http://www.civfanatics.com/images/misc/banks2.jpgAccording to UK's The Independent newspaper, British award-winning author Iain Banks has admitted that his next book, Matter, will be delayed due to his Civilization addiction (http://news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article1220060.ece). The book was due to hit the shelves in a couple of weeks but now it won't be released until some time next March.

"It's all because I became a serial addict of the computer game 'Civilisation'," Banks said at this month's Edinburgh book festival.

"I played it for three months and then realised I hadn't done any work. In the end, I had to delete all the saved files and smash the CD.

"It is very unprofessional of me. I had to ask for an extension for the first time, which made me feel just like I was a student again."
Iain Banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks) first confessed that he's a Civ addict in an interview conducted by The Guardians back in September 2002 (http://www.civfanatics.com/news/2002-09.php#9-12-3).

Perhaps there is a real need for CivAnon (http://www.civanon.org/) in real life?

Utterly delightful. One of my favourite writers admits to this, then there's hope for us all yet :D

that's dumb, don't get too addicted to the game, i usually play 1 game or 2 or 3 and quit out of it after medieval age or when i get lag problems. Now e break the cd and now he need to freakin buy another one. Don't play it at all if you have something very important to do, it's just that simple.

Note: I'm not flaming him a lot, he just need to learn a few things of what to do and not to do...

At least he can write.

that's dumb, don't get too addicted to the game, i usually play 1 game or 2 or 3 and quit out of it after medieval age or when i get lag problems. Now e break the cd and now he need to freakin buy another one. Don't play it at all if you have something very important to do, it's just that simple.

Note: I'm not flaming him a lot, he just need to learn a few things of what to do and not to do...

Yeah,
I´m glad that I didn´t have to smash my game CD yet to get my work done. :D

It´s very important to learn that there´s a time for civilization and a time for work.

But I think we all can understand him. It´s easy to get addicted to Civ if you aren´t careful ;)

It happened also to the best sci-fi author seller in France. Bernard Werber didnt write a book for a year. On his web site he said it was because he was too much addicted to Civ 2 at that time. Now he's selling millions of books with his new trilogy that in fact is just a civ game narated in a book...I should have thought to it first!

:rotfl:

That's hilarious!!!

At first I thought its got to be Civ3 and Civ4 he had to quit cold turkey. the article said that until recently, he wasn't bitten by the Civ bug until two years ago

My guess is he relapsed back to Civ3. After buying a shiny copy of CIV COMPLETE he disasterously discoved some mods, the Balancer and Rise n Rule, in CIV CONTENT :drool: .

Gosh!! DARN IT@#%$ Those mods would set anyone back who had 'conquered' their Civ 3 addiction ;)

Well I was a fan of Ian Banks until I saw this...



Now he's on of my top 3 favorite writers of fiction:D


At least he admits it lol


oh and hmm think ain would care to join an sg?:)

Cheers!
-Liq

Too funny.:lol: But why did he have to destroy his copy; I was seriously addicted to Civ III for a while, then I just quit on my own... Without any help or crazy actions.

Too funny.:lol: But why did he have to destroy his copy; I was seriously addicted to Civ III for a while, then I just quit on my own... Without any help or crazy actions.
It's like people who are addicted to the forum and they ask mods to ban them for a month so they can study during final exams. :D

It's like people who are addicted to the forum and they ask mods to ban them for a month so they can study during final exams. :D

you wouldn't be reffering to slozbaddon would you? ;)

I think the only way to cure my civ addiction would be to get myself permanently banned from here, to smash all my Civ disks and then disable my internet connection.

But i'd rather play civ. :D

He smashed his CD!

That should be like tearing up our holy book :)

The best solution instead of smashing the disk is to convert your wife if you have got one then your boss and any remaining social contacts to playing civ. If you do this, you no longer have a problem. I've done this with both my wife and my boss and it works. That is until some external "party" comes in and measures the output of your family or company. That's the only problem really. That "party" is usually a mother in law or a creditor with other motives than playing civ.
Anyone been able to convert their mother in law?

He said: Civilisation instead of Civilization :eek:

It says "civilisation" because it is liberal intellectual newspaper.

