Have you ever been so addicted to a game....
 

That you play it for 30 hours in 3 days? That has happened to me with Knights of the Old Republic for XBox. I finally beat it today. All I can say is it's the most amazing game I've ever played.

So who else has had those big gaming binges over several days, where the rest of their life is completely cut off?

Oh dear, where do I begin.

Civ 2 & 3, Final Fantasy 6 & 8, Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion, Sim City 2000, FOF 2001, TCY, Max Payne, X-Com.

Prolly more, but I went on binges for every last one of those.

Back in the day I used to be addicted to Tony Larussa Baseball (forget which version). I think game addiction (along with saying which "era" was best for gaming purposes) directly correlates to your age. Between 13-16 was 100% gaming for me. As you get older, its harder to devote yourself to games (which really really sucks).

I don't want o marginalise your binge. You should be proud. I think, however, that you'd find that is pretty much normal playing time for many to most DAoC & Everquest vets.

Oh lord, I totally forgot about DAoC and EQ time wasting. Ugh.

/remembers staying up till all hours for those alarm clock relic raids. Lord.

The College Years is the most addicting game I've ever played. But I spent alot of time on FOF2001 but TCY had me like a crackhead always needin a fix.

:)

noop

hattrick

I did taht with TCY maybe once or twice. CM3 I did it for multiple weekends, maybe 5 or 6.

However, Everquest? Every weekend, Friday-Saturday-Sunday, I logged more than 30 hours in game, every weekend for a year I would think. And lots of weekdays. a 10 hour EQ session on work nights wasn't unheard of. IIRC, my /played time in Everquest indicated that I spent about 50% of my waking hours in game over a period of months.

I played AC 1 for 2 years...... I think I got up to go to the bathroom and get a beer.

Also played the heck out of the Hardball series and NHL 93 (or was it 94).

I couldn't begin to name all the titles I've played (Genesis, SNES, and PC) for at least 30 hours in 3 days.

Baseball Pro 96' did that to me. Something about that game just drew me in the way no other sports sim has. The atmosphere just really put me there, maybe the music taking me back to my playing days or something.

TCY has come close, but after a while the recruiting feels like a chore.

I have done these sorts of binges since around the age of 12 or so. Back in the days of Ultima III-V, Autoduel, the D&D Gold Box games, the VERY first EA Sports NHL game, all the way to Champ Man. You know it gets bad that you start feeling weak with hunger, but you /still/ can't stop playing and even when you do manage to eat, you do so in front of the computer, still playing. I always feel bad after one of those sessions. It just aint right.

I played BBPro 98 EVERYDAY for like 2 years.

When it first came out, I played Super Metroid for SNES for 17 hours straight without moving. No food, no drink, no bathroom, just the game.

I've definitely logged many a binge on games...Diablo II, TCY, The Sims, SimCity 2000, SimTower, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (I'm the kind of guy that unlocks everything, including hitting all the gaps), every single Final Fantasy, I could go on for days.

Civ 1 & 2
Sim City
BBl Pro 98
FOF
FOF2
FOF2001
TCY
PureSim Baseball
EHM
CM 00/01
CM 4

The only one I've actively played this year is CM4.

I probably did that with Everquest Online Adventures from the time it was released until last week.

I think I'd be the same way with Star Wars Galaxies if I could afford to upgrade my PC to play it

I remember one summer the week before school, all I did was play CM 00/01 for an entire week. I just sat there at the computer for about 10-15 hours a day and had the TV on in the background. I think I went through only 15 seasons though. Damn slow computer.

Damn whippersnappers. Where Anrhy when I need him so we can talk about the Atari 2600? The first Atari systems came with Combat, so that was the only game we had. I played that until my eyes were bleary. I don't believe I began developing blisters until Space Invaders came out. I had to keep adjusting my grip when I develop new blisters. I eventually had to wrap my hand in a towell so I could keep laying.

Now THAT is addicted.

Re: Have you ever been so addicted to a game....
 

It is truly amazing; I can't stop thinking about it. Unfortunately (fortunately), I have a family to attend to, so I rarely get more than 2-3 hours at a time. That said, I've managed to play for more than 10 hours (according to the save file) since Thursday, but I'm still on Taris. Are you telling me I'm 1/3 through the game already?

I could spend 30 hours playing freaking Pazaak.

Pulled that trick with the evil, evil, evil, evil atari game known as Centipede.

I remember playing Ultima III quite a bit, back in the days :) Late, late into the night...

