This is not a joke, not like www.civanon.org clearly was (to my disappointment). This game is destroying my life. When I sit down, I don't get up for at least the next 6 hours, and too often it turns into 12-14 hours a day. I stay up all night, greet the morning, then go to sleep for several hours. Each time I hope that I'll be too tired to stay up late for another night, yet Civ is the only activity I know that will keep you up, however bleary-eyed, you'll be awake and at the very least hitting Enter to get to the end of the game. Then start over, to do better this time.
I was getting a handle on Civ3, playing the Conquest version, I was able to win at the hardest level for each one of the leading nations (there were over a dozen, right?) In the end, I threw the disk out. In the garbage. Now, however, my dad has Civ4 installed on his computer. I can't exactly ask him to uninstall it or password-protect the computer (I hope it won't come to that). Instead of spending time with friends, reading, or looking for a job like I should be, whenever I think about anything serious or upsetting, I get a craving for the game. Each time I say, "just an hour." Isn't that what insanity is, attempting the same task while expecting a different result?
This is not good. Even if I stop for several days, I start up again. I discovered the Greek world mods, and the custom game option, where you can start in later ages. Also, I've gotten better. I've started winning more, so now I want to try to get a win for each one of the available leaders and for each era, staying at the Prince level for now. In the beginning, I kept playing and losing badly each time. I almost lost interest entirely. It's no fun when there's no improvement. Then I started to cheat - by doing re-loads of the earlier autosaves.
I'm rambled enough for my first time. I would really appreciate some serious advice. (Not how to play the game, but how to quit.)
I was getting a handle on Civ3, playing the Conquest version, I was able to win at the hardest level for each one of the leading nations (there were over a dozen, right?) In the end, I threw the disk out. In the garbage. Now, however, my dad has Civ4 installed on his computer. I can't exactly ask him to uninstall it or password-protect the computer (I hope it won't come to that). Instead of spending time with friends, reading, or looking for a job like I should be, whenever I think about anything serious or upsetting, I get a craving for the game. Each time I say, "just an hour." Isn't that what insanity is, attempting the same task while expecting a different result?
This is not good. Even if I stop for several days, I start up again. I discovered the Greek world mods, and the custom game option, where you can start in later ages. Also, I've gotten better. I've started winning more, so now I want to try to get a win for each one of the available leaders and for each era, staying at the Prince level for now. In the beginning, I kept playing and losing badly each time. I almost lost interest entirely. It's no fun when there's no improvement. Then I started to cheat - by doing re-loads of the earlier autosaves.
I'm rambled enough for my first time. I would really appreciate some serious advice. (Not how to play the game, but how to quit.)
Happy to help. 
