I played Civ V for 10 hours today.

[hobbsyoyo]

Originally Posted by TheMeInTeam

Keep up with all commitments and responsibilities, and you're fine.

You're in trouble when the game takes away from your performance at school or work.

Keep in mind, however, that there's addiction and then there's simply substituting one non-work activity for another and simply not working . The latter case is arguably worse, because rather than kicking an addiction (hard enough on its own) you instead have to change a lifestyle entirely.

Originally Posted by MarSch

Its all very well and good to say “You're in trouble when the game takes away from your performance at school or work”, but if Napoleon refuses to make peace, Paris has a bunch of juicy wonders, and you have 3 artillery fresh out the gate with a few promoted melee units loitering with intent…well… we’re only human after all.
One…more…turn…

Right MarSch? How dare someone expect me to live up to my obligations! I have an empire to run!!!!

[Naresh]

When Gods and Kings came out I played until 6am... so maybe 8 hours straight.

The tag line is "one more turn" for a reason

[Blaskowitz01]

It's a proven scientific fact that playing strategy games like Civ V makes you smarter.

[DutchJob]

I just do it.

[kpi]

there were a couple of weekends after G&K came out where i would get home from work on Friday at 6PM, fire up a game and play non stop till Monday morning, only stopping cause i was forced to leave the couch, shower, shave and go back to work.

Its funny sometimes when you are going hardcore and you look at the clock and its 3AM, 4AM, 5AM and you don't care

[Mechanicalsalvation]

I can do long sessions as well and if I want to finish game which takes say 20 hours I will do it usually in two with sleep in between.
But I have also happened to go through certain phase in my life when after quitting a job I didnt took another one for year and I have been mainly playing PC games and of course a lot of CIV too. Boy that was fun but I really dont think I can ever repeat that and I dont even think I really want to...

[ShowOfForce]

I usually am sucked in for 2 hours minimum. I've had a few 8 hour sessions, but I take breaks about every hour to walk around or do a quick chore.

[talcum]

Originally Posted by hobbsyoyo

I had a final that I needed to pass in order to pass the class. I had two full weeks to prepare for the final.
So I played CiV for two weeks straight and didn't even try and study till 45 minutes before the final. I was happy with the C I got.
http://www.civanon.org/

Civ has taught me there is more to life than Education, take War for example!! But C is pretty good.. considering.

I only have owned civ(5) for 2 days, and I have clocked up 2 x 5 hour sessions after work which took me to 1:30AM and 2:00AM, typing this from work atm, I am knackered.

[Grendeldef]

I had a 44hrs session with Civ2 back in time the only breaks being call of nature & making more coffee. Very interesting game but I can't remember anything else of it.
There was a mandatory reboot in every two hours since NT4 wasn't too happy running the 16 bit code.

Since then I've cut my spended time quite a lot but still it occasionally slips. However, using a slower pc or slowing down the cpu there'll be quite a bit time between turns which can be used for something else. Hardly a solution but sort of circumvent to get something else done, too.

G

[MaximusK]

I was a huge gamer in high school that played excessive amounts of games like Age of Empires and Diablo II. I had a job and got good grades at the same time. When I went to college I swore off video games because I wanted a new life. That was in 2001. College was great. I did have a relapse when AoE 3 came out. I played that for 4 months then destroyed the cds.

About 10 months ago I bought Civ 5 because I got a brand new desktop and felt justified in buying a game because I had this expensive as hell iMac and I wanted to use it. Well, now I've spent 600 some hours playing it.

At the same time, I'm a married man, no kids, with a job teaching world history.

I don't drink (very much) or go to bars. I am not really into sports, competing or viewing. I am slightly over weight but active enough to stave off obesity. I don't feel like this justifies spending 100s of hours on a computer game. There is a starving world out there, starving for food, starving for meaning, starving for love. Playing 100s of hours of a computer game isn't as damaging or expensive as 100s of other liesure pursuits but it still isn't necessarily "healthy".

