Slashdot Mirror
What Games are You Addicted To?
Anonymous Coward from Gamers Anonymous asks: "Recently I have found myself highly addicted to Freecell, as I cannot go near a computer without just playing a quick game or two, I even have one going at the moment. In the past I have also had problems with Minesweeper and Tetris, both of which I overcame when I had to delete them around exam
time. Is there anyone else out there with this problem, I can imagine it would be quite common. What are the most addictive games out there? Is there a support group?" I don't know about PC games, but I've been playing an awful lot of Frequency on the PS2. I just can't seem to help myself even though the game can be frustrating as hell at times. Anyone else have a game that, once under the skin, you can't get enough of it?
Its a great way to pass hours of otherwise boring time.
And who doesnt like to blow away a few people to relieve some stress and continue with your day.
elite.
I used to go home from school at lunch time to play for 20 minutes.
Verant has recently started shaping up, and making the game alot more like what it should and could be.
Make sure you are running on Win2K with a Geforce2 and SoundBlaster. Then start up CS, and try to play for more than 10 minutes without crashing. After 2 weeks of this you will never feel the need again.....
For me, the games that I'm addicted to are Final Fantasy VI (or III in the US) and X... but my addiction are beyond just the game but to the music. Although FF6 is fairly old, but the story line, the twist and turns, and the depth of the game (i.e.: the opera) are what make me cling on to the game. While on the music tangent, I'm also addicted to the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack.
I still dig this game in a big way. It's still the only game I play where I literally and completely lose track of time. It's very hard to put it down and just get some damn sleep.
SofaMan -- Occasionally Battling Evil With His Mighty Powers Of Indolence.
no, not Super Mario Brothers (although I was at one time...) rather, SUPER MONKEY BALL!!! I've currently beaten the Basic, Basic Extra, Advanced, and Expert levels, but I don't think I'll be able to kick the addiction until I at least beat Advanced Extra and Expert Extra, maybe even Master. (Hopefully I won't then have to move on to the mini games)
What other game does this:
Ride around find a hooker. Stop, and let her in. Drive to a secluted spot and when ya stop for a little bit, the car starts bouncing up and down. You look at your money...and the money is going down, but the health is going up, hehe.
Then, if you didn't feel like wasting that money, when the chick gets out the car, you can run her over then pick the money up off the ground.
You can also run over cops, get all sorts of guns and blow em up. You can shoot the helicopters down, and get tanks on ya.
Not to mention, steal someones car and go listen to the talk radio stations on the radio.
Does Slashdot count?
--Metrollica
-CmdrTaco
Just see my sig.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
CowboyNeal!
What do you mean this is not a poll?
No CowboyNeal option? Can't be!
SlashDot: The addiction.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
aw 4eoirsxck vxnv;lsajdfa
--sdem
Text adventure games are my weakness. Zork, HHGTTG, and anything else made by Infocom (hard to find binaries for some of them now), plus nethack, adventure (xyzzy!) and rogue. The games may be outdated by today's standards, but I still can't put them down.
now what do I do with this parrot?
Eschew Obfuscation
UT does it for me. Since I'm in a clan, I have to play, but I don't go a day without playing a few hours. Yeah, its probably bad, but oh well, I'm having fun. It's a fun way to waste 30 minutes during a football halftime show. :)
-Vic
After it was mentioned a couple of times on Penny Arcade, I got into Bejewelled, first the Java version, and then the Windows one on my laptop. It has the same sort of evil 'one more go' deal that tetris and freecell have.
Other things that have had the same effect for shorter periods are: SSX, Wipeout (all three), Cannon Fodder, Mr Do!
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
The most addictive game in the world is Civilization. I have played and mastered every verstion and mutation of this game but it never ends. You can play one on a 286 with 640k ram and there are free linux versions, but theres no support group to how to end this addiction. I'm sure such a support group would be in the thousands if not tens of thousands. Civilization clearly beats Tetris, minesweeper and anything else I have been addicted to.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
where are the mods on this topic?
Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri is worthy of it's acronym.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Starcraft and Brood War. Two of the best games ever made.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
As I've already posted above, there are no mods because TROLLS OWN THIS SID. HTH.
Here's a different question. What is it that makes an addictive game addictive?
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
It started with the Infocom games. Zork and Leather Goddesses of Phobos. Then Civilization--I would come home and play that for hours on end. Then I discovered WarCraft II which was wonderful. Then Age of Empires. Then I discovered mudding. That was like 5 years ago. I've been mudding ever since.
Most of the games I became addicted to had a timeless quality to them but had different aspects I got addicted to.
