All Nighters

[michmbk]

My biggest problem for marathon sessions is that I use the mouse for everything, so after about 4-5 hours, my arm starts to hurt. I fight through the pain sometimes, and have gone for about 8-9 hours at most at a given stretch. That's probably been the max. I did have a stretch when my wife went out of town for a weekend where I think I went about 30 hours in total over the course of friday night to monday morning - that's probably my longest marathon session.

Not quite as long as some of my madden marathon weekends use to run pre-marriage and pre-kids. I also remember an Oblivion weekend when my wife took my son to her parents for the weekend that was a little ridiculous too - wintertime, so nothing else to do but play from the minute I'd get up to the minute I'd go to sleep. That had to be about 40 hours total from fri night to sun night.

 

[mushutoku]

Some years ago I used to play all day long...the first thing I did in the morning was founding a city, the last before going to bed launching the spaceship....well, to be honest once I played a few turns just before going top bed after a night out drinking...
But now, after a sudden glimpse of wisdom, never more than 2 hours. Than I take a breath, save, switch the machine off and go for a walk. During the walk I usually think of Shaka's f***ing SoD aproaching my borders, or of the best place to found the next city, or if it is better to help Hammurabi in his war against Gilgamesh, or let them kill each other and then eat the loser, or stuffs like that...
Once back home, with my mind fresh and rested, go on another 2 hours session!

 

[grace1760]

Sometimes, when I've been playing for 8 straight hours and it's 4 in the morning (Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat" just popped into my head), and I'm literally passing out at the computer, I get pissed off for two reasons:

1. that i stayed up til 4 playing this game, and I'll be useless tomorrow, and
2. that I'm too tired to keep it going. You all know what I'm talking about...

 

[Rusty Edge]

I don't remember playing more than about 18 hours straight in my CivIII daze. In the CivIV , happily married era, I don't go over 8 hours straight, even though it's more compelling.

 

[Gustavus]

Great Zeus, you all. My roommate tells me I'm obsessed, and I never go over 5 hours at a time. My hat goes off to you guys. I don't know how you all do it. I love the beginning to Renaissance, but after that I kind of lose interest and finish the game in small blocks of time. I need your dedication.
In a similar vein, anybody ever experienced an aderol-Civ binge? That would be epic. People at college are nuts and stay up for days on the stuff. I wonder what civ'ing on it would be like.

 

[phungus420]

I love the beginning to Renaissance, but after that I kind of lose interest and finish the game in small blocks of time.

Try Legends of Revolution. It keeps the one more turn, I just need "X" going all the way through

 

[Glassfan]

Anyone ever see that movie about the middle-aged Donkey Kong champions, still playing for the legendary high score (backstabing, cheating, etc.) after all these years. They have classic arcade machines in their basements and have to video themselves and submit the video for score. This one dad is pushing 800,000 points and closing in when his young son is yelling at him to get off the machine and help him in the bathroom. If it were'nt for the fact that Civilization is turned-based, that would be me. I've had the game on for days at a time, but thank Sid I can go to the bathroom or rub my wife's feet, or there would be SERIOUS TROUBLE.

 

[Redcoat Captain]

When i first got Civ 3, i had just started my school holidays and had 6 weeks of free time. I was amazed at how well the game had developed from the Civ 2 version. All those news units, civs, buildings, wonders, maps, scenraios. It was impulse overload

I got home from school at 3pm, played until 4.30am, slept for a couple of hours and continued from 8am right until 10pm.

Have never managed a marathon on any other game that has even come close to that. Now im older, work and life get in the way. I'd love nothing more than to play Civ all day

 

[Yxklyx]

I had one the other day/night. Started a game at 10 pm (not a good idea) and played until 3 pm the next day. It was a miserable loss on Epic/Monarch as well.

 

[GeezerGamer]

My longest was from 4pm to 11pm.

Wife was visiting her mother...

 

[Zeiter]

How do all of you Civ players actually manage to stay married?! Hats off to y'all!

The longest I've ever played was when I first got Civ4 in the mail from Amazon. Started Thursday night after a full day of classes and work at the library. Didn't have school on friday. Played all through friday, with just a few breaks in between for meals at the dining hall. Back to the dorm room...played all night again until saturday morning. Slept for the rest of the weekend.

I have this theory that playing Civ for long stretches (like, +10 hours, which I have done a few times) makes my brain release an endogenous amphetamine-related chemical, phenylethylamine, because from what I read, the symptoms I get are somewhat similar physiologically to an amphetamine high, or taking adderol: intense focus, boundless energy, lack of appetite or thirst (not just forgetting to eat or drink, but even thinking about food produces little craving, although I will often force myself to eat and drink just to make sure I am getting nutrients and staying hydrated), and then followed by a particularly lethargic burnout for the next few days, even after I've caught up on my sleep schedule. Sometimes I'll even get fidgety muscle restlessness and a sort of prolonged butterfly feeling in my stomach as well afterwards. But then, I also get these feelings from pulling all-nighters on papers oftentimes, so maybe something similar is going on there too. (And somehow I always manage to compensate for my Civ playing and turn in all of my papers on time for decent grades...who knows how, ).

