Be warned that this entry is backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!
Posted on November 28, 2003 @ 11:08 pm
I recently made the terrible mistake of buying a ten-dollar copy of Civilization 3 from the Circuit City bargain bin to kill some time while my wife studies for her upcoming board exams. Needless to say, the game has consumed a ridiculous amount of my time over the past few days–just like Civilization, Civilization 2, and Alpha Centauri before it. In fact, it’s gotten so bad that I’m seriously considering asking my wife to hide the CD-ROM from me so I won’t be tempted to spend my every waking moment playing the game. If my condition doesn’t show dramatic improvement in the very near future, I think I might need an intervention.
The worst part is that I’m not even particularly enjoying playing it. In fact, playing Civilization 3 seems to put me in a bad mood more than anything else. Nevertheless, I feel compelled by some unknown force to keep slaving away at moving tiny little tiles around my screen for hours on end. Now that I think about it, though, I had almost the exact same experience with SimCity 3000. Maybe I just need to avoid the city/empire building genre altogether.
Of course, I still can’t help but laugh every time I see Emperor Ghandi threaten the Iroquois city of Moscow with stealth bombers in the year 1926, noting that his words are “backed by NUCLEAR WEAPONS!” Some things never change.
Posted by Jess | Filed Under Geek |
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I had the same experience with Civ III. It’s like computer crack, and I couldn’t get away from it. Don’t make me go back there…
Okay, I finally sent those little bastards into space. Maybe I can stop playing now and actually grade this stack of mid-terms that I’m supposed to return on Monday.
Dear Jess,
I first found your blog off of slashdot when you posted that bit about Bush writing REALLY bad poetry. Consequently, I can’t find that article referenced anywhere on CNN now… Bizarre. Regardless, C3 is the crackiest of all things playable… RESIST!
Btw, your blog sucks. I, for one, don’t want to read about some teachers boring life and his witicisms. I have my own which are far superior. I realize that I don’t have to visit this site… But please change anyway
I empathize. I too have accidentally found myself sinking time into freeciv. To make matters worse, I’ve conquered the whole damn planet and I’m still compelled to irrigate and develop the whole damn globe. So much for my leftist “slow growth” leanings in the real world.
btw, Hydro has a bad attitude. I rather enjoy your rants.
Thanks for the support, Duane!
I know exactly where you’re coming from with the compulsive development. I’m obsessed with irrigation and, even worse, building railroads. By the time I got to the end of my most recent games, I think I had close to 50 workers automated and running around doing terrain improvements. While it was producing plenty of the all-important shields, it was making each turn last about five minutes longer than necessary as I watched each worker automatically move around and start a new task. Gaargh!
I’ve gone two days now without playing, though. That’s a start.
I’m not sure if Civ III offers a multiplayer option, but I played Rise of the Nations at a LAN once and I really liked it. I found it really interesting, though I don’t really have time for such a game.
I might be making things worse, but I am evil afterall.