Several years ago, my parents' old hippie friend Fred came to live on our couch for a few months. Fred always smelled like weed and body odor, as all old hippies should. Fred spent his days on the couch smoking weed, not showering, and reading the Civ3 manual like it was his bible. Fred spent his nights sitting at my father's computer playing Civ3. I thought Fred was crazy because he was always debating with himself - out loud - whether to mine the cows or farm the cows. It never made much sense, but at some point, probably after spending too much time on the couch with Fred's weed-smoking, I found myself intrigued. I began to experiment with Civ3, and by the time Fred left, I was hooked. I had to go out and buy myself a copy, and then I moved on to stronger stuff like PTW, and Conquests.
I haven't seen Fred since, but of course I bought Civ4 the day after it came out. I probably got home around 8pm, and about an hour later realized that my graphics card couldn't handle Civ4's graphics. I went back to the store and got there just while they were closing. I talked my way in, probably sounding like a junkie desperate for a fix. I spent another hundred bucks on a new graphics card, got home, and spent about three more hours installing the new card. (I'm no maven but I manage... in three hours.) I then played "It's All About The Pentiums", which I play whenever I pull off any computer task I hadn't thought I could handle, and proceeded to play Civ4 until it was time for work the next morning.
Thanks for giving me a chance to tell that story, kristopherb.
What is funny is I had told him about it before because I knew he liked strategy games and he was like "Eh, it probably isn't something I would like." 
