do you continue playing after youve won?

[monkeymcbain]

ive done this a few times. If im close to a new policy or wonder, i continue on just to see what the affect is on my empire.

Or, if i take the last capital city i win by domination but often the other civ has 2 or 3 cities left (unless i deliberately leave the capital till last). Then i like to just finish off the war and take the last cities just for a sense of completeness.

 

[D0MIN1C]

Nah, I just start a new game xD

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

If it's late in the game and I have a bunch of nukes, I'll take one more turn to launch them just so they don't go to waste.

 

[General Tso]

I do if I have a chance at beating my high score otherwise no.

Edit I just realized that you are asking a different question than I thought - No I never continue play after I have won.

 

[Lochlann]

I've tried to continue playing following a victory (or loss), until I reach a point of "satisfaction" with my progress or with the achievement of something I've been waiting for (policy, Wonder, battle, etc.)...but the satisfaction never seems to come. I either lose interest immediately, since it no longer seems to count anymore when the heat is off, or I can't stop taking "one more" turn, finding other things to stick around for. My solution has been to change my playing strategy: I've long since stopped playing to win, and I now play to prevent others from winning. This gives me the longest possible time to do whatever I feel like doing, before the heat comes off.

(Note that I play almost exclusively with the goal of creating massive fully developed world maps, with a practically limitless turn count; I don't play in order to "win" the game in any particular way.)

 

[Mariner91]

Nah, I just start a new game xD

Same

Once, I re-loaded a turn or two before the Science Victory, and went for a Cultural instead (Prince, Standard, India). But otherwise, just start a new game.

 

[snoochems]

I have done so a few times. If I recall, each time was when there ended up being two super-powers in the game, each on different continents. I'll win via science/culture/whatever, and then keep playing and try and crush the other super-power, usually involving nukes, GDR's and a full invasion via sea.

 

[drubell]

I did when I was wondering if there was secret achievement for filling out all of the SPs in one game. There isn't, by the way.

 

[ense7en]

Very rarely.

Usually am tired of the current game by then and am eager to start a new one.

 

[Lochlann]

I did when I was wondering if there was secret achievement for filling out all of the SPs in one game. There isn't, by the way.

I'm doing that right now, actually. Just for the fun of it. It's a little hard with 130 cities and growing (zero puppets), but, we'll see. (Huge/marathon; I'm on turn 1585, and the game hasn't been won by anyone yet.)

 

[The Mad Russian]

If it's late in the game and I have a bunch of nukes, I'll take one more turn to launch them just so they don't go to waste.

I do the same to the Civs that have given me trouble throughout the game if I haven't conquered them or no one else has.

-Mark

 

[Camikaze]

I don't quite understand why, but I don't have any urge to keep playing after I've won. Even if I've known throughout the entire game that I'm going to win, as soon as that victory screen comes up, all desire to keep going, as I have been doing for the last few hundred turns, just disappears.

 

[Lochlann]

I don't quite understand why, but I don't have any urge to keep playing after I've won. Even if I've known throughout the entire game that I'm going to win, as soon as that victory screen comes up, all desire to keep going, as I have been doing for the last few hundred turns, just disappears.

Exactly this. I've tried to rationalize/justify this in various different ways, referring to the "heat" of knowing that technically someone else could win...but I don't think that's it exactly.

For me at least, I think it has to do with the power I grant to an external source (the computer) to determine what is "real" and "not real." I mean, it's a game, and as you mentioned it is often the case that the outcome is clear well before the computer informs me that the game is finished; why does that computer message carry such weight? Shouldn't I be able to continue enjoying the experience of empire-building--which is the reason I play the game, far beyond any desire for competition or "improvement"--even after the little computer message verifies what I've known to be true for a long time? Yet, like you, somehow I can't, and I don't think that's rare.

Thinking about why this is just leads me down the path of reflecting on how we all do this in society, how we all crave external validations of when it's "okay" to do or feel various things, or when something is "real" or not, unconsciously surrendering our agency to determine our own realities. (Like, isn't it cooler to hear a song we like come on the radio than to play it ourselves? Doesn't that external source validate it in some way, granting us a greater appreciate of hearing the song? And seeing a movie I own come on TV...sweet! To say nothing of bigger, more important versions of this...) But then I just shrug my shoulders and start a new game.