In the case of Zork and Leather Goddesses of Phobos, they were well thought out puzzle games.
In the case of WarCraft II and Age of Empires, it was the network play that was addicting--my roommates and I would play until the wee hours of the morning.
In the case of mudding--it's the immersive world. I know people there and I'm familiar with the places, and I can log in from wherever. I even got into writing my own mudclient and started a few mudserver projects. The problem domains involved in mudding and mud-building are just fascinating.
Half-Life is the most addicting game I've ever played. The mod's to it are what make it so great. Counter Strike, Team Fortress Classic and Opposing Force are especially fun mods.
Counter-Strike (www.counter-strike.net) has used more hours of my life than any other game. It's about three years old, and is regularly updated. There isn't a game around I've played for three year's time. It's free (as in beer) and only requires that you own a copy of Half-Life (www.half-life.sierra.com) wich currently runs about $30. Running a Counter-Strike Guild (www.dohguild.com) doesn't help much either!
Xboing. Without a doubt. I can't count the number of hours I've wasted away playing that fricking game.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I Will find my self saying, while I am writing a report, Lets just play a quick round of SteamCS or TFC or DoD or Firearms or something just to take a break, and then I Realize that it's midnight, i've just been playing for 4 hours, and my report is due in the morning. It's a Constant thing. Then there was Deus Ex. I Almost failed several classes because of Deus Ex. I Would come home, play, Sleep, go to class the next day Empty handed. Deus Ex Singleplayer was the most addictive thing I have played.
(Score:0, Interesting)
I used to play a ton of Q3 then after I tried UT I totally switched to it completely. UT definitely sets me more on edge than Q3. It's an extremely well done mod and its fans are desperately waiting for 2.4 which is coming Real Soon Now to provide a variety of improvements and enhancements. Don't wait for 2.4 to try it, it's ready to play NOW.
One of the most addictive games for me is Gran Turismo 3, that game will affect my driving in real life, "I can make this turn better if i bounce off that domino's truck in front of me. Wiat a minute!!!" ::tires squeal::
Return to Castle Wolfenstien is the only game I play. I wouldn't even call that an addiction. I've never been a big fan of games.
A lab patner turned me onto it (like heroin) eight or nine years ago. Every so often I decide to play a quick game which ends hours later...
At my peak I played every day... I wonder why my masters took so long hmm....
Gyruss is the most addictive for me.
One of the best soundtracks to any of the old
80's arcade games!
These days, I'm playing it thanks to MAME and XMAME
SIGLOST && SIGUNUSED && SIGQUIT
Coding, I do it for fun and I am addicted to it, it is a game to me.
'nuff said !
Quake 3, with the Urban Terror total conversion. Very realistic, very fun and addictive. I love the way the maps look like everyday places, and the characters look very human. And the real guns.
Roller Coaster Tycoon. This sim-style game where you build a theme park and design your own coasters is probably the most addictive game I've ever played. Hours go by without me even realizing it. Lots of fun.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
in no particular order...
;-)
joust
pole position
tempest
ms pac man
dig dug
robotron 2084
galaga
some people smoke crack. I fire up mame.
Karma only matters to me now and zen.
I'm addicted to playing the dating game. I don't know why. It never seems to work out.
http://www.chroniclogic.com produces a game called Pontifex, in which you construct bridges in full 3D glory. In order to progress to the next bridge, a train must be able to successfully pass over the bridge. Very entertaining and addicting game, at least for me. Once you finish it, go back and try to make your bridges cheaper.
A few other good ones on the same puzzle theme are The Incredible Machine series of games...if you like Rube Goldberg contraptions, you'll love these games.
See www.mtrek.com to start wasting your life... it is a multiplayer space combat telnet game.
I've found Diablo II to be quite addictive. I play it for a couple of months, drop it another couple, then pick it back up. Unreal Tournament is fun as hell to play with friends, especially the CTF and Assault modes for it. EverCrack consumed more of my time than any other game in history. Final Fantasy X definately deserves a mention, as I spent hours trying to get every character incredibly powerful. And finally, Grand Theft Auto 3 is just plain fun. Who wouldn't enjoy a game in which you can pick up whores, steal police cars, jump ramps, run jobs for the mob, etc?
No comment.
Those are definitely the games that consume the bulk of my time right now. Q3A at the end of the day when I need to blow something up, but during the day a quick game of glTron (or twenty...games of glTron are short) or Klines every hour or so keeps me sane. Well, sane-ish, anyway...
They don't call it EverCrack for nothing!
