F^4 When did your addiction start?

[ainwood]

When did you start playing civ?

For me, I started playing the original Civ after a friend at University suggested it. I started just playing, without reading the manual or anything. Didn't do very well, and couldn't understand things like what the blue squigly lines (irrigation) around the AI civs were, nor what the brown lines were for (roads). Needless to say, without any terrain improvements, I didn't score very well. Interestingly, friends and I used to play our very own GOTM-style games. Start with the same save, and see who could do the best.

However, I found the game very addictive, and played it for ages - whenever I got a bit of free time, or needed to get over a hangover. I'd find that I got so absorbed that I didn't notice my aching head.

I didn't get Civ II until I found it in a bargain bin, and it rekindled my civing. I played a lot for a while, then forgot about it. Came back to it in 2001, and was looking for strategy articles when I stumbled across CFC. At this point, Civ III had been announced, and that one I got ASAP. Now all I need to do is find time to play.

 

[Ricardo]

Similar story... I started playing the original Civ in the computer lab in college. In a way it was like a GOTM because about 6 of us would always be playing and comparing games/strategies. I got pretty good because of that.

 

[Moonsinger]

A long time ago, when I was still in college, I worked as a computer lab monitor for awhile. Sometimes, the students just came to the lab to play game, and they often left copy of the game on the hard drive. Of course, it my my job to delete them each night. One night, I came across the original Civ folder; so I fired it up to see what it was all about. That was my first encounter with Civ1.

 

[CruddyLeper]

When it was first released in the UK. Actually a bit before that, because a colleague reviewed it for the mag I was working for.

Civ2 was played on a friends PC (I didn't have one at the time) until I managed to beat Shaka on Deity.

Civ3? Saw a pre-review in a magazine and had to have it.

My addiction to technology started when I saw my first pocket calculator. I was age 6 at the time - that was 28 years ago.

 

[Ronald]

Similar to you all above, I started playing civ1 at university

 

[Bamspeedy]

I started with Civ3. I bought the game because I thought it was a new version of the CTP series (boy was I wrong about that!), which I had played before.

Been hooked on Civ3 ever since and still have my CTP games that haven't been played since. I have about 15 other computer games that I bought before Civ3, each one was fun for a week or two, then got boring. Civ3 has saved me so much money (well, maybe it costed me more because I forget to pay my bills because I'm too busy stomping shaka ).

 

[jeffelammar]

Heh: Glad to see all the longtime civers. I too started back in College.

Someone had installed civ1 on the network. You could walk into the computer labs and about one third of the computers were playing civ, one third playing muds and the other third actually being used for studying.

Guess this would have been 1993 or 1994. (just guessing)

 

[OneFastWarrior]

So, I am still a youngster at the game. My addiction started 8 months ago. and I took a month off around Christmas/New Years.

since then I have only taken 3 days off at any one time

 

[Kaiser_Berger]

Mine started about four years ago before I even had a computer. I saw a review of Civ2 for playstation, and I knew I needed to have it. I was addicted to that for quite a while. Once I got my computer around two years ago, I got CTP, which I was also addicted to for quite a while. I didn't get Civ3 until about one year ago, and it's kept my civ addiction stronger than ever.

 

[JonathanValjean]

When I was in college, in the Spring of 1997, a friend of mine let me borrow Civ 2. I stayed up for 3 straight nights playing it, and gave it back to him, telling him to never let me see the game again for as long as I was in college. Well, about 4 years rolled by, and I successfully resisted the urge to indulge myself in more Civ 2.

In the Spring of 2001, I broke down and bought Civ 2: MPG, and spent a week playing 2 games. I somehow successfully resisted the urge to play more; however, I had seen that Civ 3 was to be released soon, and was counting down the days!
November 2001 rolled around, and I bought the game immediately upon its release.

I didn't play it until late September of 2002, however, because, as a favor, I took on a couple of part-time teaching jobs in addition to my full-time duties. I knew the minute I started playing Civ 3, I would be hooked immediately and hopelessly, and I was right! From late September until March 2003, I could think of much else than Civ 3. During those 5 1/2 months, I progressed from chieftain to emperor level, but still had not (and still have not) one a game on deity level. So far I'm 2 for 4 on emperor, and 0 for 2 on deity. Since March, my addiction has been milder because I have reached a level at which I feel comfortable with my abilities. When I was struggling on Regent and Monarch, however, I was so obsessed with improving my play, and spent so much time attempting to do so. For me, just as there is no substitute for Porsche, there also is no substitute for Civ 3!

 

[Dianthus]

I started playing CIV very recently compared to many of you, starting with CIV3 in December 2002 after a mate at work got me in to it.

My addiction didn't start until my discovering of civfanatics and GOTM. This was 2 or 3 days before the GOTM17 submission deadline. I met the deadline, and my addiction has really kicked in since!

 

[AlanH]

December 31 2002.

I was given a copy of Civ3 for Macintosh for Christmas, fired it up and was hooked. I'd probably have recovered if I hadn't found GOTM and the Mac patch to 1.29. Now I'm a gonner.

 

[Capt Buttkick]

I got the gold UK edition of the first Civ (with a sweatshirt squeezed into the package lol).
Got Civ2 also on a trip to UK before that came to the shops nearby me. Man, the time I spent on that one...
Got Civ3 as soon as it came out and frankly was disgusted about the game with all it's flaws. I quit playing it til they released the 1.21 patch.

 

[LKendter]

It sounds like I am one of the worse addicts. Not only did I start ~1990 with civ1, but I also play the offshoots of Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire.

 

[civler]

Play Civ since part 1 and will never stop. I played other titles from Sid like Pirates, Colonization, Railroad Tycoon, Alpha Centauri, and i will never sell the games. Sid is just the best!

 

[sekong]

Began from original CIV. Costed me many sleepless night. Had painful experience to get beaten by AI on Emperor level(The hardest of civ1). Step by step, begin to realize the importance of building roads; using we love _ day, inifinite settler(finish any land improvement in one turn), building RR on ocean, inifinite attack from city; discover RR and get armor before 1AD... Winning on hardest, kinda of means knowing and taking advantage of every possible in-game "tricks". Found ways to modify the sav file, so I could play semi-hotseat with my civ-pals in lab. But later when we get civNET, did not really play much... Then civ2, CIV2 Gold...CIV3.
CIV2Gold was my 1st serious civ MP experience, knowing many great players, and learnt from them. Such experience humbled my CIV-diety-ego a lot. Then I found out GOTM is more suitable for me for many reasons, but did not really played a lot since then...

 

[King Of America]

One spring night in 1985 (!!), the Resident Assistant in our dorm brought out this board game called Civilization...the goal back then was to get 1000 points or reach Democracy. We played all night, of course...

Fast-forward to 1994...I'm in a computer store looking to buy myself a Ph.D. present. I see the box. The rest is history.

 

[Jurimax]

I played my first Civ game back in 1993.
Afterwards I also purchased: Colonization, Civ2, Conflicts in Civilization, Fantastic Worlds, CTP, CTP2, Civ3 and PTW.
As soon as Conquests hits the shelves, I'll run out and grab it.

My other favourite games include the AoE series, the C&C series, and some sports titles.

Greetings Jurimax

 

[Darkness]

Early nineties! Got a civ1 for my birthfay from my best friend... Been hooked ever since...

 

[CdB]

Started in Uni years with Civ1 ... than 2 and 3 ... waiting for 4 and the rest ...