I am now obessed with Crusader Kings II.

[Joecoolyo]

In my Ireland game I had a king die early leaving behind a child who was, however, an uber-awesome genius. So one of the king's old cousins basically becomes the evil chancellor/vizier/regent and starts a war to lower crown authority, and succeeds, because he's evil™. So... the genius kid spends his entire childhood waiting the shadows, plotting his revenge, etc. etc. etc., and when he comes of age a new civil war breaks out, genius young king wins, evil chancellor imprisoned and dies, everybody lives happily after. And then this new genius, kind, just, awesome, great king dies of young age from depression, leaving behind another genius child king and a whole set of troubles.

That was fun.

Of course, this was all before I discovered how to have sibling incest via console command cheats.

Oh yeah! That reminds me of another Ireland story. So I had a pretty awesome king and wife, but for some reason for like the longest time I had only two kids, both girls. I really did not want to end up with a queen, just because of the vassal relationship penalty. Finally, getting close to 40, my wife gets pregnant. I eagerly wait for the kid, and huzzah, its a boy! Turns out though, he's got the imbecile trait. No way I was going to let that kid become king, with all 0's. So I had him killed before he even turned one. Next year, my wife got pregnant again. Another boy, another imbecile. I killed him too. Third year in a row, third imbecile in a row, third death in a row. I was growing hopeless, would I never get a boy who wasn't completely dumb? Then, fourth year, praise to the Irish heavens I finally got a boy who was normal, no traits or anything wrong with him. I pampered him, gave him everything he wanted, and I was getting ready to tutor him myself so that he may grow up to be just as great a king I was.

And then, on his fifth birthday, he dies. Not from natural causes either. He was murdered, by his older sister, who was now 22 years old. At that point my wife was well past 40, so I gave up and let her have the Kingdom for herself.

Turns out she was damn amazing. She ended up being the queen who conquered Scotland and created the dual crown throne. Who would have guessed?

This is the story I always tell my friends whenever I want to get them into CKII btw

 

[Mouthwash]

I think everyone has that one Kingdom of Ireland story. That was also my first game, and I have such fond memories. Being invaded by both the Kingdom of England and the HRE at the same time. That one mercenary revolt that I had to put down with more mercenaries. Having to deal with hereditary title of the Kingdom of Ireland and the elective title of Kingdom of Scotland on the same character. Creating a dungeon collection of my favorite Scottish lords so they wouldn't vote wrong. Ah, the memories!

Wait, you can do that? People you hold prisoner vote for you?

 

[Joecoolyo]

Wait, you can do that? People you hold prisoner vote for you?

I don't remember if they can still vote from prison, but they definitely love you. Of course being threatened with the oubliette would do that to any man/woman.

 

[Zack]

I don't remember if they can still vote from prison, but they definitely love you.

Only works if you're in control of Stockholm.

 

[Quintillus]

I'm afraid I've never actually been that hooked on a game, at least if your omission of sleep in the chronicle of the past two days is accurate, and thus cannot reliably help. Now, back in the day, and sometimes in the not-very-distant days, I've become hooked on Civilization and played it until the sun came up. And the first year I had Civ3 in particular, I did play it an awful lot. The best cure I found for it was getting Age of Empires II. At that point, I started playing Age of Empires II a ton, and stopped playing Civilization 3 quite so much.

So I guess my suggestion to escape from Crusader Kings II would be to find another game that will take its place. There's bound to be one out there eventually. It doesn't even necessarily have to be better - I'd put Civ3 slightly ahead of AoE2 myself - but it would have to be newer to you. And then, you'll be free from CKII! At least until you've been away from it for awhile and then start it up again.

Now, if the goal is to get away from games that are as addictive as CKII in general, and not just CKII in particular, I'm afraid you may be out of luck.

Great Ireland stories, by the way. I've never played Ireland in CKII - I may have to try that. Might be fun to put my grandiose Legacy of Rome/Old Kings plans on hold and just play a lighthearted game on the Emerald Isle.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I got hooked to that level with Civ1 and to a lesser extent with Civ2, to the point of not being able to study anything with the exams few days ahead. My solution was to destroy the floppy disk. Of course it was a temporal solution until the exams were finished, then i got another copy from a friend. Finally after a month or two i got bored and the addiction ended naturally. Game addictions cure with time, in such sense they are not malign addictions, but as a whole they can make you lose a good portion of your life.

More recently i have been hooked to X3, Warband or KSP to name a few but in a much more controlled way and placing them in a second plane behind real life where it should be.

 

[Mouthwash]

Playing as Sweden. With the Norse ability to sail down rivers and conquer whole duchies at a time, you can basically ferry armies into Russia and create realm after realm of fellow Norse family members. It's unbelievable how fast you can control the entire steppe.