------- I saw a VW Beatle the other day. The vanity Plates said "FEATURE"
I just spent a 4 day weekend playing endless UT. I just wrote an interview that I was supposed to conduct to a real person, not give a mock interveiw(quering google). I have 3 weeks to learn a whole lotta shit(USAD), and I still have a kick-ass speaker setup that needs to be setup and some hardware mods i wanna do. I still wanna play UT though. Are there support groups that can help me?????
1 tequila 2 tequila 3 tequila floor
NetHack. 1/3 of may life in the last 2 weeks has been devoted to NetHack. I've figure out how to cheat (by copying away my saved game files) and I'm finally going on a quest. I'm a l00ser.
Wil
wiki
If you want to do it by yourself, all you have to do is turn on the computer
Make your strategic moves in the beginning but always remember the end-game is what's really important
Even though you might be on top right now, you might end up on bottom
Talk doesn't cut it; you have to bring the goods to the table
You've been late for work/school/appointments because of it
If you have enough money it will compensate for your other flaws
When you're done, you can't wait to do it again
I'm another Freecell addict. I like to sit and stare at a new game for about 20 minutes, solve it in a flurry of action the next minute.
Descent 3 is always good. My rank seems to be going down despite the fact that I seem to be doing better. Go figure.
Finally, my Nethack addiction seems to be tapering off, since I fought my way right to the tower of the Wizard of Yendor, and found myself terribly short of resources. I haven't had the heart to go and play that charactor to the bitter end.
But when Ultima Online came out, I found myself spending a bare minimum of 8 hours a day playing it, more if I could manage it. I had to quit cold turkey 6 months after starting because the pathetic excuse for my life was starting to suffer as a results.
I played starcraft for a bit, but the most I could play it was 2-3 hours a day before getting bored with it. Now, I get my gaming in 15 minute spurts and go on with my life.
Subspace, Halflife, sometimes a little starcraft, and doom 2. Thats all I really mess around with anymore.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
My current addictions are:
Combining racing, shooting, dark humor and wonton viloence in one game. Plus, you get to be the bad guy for once
Practice at home to play Tekken 4 in arcades and provide maximum pain to my adversaries.
Ooooo... pretty...
No one else in my family plays, so I play with complete strangers.
Team Deathmatch and Domination with 3+ teams is good. Mods like Jailbreak and FragBall are also highly time-consuming.
Great little Shockwave game. I play this constantly at work
Wow, looking at the list, it's amazing that I'm bored all the time...
Rez is beautiful, both visually and sonically.
Freeciv is a Civ/Civ2 clone, released under the GPL, running on Linux (also Windoze, and a lot of other operating systems). It plays just like Civ/Civ2, with only very minor differences in gameplay, and with a huge one: the interface is much superior to that of Civ2, so you don't end up frustrated and bored by it.
I can't recommend this game enough.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
although i have spent extended periods of time being addicted to computer games (doom and Quake 3 particularly), my recent addiction is the game 'go' :-)
:-)
played in high resolution real 3d space (with little black and white counters on a grid board). This game is utterly addictive and one of the interesting things about it is that, although it follows a very simple set of rules, no program has ever been created that could beat a vaguely good go player. (unlike chess
Not that there hasn't been any incentive either, a Taiwanese businessman wagered $1,000,000 that noone could build a go program that could beat a professional go player.
I suggest not trying this game, as it is far too addictive
For me, its Fallout 2. Without a doubt in my mind the most addictive game I have ever played. I used to play a character that would rely on stealing a lot, my addiction got so bad that it got to the stage where I wasn't worried about failing my exams, cause I was almost convinced that I could reload and try again.
Counter-Strike!
When THPS2 was first released, I could'nt get enough of it, to the point where it got rediculous. Never mind the fact that I have been a sucker for skateboard games since I played Skate or Die on my C64!
Great sound track, and decent graphics too. Part 3 is being released on PC next month. Damn, no sleep for me.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Tetrinet is a multiplayer version of tetris. You get special blocks, can attack other players, all the usual plus more! I find it very addictive, and often go on for a game but stay on for 2 hours.
As a bonus, there is a GTK client gtetrinet and also a commandline one (needs 80x50 though, so either console framebuffer or SVGAConsole is needed), so I can happilly play away the hours from linux :)
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
I still have bad dreams to this day. The blood, the BLOOD man, that's all I see night after night. I would play Counter-Strike every night, staying up late, getting to work late, ignoring my wife. I finally uninstalled Counter-Strike, Half-Life, and all the mods. I went cold turkey about over a week ago, but I still have the chills. Only time will tell when I've been cured.
