Coming to Terms with Game Addiction
In the past I used to have some Civilization II saved games here, saved on my website. I said good things about Civilization then.
I was really addicted to the game. I would play it again and again, even though I always won, and a normal game might take 8 to 24 hours to complete. I played Civilization regularly from 1993 to 2000, spanning all versions of the game during that time (v1, v2, and Call to Power). I also played freeciv. During the finals week of my junior year in college, I would play Civ up until my actual test, then take the test and come home and play Civ some more. I didn't study at all. The game also damaged my relationship with my live-in girlfriend, because I stopped going to bed. Things were bad.
At least a dozen times I have come to terms with this dangerous addictive behavior, and temporarily solved it by un-installing the game from my computer, and getting rid of the original media (disks or CD). Doing this would dramatically improve my life, but each time I would relapse.
This most recent time, I sold my Call to Power cd on ebay, and deleted all the copies of the game from my computers. Nobody bid on the Civilization II cd on ebay, and so I shot it (dramatization below):
I have played other games a lot - including Realmz and the Command & Conquer series - but none were quite as bad as Civ.
I would like to thank all those people who took the time to show me that there is a life out there that's better than computer games. These people have been very kind and patient, specially since it took my 8 years inclusive to catch on. You know who you are. Also I would like to thank the guy who sold me the Universal Problem Solving Device.
People have written to me and asked "what is that in the picture? is that a stapler?" No! It is a Glock 17 9mm pistol!
See also ideas on how to stop playing games.