In my case substituting Civilization shortcuts with InDesign usually helps.

It says "civilisation" because it is liberal intellectual newspaper.



...or because that's the British spelling.

Iain Banks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks) first confessed that he's a Civ addict in an interview conducted by The Guardians back in September 2002 (http://www.civfanatics.com/news/2002-09.php#9-12-3).
In one of Banksie's novels, The Bridge IIRC, the protagonist is addicted to a suspiciously Civ-like game called Tyrant or Dictator or somesuch. Civ is clearly in his blood.

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Hehe, so writers are human after all :lol:

We need him in the stories and tales section...

In one of Banksie's novels, The Bridge IIRC, the protagonist is addicted to a suspiciously Civ-like game called Tyrant or Dictator or somesuch. Civ is clearly in his blood.

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I think its Complicity rather than the Bridge.

He said: Civilisation instead of Civilization :eek:
Well considering it is from an English newspaper and English author, then that is correct. BTW we should belong to the Civilisation center. :p

It happened also to the best sci-fi author seller in France. Bernard Werber didnt write a book for a year. On his web site he said it was because he was too much addicted to Civ 2 at that time. Now he's selling millions of books with his new trilogy that in fact is just a civ game narated in a book...I should have thought to it first!

thats hilarious! :lol:

I should have thought of that...come to think of it, when I was in school (a long long time ago) doing my O Levels I was so addicted to Elite that I wrote a story about the particular game I was playing for my English Language exam - got an A so it must have been OK! :)

He said: Civilisation instead of Civilization :eek:

I'm fed up of Word on my work computer correcting my (UK) English! I'm very good at spelling anyway so I try to ignore the damn thing! :)

Well considering it is from an English newspaper and English author, then that is correct. BTW we should belong to the Civilisation center. :p

A British newspaper with a Scottish author you mean? :P

I've never heard of this guy, but I think I'm a fan :D

I've never heard of this guy, but I think I'm a fan :D

I'd suggest checking out his books. I'm a huge fan of his Culture novels. http://www.cs.bris.ac.uk/~stefan/culture.html

The Player of Games is one of my favorites and a good introduction to the Culture. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061053562/sr=8-1/qid=1156093468/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-4524612-5055015?ie=UTF8

The best solution instead of smashing the disk is to convert your wife if you have got one then your boss and any remaining social contacts to playing civ. If you do this, you no longer have a problem. I've done this with both my wife and my boss and it works. That is until some external "party" comes in and measures the output of your family or company. That's the only problem really. That "party" is usually a mother in law or a creditor with other motives than playing civ.
Anyone been able to convert their mother in law?

Maybe he didn´t have a missionary at hand.
Or his wife and boss already had too much religions in them so that he was unsuccessful in converting them :mischief:

I think I'll send him Civ3Complete:evil:

I'm fed up of Word on my work computer correcting my (UK) English! I'm very good at spelling anyway so I try to ignore the damn thing! :)
You can go to the spell check, and when "civilisation" or any other word with an "s" instead of a "z" just click the "add" button.

Do you all think he could write a lot of excellent strategy articles?

I think its Complicity rather than the Bridge.
You are correct. Research shows that the Civ-like game was called Despot.

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BTW we should belong to the Civilisation center. :p

Actually, it would be the Civilisation centre.

LMAO ... at least he can openly admit to it. I'm on a week long binger right now :crazyeye:

1) Read PLAYER OF GAMES. He's been playing something for more than two years.

2) Hey Thunderfall, that link doesn't go to an article about Iain Banks.

The question on everyone's mind is... which version?

oh and is he a member of one of the most popular civ forums?

2) Hey Thunderfall, that link doesn't go to an article about Iain Banks.
It does. It's just that they don't make the whole article available now. My guess is The Independent only allows free access to the article for a few days, and subscriber/member only after that. You are not missing anything though.

1) Why the **** quit playing? You obviously like it, succumb to it! :) It's like living a century ago thinking having sex with someone you weren't married to is wrong.