It has gotten so bad that I've started posting my SDs to the newsgroup. I've tried savescumming, I've nearly cried when my super-duper level 24 samurai was killed by disease in Hell, I've hacked the source code to give my wizards a +6 quarterstaff and Cloak of MR. Every day I tell myself, "I'm not going to play today". And every day I fire up those little ASCII characters for my fix. It's not NetHack, it's NetCrack. And I love it.
- shane.
mah na mah na.
I had an after-school job in a sandwich shop/pinball arcade back in the 70's. I still remember the amazing line-ups to play Space Invaders, unfortunatley/fortunately I never relly became a big fan of shoot-em ups. My tastes ran a liitle more towards the strategy genre.
So in order of addiction,
1) Nethack mostly for nostalgia. I still fondly remember playing "Collosal Cave" on a 370 running MVS.
2) Civ. WOW what a game. Unfortunately, the time commitment is a little heavy. You just can't play for 15 minutes at a time.
3) Xboing. Pure mindless escapism, who can ask for more.
If VISTA is the answer, you didn't understand the question
Agendaroids on the Agenda VR3d and Bomberman on the Turbo Duo.
Wow! This must be a PERSONAL letter, just for me!
Right now its a combination of the old NES games Bubble Bobble and some Yoshi game where you eliminate things in pairs. Previously it was spider solitaire, trying to solve the games in the least number of moves possible.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
I would be playing it right now, but it looks like my cd was swiped! grrr, if only I had my OICW or MP5 then they'd regret taking my cd. :)
This sig left intentionally blank.
Anyway. I also enjoyed Deus Ex, SimCity3000 [the fact that I don't have to reboot into Windows is a relief], as well as all the Myst games out. Just my 2c.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
Throw in the all night Counter Strike sessions and is it any wonder I'm getting divorced? ;)
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
How can anyone not mention a game that reflects the ultimate in warfare? Simulation of World War II attacks on Normandy, a storyline that lets you play history and friendly AI that is extremely well written. Riveted to your seat action lets this game be extremely addictive. Taunting the enemy in german, playing hit and run sniper tactics and fast paced action. From trying your skills with a team in blowing up bridges, and cannons to all out deathmatch. This game owns over UT, CS and any other FPS made over to be tactical. This is the one. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
I hear a lot of people are addicted to Yahoo! Games. Your basic collection of games, and always another player (or players) to go against. It has been years since I played Spades in college. Nice to see I've still got the nack for it.
Typically, my attraction to a game will build to a peak then quickly drop off. Few games really can build a long-term addiction, at least for me.
While I've never been addicted to it, I've seen several people here at the helpdesk get addicted to the little arcade space shooter known as xkobo. The addiction only ends when they pass level 50.
tarball here
tetris for sure.
even better is bust-a-move 2 & 4 [its name for the PS1] (also known as puzzle bobble or bubble bobble in the arcade standup versions)
Phantasy Star online for the Dreamcast (and soon the NIntendo Gamecube, PC and Xbox!) is totally addictive if you like RPGs. So far i've played about 150 hours and still I'm yearning for ultimate mode...
Juln
I also wasted hours and hours of time playing FreeCell as well. The only way I ever got away from it was to install Linux... :-) Then I discover kpatience, which plays not only
FreeCell, but *lots* of other versions of Solitare as well, most of them even more
addictive.
I played Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System back in the late 80s. It was, and still is one of the best RPGs ever. I played during the summer of '88 for 14 days straight, 20 hours a day.
That's right, only 4 hours a day for food, sleep and toilet breaks.
I finished the damn game, killing Lassic and Darkfalz and I hadn't even reached full levels on Myau, Odin and Noah when I did it.
I still play the game once in a while using a SMS emulator. The music, graphics and story line bring me back to that summer everytime I play it...
http://www.club977.com/ - The 80's Channel!
Your source for commercial free 80's music!
Next to the Civ series, Total Annihilation has got to be my all time single most addicting game. First it was single player in campaign mode. Then multi on LAN @ work. Jeez, how much time did I spend "working overtime" in the summer of '99? Now it's back to single player with my home brewed gargantuan metal maps. To bad kingdoms sucked. I played fours yesterday alone.
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
A friend loaned me a copy of Chrono Trigger (he doesn't have a SNES), and I've been playing the hell out of it. When I'm not playing, the music is stuck in my head..../me hums Robo's Theme....must destroy Lavos!!!
Omnes arx vestrum sunt adiuncta nobis.
I can't stop playing. It's like tetris for smart people.