Anyways, now I know it is wiser to keep my Civ playing to around 5-6 hours per sitting.

BTW, I'm a history major, and I remember one instance from earlier this semester when I was taking an exam for my Ancient Mesopotamia class, and I had just finished playing a Gilgamesh game a few days ago, and I was doing an essay question on the emergence and institutional function of the ziggurat, and all I could think of was, "Oh, ziggurats are like courthouses, except they are available at priesthood, and for a cheaper hammer price, and they give +2 espionage and -50% maintenance..." heh. Thankfully, I did not actually write that down, of course! I'm sure my professor would have been like, "Huh????" Or maybe he'd know exactly what I was talking about...you never know!

 

[ORION11380]

I claim the 5th Amendment...

 

[bestbrian]

How do all of you Civ players actually manage to stay married?! Hats off to y'all!

The longest I've ever played was when I first got Civ4 in the mail from Amazon. Started Thursday night after a full day of classes and work at the library. Didn't have school on friday. Played all through friday, with just a few breaks in between for meals at the dining hall. Back to the dorm room...played all night again until saturday morning. Slept for the rest of the weekend.

I have this theory that playing Civ for long stretches (like, +10 hours, which I have done a few times) makes my brain release an endogenous amphetamine-related chemical, phenylethylamine, because from what I read, the symptoms I get are somewhat similar physiologically to an amphetamine high, or taking adderol: intense focus, boundless energy, lack of appetite or thirst (not just forgetting to eat or drink, but even thinking about food produces little craving, although I will often force myself to eat and drink just to make sure I am getting nutrients and staying hydrated), and then followed by a particularly lethargic burnout for the next few days, even after I've caught up on my sleep schedule. Sometimes I'll even get fidgety muscle restlessness and a sort of prolonged butterfly feeling in my stomach as well afterwards. But then, I also get these feelings from pulling all-nighters on papers oftentimes, so maybe something similar is going on there too. (And somehow I always manage to compensate for my Civ playing and turn in all of my papers on time for decent grades...who knows how, ).

Anyways, now I know it is wiser to keep my Civ playing to around 5-6 hours per sitting.

BTW, I'm a history major, and I remember one instance from earlier this semester when I was taking an exam for my Ancient Mesopotamia class, and I had just finished playing a Gilgamesh game a few days ago, and I was doing an essay question on the emergence and institutional function of the ziggurat, and all I could think of was, "Oh, ziggurats are like courthouses, except they are available at priesthood, and for a cheaper hammer price, and they give +2 espionage and -50% maintenance..." heh. Thankfully, I did not actually write that down, of course! I'm sure my professor would have been like, "Huh????" Or maybe he'd know exactly what I was talking about...you never know!

Nice post, Zeiter.

 

[Matthew5117]

^Yeah, phenylethylamine. I would have guessed it.

 

[Terrance888]

My best all nighter was Morning, 6 AM, to the Morning AFTER 12 AM, after which we took an hour's walk, then I played til 7 PM that night.

42 Hours!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I find that playing for more than 2-3 hours at a time hinders my focus and weakens my play, TBH. I can go much much longer but rarely do.

I imagine I'll play a little less when I'm married.

 

[PaulisKhan]

Haha, I'm loving the "wife was visiting the mother" "wife was away" comments.

I've made the rookie mistake of forgetting to go to bed a couple of times, only to be interrupted by the *ahem* from the wife standing in the doorway at 8am.

But the wife is off to visit her family next weekend, I'm already counting the days! =D

SG's, HoF, XOTM's, SGOTM's, Gauntlets!!!

Oh my.

I find that playing for more than 2-3 hours at a time hinders my focus and weakens my play

I find that I don't get in the "zone" until around 3am. That's around the time that my higher brain functions begin to shut down and I totally become one with the datastream dude.... All of my best HoF games are played in that timeframe (often in one sitting).

 

[Dementual]

The most I've gone was a 19 hour game (2 hours between 3-5AM, sleep, and then 17 more hours until around 3AM). Played through the future era, actually finished the game. This was roughly 8-9 months ago.

I haven't played past the Renaissance since.

 

[Edzako]

My biggest problem for marathon sessions is that I use the mouse for everything, so after about 4-5 hours, my arm starts to hurt. I fight through the pain sometimes, and have gone for about 8-9 hours at most at a given stretch. That's probably been the max. I did have a stretch when my wife went out of town for a weekend where I think I went about 30 hours in total over the course of friday night to monday morning - that's probably my longest marathon session.

Buy hand trainer - hand gyroscope is awesome and trains whole hand. Is reported being used by professional Starcraft players.

 

[BIG sven]

The longest i've done is 13hrs but the longest game time i have had is 60hrs it could have been longer but i decided to kill the last leader.