2) For the sake of the author and mostly the readers, good he missed the deadline! I'm now reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books. The first one was fantastic - because the guy ****ing HAD TIME to write it! He managed to hold it until the second one. Then it was sheer downfall. My GF and I already bought the last 5 books before we read them, otherwise, I don't think we would have. Obviously Terry Goodkind writes fantastic books. But YOU CAN'T WRITE UNDER DEADLINES. THIS IS NOT SELLING SHOES!
First you need to give yourself time, then the idea is going to come to you, overwhelm you and you are gonna write something marvellous. It may take you 10 years - well wait. Things have to come out of your soul.
Had Goodkind written 2 books instead of 7 or something, they would ****ing rock. Of course, the publisher wouldn't have gotten THAT much money.
What publishers do with deadlines is killing art. I plan on stopping reading books from publishers who make authors write under deadlines.

So, I sincerely wish this guy to start playing CIV IV again:) It makes me respect Iain Banks, I wish I had read something of his. Don't worry about deadlines and stuff. Being writer IS NOT A JOB! If you wanna get 'a job' go selling shoes or something. DO NOT LISTEN TO PUBLISHERS! They do NOT care about YOU or YOUR READERS! They want something from you to make money from the readers. I hope not all publishers are like that but most of them make authors believe that the more a book is sold, the better the author is.

Do you think that if 100 000 sheep more liked something you wrote, it would mean you are a good writer? Write out of your soul! Quit deadlines!

I think I'll send him Civ3Complete:evil:
It'll be funny if he started getting bags of fan mail with copies of civ in them... though he probably wouldn't find it funny :lol:

I'm fed up of Word on my work computer correcting my (UK) English! I'm very good at spelling anyway so I try to ignore the damn thing! :)

I'm pretty sure there's a way to set up Word so that it uses UK English instead of American. It's been awhile since I've installed it, but I'm almost positive the program asked me at set up which language I use. Otherwise, like somoene else suggested, just add those words to the dictionary that y'all spel wrong :p

Marc

I wonder if he is a user of this forum. :mischief:

I believe the probability is high, that he´s a user of CFC or Apolyton (or both) or at least frequently reads in them.
But I doubt he´ll out his forums nickname :D

1) Why the **** quit playing? You obviously like it, succumb to it! :) It's like living a century ago thinking having sex with someone you weren't married to is wrong.

2) For the sake of the author and mostly the readers, good he missed the deadline! I'm now reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth books. The first one was fantastic - because the guy ****ing HAD TIME to write it! He managed to hold it until the second one. Then it was sheer downfall. My GF and I already bought the last 5 books before we read them, otherwise, I don't think we would have. Obviously Terry Goodkind writes fantastic books. But YOU CAN'T WRITE UNDER DEADLINES. THIS IS NOT SELLING SHOES!
First you need to give yourself time, then the idea is going to come to you, overwhelm you and you are gonna write something marvellous. It may take you 10 years - well wait. Things have to come out of your soul.
Had Goodkind written 2 books instead of 7 or something, they would ****ing rock.

I sign on for the first time in eight months just to reply to this. Don't stop reading the Sword of Truth series. I won't spoil anything but IMHO one of the later books is the best novel I have ever read. Out of a few hundred books I have read there are maybe five I have read twice; this one I have read three times. I want a mind wipe so I can enjoy it new.

I wonder if he is a user of this forum. :mischief:
If he is, he could be proud of the possible recored long disscussion taking place in his honour. In fact Id almost go as far to say this is thelongest thread on a home page topic that never related to the breaking news annoucment of a new X pack or sequel. :cool:

For sure the benchmark now, since we switched format ;)

Don't stop reading the Sword of Truth series. I won't spoil anything but IMHO one of the later books is the best novel I have ever read.
Advice taken:goodjob:

I don't think it's funny. I've been in a similar place myself...for about the last 10 f***ing years :( . It took me several attempts to finally kick the habit for good and get rid of all my Cd's and programs relating to Civ.

Those of you who don't find Civ addictive, how wonderful for you. You should consider yourselves very fortunate. But there are no doubt many Civ players out there who have had this game take over, consume, and even wreck their lives. If scientists were to do neurological and psychological tests on computer game addicts I wouldn't be surprised if they found that games like Civ have similar effects, on the brains and minds of addicts, to things like gambling, porn, and illicit drugs.