I played in the arcade and decided I MUST have a version to play at home, so I got BoycottAdvance (decent GBA emulator) and the Japanese ROM for Mr. Driller 2, and now every time I sit down to do some "work", I end up 980 feet underground with no oxygen, on my last life.
Its a mod for Unreal Tournament that Ive played for 2years now.
They are going commercial though so I dont know how long it will stay my fav
We have not inherited the earth from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children.
It's always the simple games that are the most addictive.
Tetris, minesweeper etc. etc.
I my self am total hooked on Sega Swirl The worst thing about that game is the fact that is't avialable for so many platforms...
Gauntlet is possibly the only single and multiplayer party-type game that's just as fun with one person as it is with more.
Mind you, I'm quite enjoying Crazy Taxi at the moment, so I did also find and power up Space Taxi from the C64 collection, just to see...
I tried submitting a question to Ask Slashdot a while ago about this -- what do people do to quit? Any stories from the trenches?
- Puzzle Bobble
- Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo
- Mahjongg (the real game, not the Taipei solitaire thing)
Try them, maybe you'll like them too.MAME rocks
Haven't found any newer games that are that addicting.
There's always Evercrack
What about Solar Wars?
Sorry for shouting, but this is without a doubt the most addictive game I have come across. It combines strategy and tactics, without bogging down in the intricacies of supply etc of the more serious games. I can quite happily sit down and play this game until my hand has gone numb and the wife is set to walk out the door. I have deleted it several times, broken the CD and sworn I would not touch it again. What a game, it's fantastic. Could not recommend it highly enough.
Microsoft - Where would you like to go today, Maybe Jail?
4 years ago, at the height of my addiction, I played it with real cards, every day, making decks at school and testing them in the local club afterwards. It took too much money, when I revealed apprentice and e-league. I've been playing on and off since then. It's such a programmer's game- I really love it.
-Nimster
Your Ad Here.
Cant forget about jerking off!
All you CS faggots out there enjoy a game that is supposed to be realistic, yet you can shoot a person in the head 3 times before they die, hit box issues are still a problem, and all those holes in there for cheaters. Nice
really /.'ers -- for sheer addictive effect, nothing can beat EQ or anyone other MMORPG which has persistance.
I'm addicted to Microprose's Risk II. It's the classic board game of Risk, with pretty good computer AI. There are extensions, in the sense of Risk variants that are different from the classic board game. Despite the fact that the computer cheats -- my roommate has a screen shot capture of it doing an illegal move -- it's still an amazingly addictive game.
TEQ is an incredibly addictive real time strategy game. Go ahead and try it out, I've had quite a few people look at it and go, "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen!" and one week later complaining about market fluctuations, bragging about kills, talking gossip about top teams & players, etc. It's all played over the web so as long as you have a decent browser, you're good to go.
[o]_O
It takes up way too much of my life. I got intrigued by it when I found out it was a FPS that required teamwork to accomplish a goal (i.e. capture the flag). I left FPS's back at Duke Nukem 3D because they frankly got boring. The "twitch" effect and shoot everything that moves. I gravitated more toward RTS games like Red Alert, C&C and Age of Kings.
In Tribes2 I found great elements of skill required by individuals to be able to execute tactics, yet elements of RTS for a complete team strategy.
#1) Cat-Bat is just a silly flash game. Somehow I always need to play just one more round, though...
#2) igowin has also been fairly addictive recently (it's computer Go) - the 9x9 board is small enough to make the games fast. I hit it now the way I used to hit Programs-Accessories-Games-Solitaire.
And the non-entry ('cause I'm not really hooked is 3d-pinball. I can't go into the server room without playing one game...
M.U.L.E. It's always been M.U.L.E. First on the Commodore 64 when I was 12 or 13, then via emulators since. It worries me that a single game can keep me enthralled for the space of something like 17 years.
Others: Gyruss (MAME), Klax (MAME). When I was an adolescent, Dig Dug. But the first one; the first video game ever to addict me and in fact caused a chain reaction which has left me a computer geek to this day: Asteroids.
It's not that I'm being all retro. It's that I'm OLD.
I am so addicted to Diablo II expansion pack that I keep the disc in the work laptop. There is always one more monster to kill. Damn that BattleChest being on sale. Anyone else addicted to Diablo?
Angband is the master of everything.
Master of Orion Good classic game.
Kubus
I can't get enough of this massive multiplayer space game.
Panzer General II, originally published by SSI. Get your copy off the discount rack today before they disappear! This is by far the best computer game I have ever played since I started wasting my time with same in 1978.
sPh