FM

Same here, I still fire it up so I can hear "Talkin Baseball". :)

FPS Football '97
Ootp
FOF4
NCAA 2003
ICO
NHL 94
FOFC :)


Todd

High school for me was a 4 year long gaming binge. I played and beat Wolfenstein about a dozen times. The same for Doom, Doom 2, I played FBPro (94) CONSTANTLY. Never had too many games in high school, but the ones I did have got played a lot.

And we liked it!


Sorry...had to throw in a little SNL memory with that post. :)

Um.

FOF2 was this game for me, by the way... :)

I loved many Atari 2600 games (I'm almost 24). Pac-Man was the first game I remember playing at home. My earliest memory was scoring 1984 and being happy cuz that was the year it was. Damn, that was almost 20 years ago...scary.

TCY was a serious binge. I played 30 seasons in just a few months. I averaged 6-10 hours per season, so do the math.

Phantasy Star Online was a 2-month drug. I played it for like 150 hours in 60 days. It was fun as hell though.

My current perpetual binge is Unreal Championship for the X-box. I play Bombing Run (which is like rugby/football with guns) like crazy. I've logged over 1,200 games of BR in the last 8 months (and that was with the 2-month "break" when I was PSO'ing). Yeah, I think I'm the best "runner" on that game. Good times, good times.

Where we would be without gaming binges??? :)

I'm about 15 hours through, and I *just* got off Taris. You can beat it much quicker if you ignore most of the sidequests, I'm sure, but if you take your time, you're probably looking at a good 60-70 hours.

Re: Have you ever been so addicted to a game....
 

Wow, beat it in 30 hours? I'm about 14 hours in and I've just completed my Jedi Training and I've been exploring Dantoonie. Of course I've been doing all the side quests. I've been playing it for about 5 hours a night for 4 days straight, which is pretty good for me (all the while throwing an NCAA game in here and there) This is the most I've binged since....

Civ 2: Spent 11 hours one day playing. Just got sucked into that game.

Championship Manager. I've been known to blow entire weekends playing it, but surprisingly haven't played it in some time.

Europa Universalis: When I play online with a friend, we've gone from 8 at night to 3 am several times.

NCAA/Madden: Always addictive.

It's rare a game outside of football can suck me in so fast, but Star Wars KOTOR has done that.

FOF, I remeber sneaking my copy of it with me when I had to go with my parents to some dinner at their friend's house. I even installed and tried to play there.

FOF2

Diablo II, and the expansion pack. This was probably my most addictive gaming period. I couldn't stop playing. I would sit for days just trying to trade without even playing a minute of actual game. I have had atleast had a half dozen binges of the game for a foew months at a time. I would listen to like a Tool CD or something similiar, eat those addictive green life savers, and drink soda. It was terrible, I was a Diablo II nerd.

Me and my friend used to play Empire and Dark Tower in the day's of the commodore Amiga. Other Amiga games we were addicted to were Balance of Power, Earl Weaver Baseball, Time Bandit, gridiron (sorry Jim, but probably the greatest computer football game ever made), Leisure Suit Larry, any of the police quests, space quest, any kings quests, and a c-64 emalator version of Bagit Man. I think the worst binge was me and him staying up all night playing two-on-two basketball and around 6 AM winning the whole thing and having the game give a horrible fake newspaper that said "Congratulations. Please play again!" We were go pissed (we were 13) and my mom was just waking up and she couldn't understand why we would still be up playing a computer game.


Unfortunetly the whore that I have given at least 2 real years of my life to is APBA Baseball Card Game. 1994 national league. (Home run leader Cesar Cedeno with 53)

Civ, Civ 2 (civ 3 never did it for me), MoM, MoO 2, FOF2K1, TCY, CM01/02, CM4, X-Com UFO Defense, X-Com Apoc, EU2, Colonization, Wing Commander, Madden 99, Madden 01, GTA 3, Pokemon Sapphire, UO like 50 million times, Magic Online, Wasteland, Baldur's Gate, BG II, Icewind Dale, Final Fantasy, FF7, HoMM2, M&M Clouds of Xeen, M&M Darkside of Xeen, M&M6, M&M7, M&M8, Warcraft II, Dungeon Keeper, HalfLife, Star Con 2, Star Con 3, Serf City, Sim City 4, Zelda I, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Grandia, Monster Rancher 3, and probably a bunch of other stuff.

When I find a game that I like, I often obsess about it, playing it non-stop, until it's done or I have grown bored. Worst offender is probably a tie between Civ II, CM 01/02 and EU2. Probably CM 01/02.


-Anxiety

Come to think of it, I did get caught up in Atari 2600 as well. Spent many all-nighters playing Asteroids. Even played so long I had to deliberately lose so I could go to school. Damn game. Good times.

FOF2

I could name quite a few games for the SNES and NES and computer that were like that.

