Addictiveness: the SOLUTIONS thread

[Backpack]

Actually,
I would LOVE for a small clock (and day of the week) display to be added to the info window in the lower right of the screen. Seriously, I love the game, and I don't mind playing for 12 hours at a time, and my wife understands that sometimes I take a weekend off to play civ, but a small clock would help keep 1 am from turning into 3:30 am without me realixing it quite so often.

[bongo]

It's better to spend the weekend civin' than drinking

I don't think an utility that forced you to stop playing would work, a determined player will always find ways around it. A simple session timer would be much better. I sometimes use a kitchen timer to remind me that there is a real world around me, works most of the time


If i were to make a session timer it would work like this:

How long do you want to play today?_____

When your time is up a dialog box will appear saying
'your time is up, what now?'
-Better stop then(save&quit)
-Let me finish my turn first(then save & quit)
-Remind me again in_____(hh:mm)
-Get lost and don't remind me again!

Every game should have something like that.

[Tiberius]

I can imagine what would be the most used option

[Trifna]

I guess it would be "remind me in X min" since some could use it repetively hehe

[bongo]

Like a 'snooze' button on an alarm clock.

I would go for 'let me finish my turn first'. That's what I say when my girlfriend says 'I'm going to bed, are you coming with me?'

[mrmitchell]

WAYS TO QUIT PLAYING CIVIII

1) Hire someone to beat you up for every 2 hours you play. (You'll either quit or drag a laptop to the hospital )
2) Tiredness. Eventually, you will get tired enough. It might take a few days though to get tired enough to pull yourself away.
3) Call the power company and tell them to cut power to your house. (Does not work if you are on laptop, you still have battery )
4) TV. Trust me, with digital cable and more than 200 channels, you will find something. Now would you look at this...the Discovery Civilization channel....
5) If there is nothing on TV (still often the case with 200 channels) you'll have to start impleminting the heavy artillery. Do this:

Guaranteed plan to quit CivIII:
1. Take huge 44oz+ cup to computer, filled to brim with soda.
2. Drink it.
3. You'll need to use the bathroom soon enough (if you don't spill the soda on your keyboard--CivIII with no hotkeys ugh ).
4. When you do gotta go, save it (optional ) really quick, quit the game, get your CD out, put it back up, turn off computer,
5. GO, before you make a mess all over your pants!!!

[Mr. President]

I'm inclined to think the easiest way to quit anything is cold turkey - just stop. It helps if you have some distractions, like, oh I don't know, a writing career or a spouse. If you don't have one, go and find one! That'll take away some CivTime as well.

Substitution might help, too. You could make yourself addicted to an outdoor sport, like soccer.



I understand that some people are truly addicted to Civilization like I'm addicted to soccer, but I don't think it'll happen to me. There's something ultimately unsatisfying about moving 3,000 units forward one space, only to have the entire map erased and reset when you're finished.