Online game - 2 hours every other night

I've become frustrated with the online Gamespy games - the few I've tried. They last at least 4-6 on average. For god's sake, don't these guys go to pee every once in a while? And don't they have dayjobs? Also, many games don't even end - they crash somewhere along the way.

On the other hand, PBEM seem slow to me, and trading is problematic (impossible?)

For these reasons I want to try something else: an online game like in Gamespy but we'll stop it after 2 hours and continue it on another pre-scheduled day. We'll do 2 hour sessions until it's complete.

So the advantages here are obvious. We can even tackle huge maps, and unlimited turn times. The they never do that in Gamespy, because they need to have the game end after 7 hours or whatever is the limit of human endurance. If the game crashes, we only lose the last session.

The downside is that after a while, someone is likely to miss the date (especially if that someone was losing). So for this to work, I really hope to find a mature and punctual group of people.

Anyway, for the pilot game, I suggest:
5 player game
21:00-23:00 GMT every other night (nighttime in Europe!) EDIT: see new and improved American schedule below
Standard map size
no turn limit

Let me know if you want to participate and can uphold the schedule. Umm, and if you like the concept but hate this schedule, let me know and we'll work it out.
Also, has anyone ever had experience with multi-session online games? Are they going on somewhere that I'm not aware of?

EDITED
New plan: our schedule is night-time in America:
21:00-23:00 in Arizona, 22:00-24:00 in Chicago, 23:00-01:00 in Toronto (EST)
We'll start at Sunday night (Jan 8), and continue on Jan 10 and Jan 12
Be there or be ^2.

Participants:
Furious
Mysterio10000
Likes_Civing (needs final confirmation)
vra379971 (needs final confirmation)

We'll meet at the Gamespy and chat beforehand. My name there is Furious as well.

i can do night time in the USA.

I agree with your read on GS. Can't finish a game, since people never come back.

The trick is to find about 10 guys who will stick to a game and get about half those players for each game to keep a certain schedule.

count me in

Hmm...that would be from 2-4PM my time. Since I'm currently upemployed, that's not a problem! However, when I do return to the ranks of the employed (not sure when that will be!), I won't be able to participate.

Until that time arrives, I'm game for this pilot game!

Ok, let's see... You guys are Americans. I live in Israel, that's GMT+2

Can you manage:
22:00-24:00 in Chicago time,
21:00-23:00 in Arizona time
And 06:00-08:00 for me, which is bright and early, but OK.

We can try to solicit another player or two from Gamespy though the likelihood that they'll be around for the next session is low...

If it helps, my MSN/email is aviv -dot- hurvitz -at- gmail -dot- com.

BTW, don't be fooled, I'm a newb and lost both of my previous multi-player games.

Furious said:

Can you manage:
21:00-23:00 in Arizona time

Click to expand...

Sure, that time works for me.

Great. I'll see if we hear from Likes_civing and anyone else by your 21:00. If yes, we can start then. Otherwise, I think we'll wait another day.
I suppose the posts get viewed by the most people on Sunday so it should be worth the wait.

And now I'm off to bed.

I should be up for it..I live in Toronto, Canada...give me a time and we can see if I could commit to it.

vra379971 said:

I should be up for it..I live in Toronto, Canada...give me a time and we can see if I could commit to it.

Click to expand...

I looked it up and Toronto is in the Eastern Time Zone so we're talking about 23:00-01:00 in your area. I hope you can make it.

So far I haven't heard from Likes_Civing, so we'll wait till tomorrow (Sunday) and start with whoever's on board. Participants should commit to:
23:00-01:00 EST in Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. If there's no clear winner by then, we'll set a schedule for continuation.

Reminder:
First session is tonight (January 8) 23:00-01:00 EST.
We'll meet at the gamespy lobby. My nickname's Furious.

I'll be there! My Gamespy nick is Vindicator.

10pm tonight, GS lounge

Got a nice group going. Thanks to those that showed up:
vindicator
civ_boy
zlo2003, whom we met at GS
Furious

Sometimes s*** happens. If you can't make it to the next session, please tell us at the forum.

you guys are going down

Remember Furious, that .2 unit better clear on out and head on north. What if I accidently move into him and take him out?

You won't hold a grudge will ya?

Likes_Civing said:

that .2 unit

Click to expand...

What's a .2 unit?

China sucks.

Likes_Civing said:

you guys are going down

Remember Furious, that .2 unit better clear on out and head on north. What if I accidently move into him and take him out?

You won't hold a grudge will ya?

Click to expand...

"accidentally move into him"...

It's my God-given right to map my God-given land from tundra to jungle to whatnot up until I hit some national borders. Killing that unit won't stop me from mapping later but will put you on my bad side...

On a more positive note, I'm willing to divide the land between us.

And I hate to repeat it, but China does suck...

.2 unit is a unit with .2 strength after his unit must have battled with something, or it fell down and hurt itself.

I can agree on a land split. If you want to send me some $$$, I can point you to Nap and ZLO, the blue and yellow guys.

There is a river north of me, I will be expanding up to it. If you don't want me north of it, that's fine. You must be up there somewhere I dont' like the cold anyway.

enjoy your roaming.

My Pitboss game is now full. Why didn't you guys join it, not able to play two games at a time?

called being at work when I saw your posts.

Our game is a good one, all the scores are can see are REAL close.

Likes_Civing said:

Our game is a good one, all the scores are can see are REAL close.

Click to expand...

Yeah, as long as your score isn't the lowest!

The Russian and Incan empires keep invading my space! As the aggressive Mongolians, I can not allow their expansion to continue unchecked!

Which leader is zlo? It sounds like France is getting under his skin.

i'll play that, but i won't lie i will probably miss it once in a while. I am in college. but probably not that often would i miss it.