Most recently, last Christmas break, I borrowed a friend's PS2 and played the hell out of Kingdom Hearts. The timer was at 65 hours after I borrowed it on a Saturday and had beaten everything by the following Friday. (Finally! Square with something tremendously fun for the first time in a long time)

SI

Well, considering I once stayed up until 6:30AM at the computer lab playing Civ I....

Civ I
Civ II
Alpha Centauri
Super Techmo Bowl
MicroLeague Baseball

I'm sure there are others....

Jeez, where to begin:

Final Fantasy VII (PS2)
Bulls vs. ... series (Genesis)
Tony LaRussa Baseball (Genesis)
Civ II (PC)
Wing Commander IV (PC)
Red Storm Rising (old-school C-64)
NCAA Football 2003 (PS2)
Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast)

But the kicker of them all is the Championship Manager series; I know I've pulled 30-hour weekends countless times, and when I think about the amount of time I've spent on the series in the last five years, it makes me sick...but it won't make me stop.

Oregon Trail - the original - played on a mainframe back in the 70s. "Type POW to shoot gun at buffalo." Those were the days...
I believe the original Zork was out at that time as well.

Other addictions through the years:
Empire
Rogue/Hack
Super Mario 3 on NES - just had to beat that damn game :)
Dungeon Hack
Civ II
MOO II
FOF2001
CM 00/01

Way back in college, I regularly pull all-nighters playing the first Sim City. That was probably as addicted to a game as I've ever been. That, and there was a college football game for Nintendo - complete with ranking and customizable scheduling - that 4 of us pitched in and bought Nintendo just to play. We used to have all-weekend tournaments playing that game, to see who could win by the largest margins. It got to where we could each take the worst schools in the game, load our schedules up with Nebraska, FSU, Michigan, etc., and beat every one of them by at least 80-120 points. That was a cool game.

I used to play FOF2/2001 quite a bit, but with a family, I didn't go as crazy as I did with Sim City during college.

Edit: Now that I think about it, Colonization was a pretty addicting game as well. I wish they would re-do that one.

This reminds me that one of my many items on the "to write" list is some sort of project dealing with people who have suffered loss because of Internet/gaming addictions.

You all have my respect, because I honestly don't know how you do it. I don't think I've slept 30 hours in 3 days in years.

However, I too have had gaming binges. I believe I played Pitfall II for the 2600 for 12-14 hours in one sitting, having to hand off control to my brother so we could eat and use the bathroom (although there were some points where you could just leave the man standing).

And we never beat it. I'm not sure if there IS and ending to that game. And come to think of it, if there is, please don't tell me.

i played over 20 carreers start to league finished of the orignal fof

Why do I keep seeing people who "stayed up till 3 am," "stayed up till 5:00 am," and "stayed up until a mighty 6:30 am?"

I mean, seriously, I played CM 01/02 for two weeks without going to bed, in my office, and an hour before my office hours begtan, I'd go to McD's and grab some breakfast, then shower and dress, and open my door right on schedule. Then I'd fall asleep for a few hours post-work and do it all over again.

I played Civ II the day I got it until dinner time. The following day.

Just recently, I played Pokemon Sapphire into the pm hours.

What's with this "Wow, I was so addicted to a game that I played it until Infomercials come on!" Tell me that you failed to bathe for days, forgot to eat, and stayed up until well past Infomericals end. That's addiction.

-Anxiety

KSyrup,
I also was addicted to Colonization. I have beaten it atleast 20 times. It has loop holes, and it would be awesome if re-made.

I also have played Pizza Tycoon for an ungodly amount of hours.

FOF2001, and TCY (still) have that sort of effect on me. I can play either one all day and not get tired of it.

Colonization came up in a phone conversation I had with an old friend the other day. I'd like to see a remake of that as well.

Anxiety - forgive me my transgressions. Forgive me that I occasionally require sleep, and am particular when it comes to personal hygeine :D

Wow. You really are grizzled.

Anxiety,
The first step is to admit you have a problem. ;)

CM4 has me by its grasps now and refuses to let go. I look at soccernet.com when I get to work and read the transfers like a junkie licking his pipe trying to get a high. I think about the guys on my short list and my goal of getting to face Man U at Old Traford (sp?) and getting my million dollar payday twice in a season like I did last year during the league and FA Cup. Then I was given a 100k transfer budget and now I am number 2 in dII with Lincoln City in my 5th season and can buy people who aren't free transfers. I might not finish 19th for the third season in a row here.

Oh yeah, my live in girlfriend, is still around, although my credit cards are close to maxing out, so I am unsure how to keep her away long enough for my addiction. I don't want her to see me when I am so weak...