How did ur obsession start?

[lugersci]

For me:I was 11 during the time and me and my brother shared a computer. Him being older he played much more then me. One time he was playing a game that looked utterly boring too me. He would play it constantly, it was impossible to anoye him and get him off the comp. Anyways, one day he was not home and I started playing this game. It was pretty intresting after I started reading about the various things in the Civilopedia, I was hooked. But sadly I only had one strategy. Play as Germans, advance in science, wage war, accept faulty peace treaties, and attack them again. Boy those were the times. I still wish I had the manual*sigh*

 

[tristangreer]

I remember a friend of mine coming over and bringing a few disks with the original civilization on them. I played those things non-stop. I hated the mongolians, because they used chariots and waged war on me constantly. It was the first PC game i got addicted to, and was the only one for a very very long time.

 

[Jh00]

Civ1 was already 1 year old when I found it installed in a friend's 286, with VGA graphics. He didn't even know that the game was installed, because the PC was a gift from his uncle.

Since my friend (what a friend....) wouldn't let me play with his PC, I started to bring some toys to his house, so he could play with them while I was building new cities..

My parents became so bothered that I wouldn't leave the poor guy alone (in fact, his computer), that they bought me a powerful 386, where I spent most of the time playing Civ and SimCity.

So, in a way, Civilization earned me a new computer and turned me into this internet junkie you are reading from.

 

[lugersci]

I wonder how multiplayer is gona be, and the whole email thing?

 

[popewiz]

Alpha Centauri was the game that got me hooked, I think I got it for Christmas or something. From there I started playing Civ 2 a little and then bought 3 as soon as it was released.

 

[Lord Chambers]

URRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I rented Civilization for the SNES and later found out my friend had CivNet, so he gave that to me.

 

[The Jacket]

It was in February of 2001. I was at Target, looking around the games section while my parents did some shopping before we went to meet a bunch of friends for dinner at Logans Roadhouse. I had some extra money, which was a no-no in my mind so I was determined to spend it before I got out the door.

I looked up in their computer games area and saw a case that looked like a typical multi-disc Playstation game case. I grabbed it and read the back. "Civlization II." It sounded interesting enough, and it was on discount. $20 or so. It sounded like a fun concept, running a nation, so I grabbed it and stuffed my $20+ on the counter, left, went to dinner, got home and was addicted.

 

[lugersci]

i tried alpha centauri but i didnt quite understand it, too complicated for me

 

[Atlanto]

civ 1 was installed on my computer when i was about 10 years old

the first time i looked at it i thought it looked boring and crappy

one boring rainy afternoon a year later, i decided to try it, and for the first hour had know idea what was going on, or what that thing with the horns was (the settler unit)

i wound up playing for 12 hours straight, and have been addicted to civ ever since.

 

[TerraHero]

i was juz walkign by a game store and saw it in a discount bin, so i picked it up and played it at game, this was the Test of Time game from teh Civ series.

Then about some time later saw Civ3, got that, fascinated by the graphics and such i played it quite some time and well thats the start i guess...

 

[KymeraTX]

Bought SNES version cause ut looked interesting, hooked me hard then been playing on the PC ever since.

 

[Grizpin]

In 1991 I was in the US Coast Guard and stationed on a cutter in California. I was a radioman and had the fortune of working around computers all day. A mate I worked with was playing Civilization on one of the PC's one day. I recognized Sid Meier's name on the game from years before when I played Pirates on my 286 (the first pc game I ever bought). We would play hot seat games of Civ when we weren't on watch. That's when my addiction started.

 

[Dragonlord]

I can remember like yesterday...
I had been playing computer games for some years already - we're talking really old stuff here! Games like Elite, Empire, text-based adventures and so on... yeah, I'm a dinosaur - but feeling dissatisfied... I was reading a games mag on the train and....it had a review of the upcoming Civilization by Sid Meier... I avidly read every word of that preview and immediately knew, this was going to be the game for me... and I was right!!! I bought the game as soon as it was released and have never stopped playing Civ and its clones since.. at least, not for more than a few weeks at a time now and then.

You might say I'm a Civ Fanatic of the very, very first hour - before Civ1 was released, even!

Edit: reading Grizpins post reminded me: I had played Sid Meier games before that, too: Pirates and Railroad Tycoon, so I KNEW Civ had to be good too...

