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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?
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.
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
Yeah, me too! :)
Can't get enough of browsing all those open shares in our internal network...
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
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"
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.
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!
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.
I'm addicted to playing the dating game. I don't know why. It never seems to work out.
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
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
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
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 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
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.
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.
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)
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.
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...
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
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