average game length/duration?

[Brightblade]

Hey all... great site, great forum, lots of info...

I'm a newb to CivIII, played a few games of Civ on my 486 back in the day, but nothing serious.

I was just curious, because games seem to be taking forever. I've never actually finished a game, I'm always starting over because I'm a newbie and constantly learning new tricks. Anyways.. back to my point... how long is your average game? How many hours/days/weeks do you spend on one game?

Thanks,

Brightblade

[Theseus]

1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

Keep doing what you're doing... learning the early game is key.

[asleepathewheel]

now with PTW, you know exactly how long your game took!

I think my last victory was around 9 hours.
It was too early, via culture, I was in the process of softening up a continent for invasion.

My shortest game was 3 min 20 sec. elimination loss

[vmxa1]

1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

I think I will just echo.

[Theseus]

@vxma1: You should be on the Firaxis payroll.

BTW, have we determined who were the PTW playtesters?

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Theseus
@vxma1: You should be on the Firaxis payroll.

BTW, have we determined who were the PTW playtesters?

I know of at least three.....but they are pretty obvious...

[Apolex]

I usually start a game and end up finishing it 2-3 weeks later. That's playing an hour or two every now and then while trying not to get 'absorbed' into it like I tend to do. I set a timer and play for an hour, then I have to be productive for an hour (produce real life shields!) before I can play again. I would agree with Theseus: most games for me run a total of about 30 hours. But I usually play the HUGE world with max civs on diety, so it takes a lot more effort/time/thinking during the game.

-Apolex

[Demerzel]

I often play a game quite often until I get to the modern era when I'm having to deal with worrying about hundreds of cavalry/tanks or modern armour on attack and infantry/MIs on defence. When I get to that point I normally take a break then find when I come back I can't handle the hassle of dealing with it all for more than a turn or two before I quit the game again. Which normally results in me never finishing most games before starting again.

[vmxa1]

Ok a serious answer. I would say a std map with dominate and conquest takes 35 hrs. At times I will play from the time I get up till I go to bed and finish in two days, depending on distractions. Larger maps will elongate that and additional victory conditions will shorten it. Lately I have been less inclined to play straight through and will jump to other games. I tend to finish games, except for the first few days of PTW. For it I wanted to look at the different civs and played the first age only.

[georges bonbon]

As I always play on huge maps, my average must be 60 hours.

Even then I have a lot of open games where I am the virtual winner but where the AI has not yet declared me the winner.

[lateralis]

I'm actually playing my first emperor game tonight (this morning? ) I started at like 4 this afternoon and just stopped at 4:13 AM because my fiance came and yelled at me to go to sleep. So that's 12 hours right there. I'm in mid=1700s, I've wiped out everyone but the frech, (who are currently building the last 2 available wonders) and I'm gearing up to teach them a lesson. However, depending on how patient I am, these late wars can take several hours themselves. I would say an average of ~ 16 hours for a solid game.

Lateralis

BTW, it's been my experience that a builder style game can go WWAAAYYYY faster than a heavy warmongering game. Less time spend strategizing the movement of hundreds of chess pieces.

[Firebird]

Originally posted by Theseus
1st answer: Too many.

2nd answer: 5-30 hours per game (?).

3rd answer: Distracted by Apolyton.

4th answer: Not enough.

Keep doing what you're doing... learning the early game is key.

Like vmxa1 I'm on that train.

[anarres]

I seem to be the odd one out. I take 50+ hours per game.

I suppose I'm too much of a control freak...

[Alex]

Huge maps: more than 30 hours, easily.

Small maps: 7-8 hours average.

Wife at home: 25 minutes, then she noticed what I was doing.

[bongo]

Hm, I bought the game in february(?) and I am playing my 7th og 8th game now. Spend 10-40 hours on each. I've won only once, most of the time I get bored when I'm know I'm winning anyway.

Got a new girlfriend in march, if it weren't for her I would have played 3-5times more.