 

[Brentis]

My Story is kind of a mix of this guys

Since my friend (what a friend....) wouldn't let me play with his PC, I started to bring some toys to his house, so he could play with them while I was building new cities..

And this guys

and for the first hour had know idea what was going on, or what that thing with the horns was (the settler unit)

I was eleven and this guy at school had a brand new 386 with CIV 1 only problem was although his dad was an electronics nut his mum was a crazy hippie who thought the electro magnetic waves from monitors and TV's were bad for you so for every 1/2 we spent crowded around his computer we had to go outside for 15mins (ugghhh sunlight ). Any ways after figuring out what the horned thing did we founded cities and began churining out guys with sticks (took as a few days to figure out we could click on the city to change production), we were always amazed at the stuff that surrounded the other civs cities (irrigation) took us another few days to figure that out and then a few more to figure out that mining gold that wasn't in your city radius had no effect. After our parents got worried at us spending every spare moment at this guys house more computers started appearing in households and we returned to our parents to become civ addicts in our own homes

ahh those were the days

 

[Paranoid Eyes]

My father was a college history professor who played old-style historical board games (basically a huge nerd) and had taken an interest in computer games. So I was brought up playing board games on big giant maps with little cardboard squares (we still play them to this day when I visit him) and classic computer games like the Genghis Khan series by Koei (anyone remember those?) Once civ1 came out it was only natural for him to buy it, and the few times he would get away long enough (or when he wasn't home from work yet) I would play on there. Since he'd given me his interest in history, civ became something very special between us, and when civnet came out we would play hotseat games together. When I was 12 or so my parents got divorced and my dad moved across the country, but we stayed close and always had civ in common. When each new game came out we would both buy it and discuss it at length, and whenever I visit him we would fire-up a hotseat game or two (without neglecting to play some dorky old board games.) He got my stepmom hooked on it, and civ has become something we all share and enjoy together, so needless to say in the weeks and months leading up to the impending release of civ4, I've been e-mailing him constantly with updates and screenshots, and have finally gotten him about as excited as I am. Once he has time to buy the game (he's reached an advanced enough age where he's not as impatient as his son and can wait several weeks) we plan on starting an e-mail game together. That's the story of how my civ obsession started and has continued throughout the years as much as a special part of my relationship with my father as a personal obsession (although it is that as well, no doubt.)

 

[Magic Cat]

I was probably 15 at the time - back in 1992 and me and a mate were bored so we headed out to the shops and found Civ 1. Looked pretty cool - take over the world and nuke the French. It came on about 5 floppies on my Amiga which meant it had to be a good game.
It was all pretty daunting with so much stuff to get your head around & I remember that for ages all we had was our founding city, a lot of blackness and a bunch of settlers doing nothing. We were just at the point of giving up when my cousin walked in and said, "ah, yeah, I played this - you gotta move those square things around and build cities. Then you can see more".
So about 10 hours later we were desperately fighting off German tanks with our spearman, stealing technology and trying to build cities where noone could find and destroy them. Finally we got our first nuclear weapon and how the tables turned!
And that was that. I've pretty much had the addiction now for a while every time a new Civ comes out. Just gotta organise some rehab for probably... December-ish I guess.

 

[Stuie]

So about 10 hours later we were desperately fighting off German tanks with our spearman...

And winning, right?

I was actually completely addicted to the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms (played on my brother's computer) when I saw an ad for Civ back in 1991. Well, I moved in with my then gf (now wife) and had to get my own computer. Went out in a blizzard to buy it, and picked up Civ at the same time. My girlfriend and I spent an entire weekend (snowbound) pushing Roman armies across the pixelated map. She went on to be a Civ 2 addict but never liked Civ 3. Me... I've played them all.

 

[doronron]

College. Or High School. Not sure which, really. All I know is that prior to Civ, I played Sierra adventures and Wing Commander. After Civ, every game I owned was just a holdover until the next installment of Civ was released. I've only recently actually started paying attention to that trend.

 

[jened]

my younger cousin showed me civ2 on his computer. he explained the basics and then wouldn't let me have a turn. i went to electronics boutique the next day and bought the game myself.

 

[Brota]

When I failed my last attempt to take over the world and the collapse of the USSR.