I new school year is starting tomorrow for me and I just deleted Civ5. Granted, I can always reinstall steam but with my poor download rates it would take the better part of a day to download.

I probably won't play it again until Labor Day weekend (esp. since my wife is out of town). It would be great if there was a DLC by then.

I'm not judging any of you but I find myself feeling guilty. This probably stems in part from my religious/spiritual convictions. I wish I could limit myself to an hour a day and never think about the game outside of that hour or so.

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Originally Posted by MaximusK

I'm not judging any of you but I find myself feeling guilty. This probably stems in part from my religious/spiritual convictions. I wish I could limit myself to an hour a day and never think about the game outside of that hour or so.

There is no need to feel guilty. One has to accept himself and the world around as it is.

You are doing the right thing. For me an hour a day of play doesnt work either and there are so many more important things to do. I feel to live happy live I have to go beyond my limits, to help others, to love the world more and become something myself and I dont see much help for that from PC games. But on the other hand I do have passions which I feel I can channel through gaming so once a while I allow myself to play couple days/weeks quite intensely and after that I go back again to my "proper" life.

[Blaskowitz01]

If I could marry Civ sher named would be Jenny and we'd have 5 kids, named: Montezuma, Washington, Attilla, Elizabeth, and Bismarck.

We would take long trips on the French Riviera in my Giant Death Robot and make love like wild rabbits.

[flairin]

I've had sessions that have lasted 20 hours since Civ2... starting like at 7 am and not finishing up till early morning the following day. For some reason I can finish up games much quicker now than in the past so playing that long seldom ever happens now. 6-8 hour sessions are quite comfortable. 2-4 hour sessions usually just to test something out. Reserve 10 hours if I want to really concentrate on playing a game from start to finish. It must be because of the CivFanatics forums that I rarely play the game for extra long.

I don't see how those extra-long sessions have done any harm. It my opinion it allows one to test their limits, especially in other pursuits. I knew a few years ago I could drive from the middle of Oklahoma to Los Angeles in one setting without breaks (or 22 hours of driving) without much of a problem, or work 24 hours in a 30 hour period while still having the capacity to think straight.

Thank you Sid

[Scars n Stripes]

I tend to do lots of micromanaging in my game plays, so sessions for me can last a long time. I've been known to wake early on a Saturday morning and play clear on into 2 a.m. That's with some breaks in between here and there though for food and what not!

Reading the replies in this post is hilarious. Glad to know I'm not the only addict!

[Will99]

This week I have played every night from about 8 / 9 p.m. and have been thinking from about midnight each night that 'I really should go to bed as I have a job to do tomorrow', but the balance of influences ensures that I am still playing at about 02:30 at which time I look at the clock, curse myself and switch my laptop off.
In the morning I curse myself again as I am so tired and promise myself that 'I will go to bed at a reasonable time tonight'.
The after struggling through work I get home, see the kids/wife, eat dinner, and repeat the whole process again .....
I am 48 years old FFS should I not have put all these shenanigans behind me by now ? !!

[Flaxton]

Originally Posted by Will99

This week I have played every night from about 8 / 9 p.m. and have been thinking from about midnight each night that 'I really should go to bed as I have a job to do tomorrow', but the balance of influences ensures that I am still playing at about 02:30 at which time I look at the clock, curse myself and switch my laptop off.
In the morning I curse myself again as I am so tired and promise myself that 'I will go to bed at a reasonable time tonight'.
The after struggling through work I get home, see the kids/wife, eat dinner, and repeat the whole process again .....
I am 48 years old FFS should I not have put all these shenanigans behind me by now ? !!

I'm 43 and worked late last night so played until 0230 too. I even bought a clock for my computer desk so I have no excuses like 'I never realised the time'. Still I managed to finally take that damned Greek city after a 800 year battle....
At work now and just can't wait to finish that game and start another, been playing since Civ 1 and am still addicted. Have clocked 1300 hours on Civ V but a lot of that is me just leaving the computer on whilst I pretend to play the wife some attention