 

[cybrxkhan]

Playing as Sweden. With the Norse ability to sail down rivers and conquer whole duchies at a time, you can basically ferry armies into Russia and create realm after realm of fellow Norse family members. It's unbelievable how fast you can control the entire steppe.

Personally I find the Norse overrated. I suppose I'm biased against PI's Norse bias. Goodness, how I wished TOG gag more love to the non-Norse pagans.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Playing as Sweden. With the Norse ability to sail down rivers and conquer whole duchies at a time, you can basically ferry armies into Russia and create realm after realm of fellow Norse family members. It's unbelievable how fast you can control the entire steppe.

I had one game where Norse adventurers conquered north Africa. As emperor of Hispania, his ancestors ended up being some of my most trusted and loyal vassals.

 

[Winner]

Ever since I got a new PC, CKII has been my Nemesis (too much time wasted with that game ). On the old computer, it lagged so hard after the first ~100 years of the game that I never played on. Now I can... I agree that the "character focus" makes it a far more addictive strategy game than many other Paradox titles.

BTW, they really should introduce "hidden traits" - how on earth would you know your newborn is a genius/imbecile/homosexual/etc.? You would find out later, sometimes not before puberty. These congenital traits should be hidden until they manifest in some way.

Also, genetics needs to be simulated better so that I can embark on a 500-year experiment in eugenics...

P.S.: Mediterranean portraits are incredibly, incredibly ugly. I don't understand why Paradox hates the southerners so much...

 

[Ajidica]

For me, the solution to gaming addiction is to realize you have a large pile of classwork building up and that you really should get around to doing it.
Lacking that, simply getting into a simple routine does wonders. (ie: Taking showers, cooking your food, etc.)

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

For me, the solution to gaming addiction is to realize you have a large pile of classwork building up and that you really should get around to doing it.
Lacking that, simply getting into a simple routine does wonders. (ie: Taking showers, cooking your food, etc.)

I will have non of that... Next three days I have off which means 72 hours gaming (except the necessity of sleeping eating and saying hello to some relatives)

 

[CavLancer]

I predict in time hunger will help you overcome this addiction, so no worries.

 

[Mouthwash]

Ever since I got a new PC, CKII has been my Nemesis (too much time wasted with that game ). On the old computer, it lagged so hard after the first ~100 years of the game that I never played on. Now I can... I agree that the "character focus" makes it a far more addictive strategy game than many other Paradox titles.

BTW, they really should introduce "hidden traits" - how on earth would you know your newborn is a genius/imbecile/homosexual/etc.? You would find out later, sometimes not before puberty. These congenital traits should be hidden until they manifest in some way.

Also, genetics needs to be simulated better so that I can embark on a 500-year experiment in eugenics...

P.S.: Mediterranean portraits are incredibly, incredibly ugly. I don't understand why Paradox hates the southerners so much...

Those aren't the worst. Just look at Arab portraits.

 

[Truronian]

My only problem with CK2 is that I find playing as a modded Cornish character in Naples too fun, and can't bring myself to play anything other than this oddly specific start.

Tanistry 4 Life

 

[PhroX]

I wanted to like CK, but the Byzantine Empire is already the strongest in the game, so it is boring. First Eastern Roman issues.

You can always start much later when it's had the crap beaten out of it by Turks and Latins. Hell, starting as a Greek count in the aftermath of the 4th Crusade and trying to restore the Empire is a damn fun challenge.

 

[Winner]

Those aren't the worst. Just look at Arab portraits.

The Vanilla ones (basically the "White European" and "Middle Eastern" models) aren't particularly great—seriously Paradox, stop releasing new stuff and fix/flavour what you've already done; is it so hard to add new face types to make people more distinguishable?—but they are acceptable looking. Mediterranean portraits are disastrously ugly. Just look at the women—what's up with thosedouble chins, that weird eyes and face shapes, that skin tone, the hair styles? I mean have you ever been to Spain or Italy? People don't look like that at all! It's neigh impossible to make a good looking Med character in that portraits set.

 

[Kyriakos]

The Vanilla ones (basically the "White European" and "Middle Eastern" models) aren't particularly great—seriously Paradox, stop releasing new stuff and fix/flavour what you've already done; is it so hard to add new face types to make people more distinguishable?—but they are acceptable looking. Mediterranean portraits are disastrously ugly. Just look at the women—what's up with that double chins, that weird eyes and face shapes? I mean have you ever been to Spain or Italy? People don't look like that at all! It's neigh impossible to make a good looking Med character in that portraits set.

Uh...

So med european is not "white european"?

I am far whiter than you, at any rate

 

[Arakhor]

The only way I could be whiter is if I had red hair. #WesternEuropeanProblems

 

[Kyriakos]

Thracians also had red hair. #Herodotos.