Those who have played Civ5 for thousands of hours: how do you remain interested?

As many ppl said , I play other games. Sometimes I don t play civ for a month then come back. How s XCOM btw ? I always consider trying it as an alternative turn based game (is it turn based ?) but never got to it.

It's decent. Never played the older ones, but hear it doesn't quite live up to the legacy. Found it enjoyable enough to play through a couple of times, but don't really see a lot of replayability.

Although at this point I'd just wait. There is an expansion coming out and from what it sounds like, it is more of a "large patch". Apparently console version will include the base game along with the new changes. In other words, probably be cheaper just to wait a few months (Nov. I think?) and get the complete edition or whatever they will call it.

Dont play for a couple of weeks or months and then come back to it. When you do you will love it so much - Trust me

Sequitor said:

I picked up SimCity 4 for $5 during the Steam Summer sale but haven't played it yet. After 300+ hours of Civ I'm taking a break with XCOM (getting ready for the November expansion). SimCity 4 could be next. I haven't played Sim since SimCity 2000. How do you recommend a newbie approach the game (and all those mods)?

Click to expand...

Avoid SimTropolis mods until you have a really good understanding of how mods work, and what will break the game. You will want to read comments and forum posts.

Start here
http://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/
for mods, they vet every person that uploads and have strict guidelines for mod uploaders. You will very rarely get problems with their mods.

Start with NAM.

You will not a find a community more devoted to game play and quality than the SimCity4 community.

Go with completely random settings, or try to win with mismatched policies (e.g., win Culture using Honor and Autocracy or Domination with Aesthetics, Piety and Freedom)

I currently have 1,873 hours clocked - which sounds a lot, but I'm not actually a big gamer: I've had CiV since release day, and until about a year ago (when I got a more powerful computer) I never played anything else.

As of last year I flit between CiV and Skyrim; now, having just got a couple of other interesting games as birthday presents, I'm actually spending more time on those than on CiV at the moment. I'm definitely in a 'magic has faded' phase since about my third game after the expansion. There are still some things I want to try before the fall patch comes out, but to give you an idea, I haven't even played as all the new Civs yet. On top of that, I'm super busy with work (I'm a PhD student, hoping to submit in November) so I have at most an hour's worth of playtime a day, usually less...

I've played a bit over 3200 hours of Civ V. I often have trouble getting to sleep and playing Civ lets me do two things - get involved in the game when there are difficult decisions to make about what to build, what the better choice might be for a policy, or whether to take out a player, etc.; and during the mechanical, rote parts of play, lets my mind rove free to either work on some real life problems or to work on the wording of some writing. So, a few hours here, a few hours there, it adds up.

I'll try various mods, victory conditions, style of play, that kind of thing. Lastly, there are times that I'll just do something else and give Civ a rest - read, do chores, try out a new distro in a vm, tidy up twenty years of stuff on a handful of thoroughly disorganized hard drives, watch a movie, play another game - I've got Silent Hunter IV which can get challenging, and a few others; and maybe twenty or so I've haven't played yet, gotten at sales or the Humble Bundles.

To explain how I've got so much time, I have a very low income so don't get out much (and there's little I can afford to do when I do go out), am retired after years of health problems, and am still on crutches from last fall. I also read a lot - news, tech, and novels, along with a bit of history, biography, and philosoply; and I probably spend far too much time on slashdot and Ars.

I remain interested by hunting for achievements, setting goals for myself (like i want a large number of cities or i only declare war on male leaders), and by playing multiplayer with friends.
Also playing with different civs and different victory conditions helps to keep it fresh!

Hope it helps!