Computer Game addiction is a problem which I don't think gets due recognition by socitey in general and the medical community in particular (at least not yet). Civ-addiction might represent a particular type or sub-species of CG addiction. Some things that are especially addicitve about Civ games are:

1) Ability to go back and rewrite history-hiding from one's mistakes
2) Endless quest for an even higher score next game: "I can do even better next time if I do such and such".
3) An artificial God-like sense of power; I don't know of too many leaders who have ruled nations for 6000 years, from high above the planet no less (unless you do actually count God, which I don't).

....and perhaps most importantly:

4) An easy escape from the real world and from all the difficulties therein.

In other words, Civ games offer the gamer a false sense of power and self-esteem, both of which are ultimately empty , meaningless, and unfufilling.

Good on him for getting the damn monkey off his back at last. I wish him a happy, Civ-free future. And in the distant future, may his epitaph read "He lived a full, worthy life", not "He pissed away his precious time on this planet playing a silly computer game"

Every summer I waited those Harry Potter issues. Unfortunately, no new Harry Potter issues this summer ever published. Since Mr. Banks confess his addiction to Civ4, now I am more confident that J.K Rowling can't stop play this game either. Maybe she is involving herself on Wizarding Mod.
british broom bomber vs arabian carpet interceptor...
scandinavian dragon vs china dragon...
centaur husbandry needed for centaur-back riding wizard...
Russian submerge-galleon engaged by thousands of Persian mer-people...
civics: pure-blood-only vs muggle-slavery vs mud-blood-hereditary...

It's like people who are addicted to the forum and they ask mods to ban them for a month so they can study during final exams. :D http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v157/nukeboy/Emoticons/eda4cf94.gif Very funny.





If he's a member here, I ask him banned because he destroyed the CD's. :D

Why the hell not be addicted? I like being addicted. Give your heart 100%. Into the fire with your soul!

I don't think it's funny. I've been in a similar place myself...for about the last 10 f***ing years :( . It took me several attempts to finally kick the habit for good and get rid of all my Cd's and programs relating to Civ.

Those of you who don't find Civ addictive, how wonderful for you. You should consider yourselves very fortunate. But there are no doubt many Civ players out there who have had this game take over, consume, and even wreck their lives. If scientists were to do neurological and psychological tests on computer game addicts I wouldn't be surprised if they found that games like Civ have similar effects, on the brains and minds of addicts, to things like gambling, porn, and illicit drugs.

Computer Game addiction is a problem which I don't think gets due recognition by socitey in general and the medical community in particular (at least not yet). Civ-addiction might represent a particular type or sub-species of CG addiction. Some things that are especially addicitve about Civ games are:

1) Ability to go back and rewrite history-hiding from one's mistakes
2) Endless quest for an even higher score next game: "I can do even better next time if I do such and such".
3) An artificial God-like sense of power; I don't know of too many leaders who have ruled nations for 6000 years, from high above the planet no less (unless you do actually count God, which I don't).

....and perhaps most importantly:

4) An easy escape from the real world and from all the difficulties therein.

In other words, Civ games offer the gamer a false sense of power and self-esteem, both of which are ultimately empty , meaningless, and unfufilling.

Good on him for getting the damn monkey off his back at last. I wish him a happy, Civ-free future. And in the distant future, may his epitaph read "He lived a full, worthy life", not "He pissed away his precious time on this planet playing a silly computer game"

I think its funny! :lol:

I think probably everyone here has had civ addiction in one form or another, you just have to "limit" yourself...for instance I wont even bother playing Civ if Ive only got say one or two hours spare and I definitely wont start playing Civ late at night with work the next day...its not good!

Smashing up the disc to stop playing Civ is very extreme - he must have had the civ addiction bad

"He pissed away his precious time on this planet playing a silly computer game" - yeah but it is the best silly computer game!

Well, I was stupid and created new topic for this... Great job Iain! I am sorry for the cd. He coulda send it to me. I think I buy new Civ IV and send it to him :D By the way, am I addict if I can hold my little brother from comp while I am playing Civ IV and when he whines "its my turn" I reply "only one more turn.." and then Tokugawa annihiliated me...

Well, I've got to love this! I've been representin' the Culture here for the last two years....