I think I burned my eyes out :o

[jude]

I played Avernum 4 (a cool shareware RPG) by Spiderwebsoftware for 12 1/2 hours straight today. Other than a couple of bathroom breaks, some Pespi and drinking water, and saying goodbye to my partner on her way to work (to whom I didn't give my full attention, I must admit), I just played obsessively until she got home and made me go eat something.

I have a piece of software installed on my Mac called Log Application Usage by monkeybreadsoftware.de. (It comes in handy when I am doing freelance work that charges by the hour.) Lately, I've been using it to keep track of my playtesting time, and just for fun, to see how many hours at a time I play Diablo II LOD (it averages between 4-6 hours).

So I was surprised when my partner came home (early, I thought--actually she was late), and I was shocked when I just checked now out of curiousity to see how long I actually played Avernum 4 today!

I've actually done this before, usually with mini-breaks when my partner makes me eat or say goodnight. Usually with role-playing games, but the Master of Orion games get me sometimes, as does the Escape Velocity series of games(which are actually kind of RPGs using spaceships). The weirdest time was with a little freeware ball-matching game called BeeCells because each game only took maybe 20 minutes, yet I played for over 9 hours because the board automatically resets every time you finish a game, and I'd just keep playing!

I guess it's not so strange, after all. My friends and I used to play Dungeons and Dragons from Friday evening after school until Sunday after dawn, without stopping, then go home and sleep, do homework, whatever, practically every week-end for months. (And it got worse in the summer!)

Anyone else play anything so obsessively that you neglect to eat and your eyes burn?

Jude

[erics]

Heh, you're talking to a bunch of people who met while playing diablo 2. :-)

Diablo2 obviously has gathered the most of my attention. Also Master of Orion 1 & 2 (tried three but I never really understood how to work it) Civ 2 & 3, Starcraft, Death Rally, numerous nintendo games. Nothing right now will make me stay up until 1 or 2 on the weekend anymore.

[water_moon]

I tended to prefer MoM over MoO. But I also tend to prefer games where you sit and play for a long strech of time. Pinball on my OLD Apple was pretty bad b/c there was no pause button and when i got good enough I could play a ball for over 2 hours. Luckly sometimes a ball would become stuck or my partents would come along and o/c you can always jsut let the ball go.

I think the worst for "can't quit now!" was with D2 though just b/c I do a full clear each and every time I play an area, I don't want those little buggers to respawn! In that respect I prefered D1.

[jude]

Wow, that's impressive, Water_Moon. Maybe you should come to the world pinball championships next year. I usually go for at least one day:
www.papa.org/

I can usually force myself to quit Diablo II after finding a waypoint or finishing all the quests for an Act.

MoM = Minions of Mirth?

Jude

[water_moon]

lol, I haven't been able to play that long in years, and that particular program was pretty easy once you figured out the reaction timing to get the ball in the hopper.

MoM= Masters of Magic. Same company, simular type of game, only with spell reserch and a typical earth/water world to explore/conquor.