So, Friday night, missus is watching a chick flick and I am at a loose end. I've had my fill of Team Fortress 2 and I am randomly clicking my way round some dusty old folders on my archive drive. I find Civ I. I think, what the heck.
Several hours later I am forced to go to bed because I am unable to open my eyes long enough to focus on the units.
I then spring from my bed at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning, having spent all night dreaming of tactics, and get stuck straight back in, after a lengthy but ultimately fruitless search for my original tech tree. The wife eventually gets up at a sane time and makes me some toasties for lunch. She then goes out, comes back, does some gardening, and settles on the sofa for the evening.
I notice none of this, apart from the toasties, because I am hunched gargoylelike over the keyboard trying to develop the automobile before the russians, and panicing because the chinese have started to nuke any of my cities with over 5 garrisoned units.
The wife then enquires what we are having for dinner, which I consider a tad premature since it is only 1pm. I am wrong about this. It is 9pm. I then tear myself away from the PC and make some food. I think it was chicken. I then risk indigestion by wolfing it down and getting back to the developing space race. It's me and the chinese now, the russians have been flanked by both of us and don't have the resources.
The chinese launch their space ship before me, but I then nuke Peking and capture it calling their spaceship home. This proves to be a tactical error though, because they are able to build and launch a second spaceship before I can launch my first one. I should have waited until they were nearly at Alpha Centauri. I do not know where there new capital is so I cannot try the same trick again and they get there before me.
On her way to bed my wife asks how the game was. She appears unimpressed when I announce that I have lost.
The next morning I notice a somewhat frosty attitude from the wife, and annouce a day out to the seaside. This was received well. On the way home I stop at a games shop and pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed. This is installed when I get home. It looks very nice, cutting edge, etc etc.
For some reason though, when I got home from work yesterday the mouse pointer, of its own accord I swear, crept not towards the Assassin's Creed Shortcut, but instead to the Civ folder on the desktop. I got to bed sometime after 1am.
Why is it that nothing else I have ever played can do this to me, even after getting on for 20 years? Not Wing Commander, not Crammond's GP series, not Shogun or X Total War, not Age of Empires, not Dungeon Keeper, not Dark Forces, not Half Life, not Baldur's Gate, not the Movies, not Bioshock, (apparently) not Assassin's Creed, and not Civ 2-4 either. No, all very entertaining and enjoyable, but without the "give me an I.V. and a bedpan, I'm going to be here for some time" effect.
Is there a game more addictive?
Several hours later I am forced to go to bed because I am unable to open my eyes long enough to focus on the units.
I then spring from my bed at the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning, having spent all night dreaming of tactics, and get stuck straight back in, after a lengthy but ultimately fruitless search for my original tech tree. The wife eventually gets up at a sane time and makes me some toasties for lunch. She then goes out, comes back, does some gardening, and settles on the sofa for the evening.
I notice none of this, apart from the toasties, because I am hunched gargoylelike over the keyboard trying to develop the automobile before the russians, and panicing because the chinese have started to nuke any of my cities with over 5 garrisoned units.
The wife then enquires what we are having for dinner, which I consider a tad premature since it is only 1pm. I am wrong about this. It is 9pm. I then tear myself away from the PC and make some food. I think it was chicken. I then risk indigestion by wolfing it down and getting back to the developing space race. It's me and the chinese now, the russians have been flanked by both of us and don't have the resources.
The chinese launch their space ship before me, but I then nuke Peking and capture it calling their spaceship home. This proves to be a tactical error though, because they are able to build and launch a second spaceship before I can launch my first one. I should have waited until they were nearly at Alpha Centauri. I do not know where there new capital is so I cannot try the same trick again and they get there before me.
On her way to bed my wife asks how the game was. She appears unimpressed when I announce that I have lost.
The next morning I notice a somewhat frosty attitude from the wife, and annouce a day out to the seaside. This was received well. On the way home I stop at a games shop and pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed. This is installed when I get home. It looks very nice, cutting edge, etc etc.
For some reason though, when I got home from work yesterday the mouse pointer, of its own accord I swear, crept not towards the Assassin's Creed Shortcut, but instead to the Civ folder on the desktop. I got to bed sometime after 1am.
Why is it that nothing else I have ever played can do this to me, even after getting on for 20 years? Not Wing Commander, not Crammond's GP series, not Shogun or X Total War, not Age of Empires, not Dungeon Keeper, not Dark Forces, not Half Life, not Baldur's Gate, not the Movies, not Bioshock, (apparently) not Assassin's Creed, and not Civ 2-4 either. No, all very entertaining and enjoyable, but without the "give me an I.V. and a bedpan, I'm going to be here for some time" effect.
Is there a game more addictive?
