people. It gave my life a kind of structure it desperately needed.
I resent my parents for not realising how big a problem I was having. I needed help but instead I was allowed to waste away almost eight years of my life.
I don’t drink. I’ve never smoked. My addiction was no less serious.
Probably Fallout 3. I’m on my third time playing it. Without large gaps in between (usually the case when I replay a game)
This time, reaching the level cap didn’t put me off. I now have it in mind to set myself other challenges, such as get all my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points up to 10. All my skills up to 100. Both acheived by reading books and finding bobbleheads (and the perk which set all my S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to 9)
I’ve completed all the expansion packs bar Point Lookout.
Fallout 3 is such a beautiful game, I haven’t finished it yet cause I dread coming to the end. I got both expansion packs and every once in awhile I play and explore a new area like it’s reading a new chapter in a book I already know and love.
I like making every choice in that game as I would do in real life so I can’t start another game cause I’d just replay what I’ve already done.
I hope Fallout 4 comes before I’ve seen all of the Wasteland.
Starcon 2. Back in '93, my roommate and I both had this on our systems, and everybody in our fraternity house were in there basically 24 hours playing. Since it was my computer, I got to kick people off if I wanted to play, but since I often skipped class to keep at it, I was happy to let them play while I slept.
