Which game have you spent the most time playing?

[Dying Sun]

Hello everybody, freudianslip here.

I was just cleaning house, and collecting stuff for Goodwill, blah blah blah, and I perchanced to come across a few old computer games that used to occupy my time like few things have done. If you had to pick the ONE game that you've spent the most hours playing, which one would it be? (Okay, well, maybe the top three, it's so hard to narrow down.) The three I found that precipitated ol' freudianslip to sit in on Friday nights whilst other teenagers were out getting drunk and partying:

Master of Magic
1) (If you've never played this one, it comes highly reccommended. It's a turn based strategy, like Civilization, but with a lot more detail to combat.. you can cast whirlwhinds in town, possess enemies, etc. There are a plethora of magic and amagic units, and you can even design your own artifacts, or customize ALL of the artifacts in the game.. and not just the name. Power, effects, charges, spells, etc.)

Estimated total hours spent playing Master of Magic: 500

2) Civilization

Ah, the original Civilization. The crummy yet colorful graphics had me peering at the screen for many an hour, trying to expand my boundaries. A quote of mine that amused a history major friend of mine years later: "While they were building Wonders and city enhancements and other wuss stuff, I was building catapults!"

Estimated hours: 400


3) Total Annihilation

The king of RTS in my opinion.. 3d, articulating turrents, true LOS & range physics, and an interesting resource system.

Estimated hours: 350


What are yours? the games that saw you cancelling nights out with friends to play? The games that you thought about while in class?




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Who's going to wear my sandals stained with cherry soda? We will, We will!----

[Gaius Pecunia]

The Bard's Tale again. Possibly 1000 hours, seriously. My pen and paper D&D group and I once has a three-day marathon at a friend's house. God bless the pizza delivery guy.

[realbinky]

I play 2 ways: multiplayer at work, single at home.
Work: last job was RTS, Red Alert and Total Annihilation
this job is Quake 3 and soon Half-Life

Home: lets put it this way, Infinity Engine (BG, Torment, ID, BG2, ID:HOW)
Might and Magic 6, and someday I;ll actually do 7
This

[Sazerac]

1) Wizardry 7. With all the playthroughs I did on it, easily upward of 1000 hours spent on that game. Probably more. I didn't count.

2) TES: Arena. Spent several playthroughs on that game; again, probably close to 800-1000 hours.

3) TES: Daggerfall. Around 800 hours.

4) Wizards and Warriors. Now clocking around 500 hours. (4th time through)

5) ADOM (Ancient Domains of Magic: a Roguelike freeware game for DOS). Probably around 400 hours total.

(Realize, guys, that these were over a period of YEARS.)

Others (have NO idea as to how long I played, but just relative play time (this one more than that one):

Wizardry 6
Wizardry 1
MM 6
MM 7
MM 3
MM 4
Realms of Arkania: Star Trail
Realms of Arkania I (Blade of Destiny)
Betrayal at Krondor (very easy, not much time on playthrough)
The remaining Wizardries other than 4

To date, I've never played multiplayer, and would only consider doing so if I personally knew and trusted the people I was playing with...or played in a gaming environment that disallowed p-killing.

-Sazerac

[This message has been edited by Sazerac (edited 03-20-2001).]

[Dying Sun]

Hiya Saz! Congratulations on the moderatorship, by the way.. I just noticed the stars!

Did you ever play any of the old gold box SSI series? That was the first CRPG I was exposed to, Pool of Radiance.

I used to P&P role-play a lot, though, AD&D.. I remember those days well. Sometimes we'd go hours without rolling any dice; that was the best way to judge a good pen & paper RPG experience; the longer you went without disrupting the versimilitude with a die roll, the better.

First level characters running in terror from kobolds down unfamiliar, rainy alleyways...

Second level characters fleeing in fear from zombies in the decaying, moldy halls of a long forgotten crypt of some unholy king..

Third level characters pooping their pants in terror and shrieking in the extremities of fright as they scrambled away from gigantic spiders emerging from moist, dripping jungles..

Come to think of it, I did a lot of running away. But, that was the most fun; we were level 5 before we even acquired a +1 sword, heh... stingy DMs are the best!

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Who's going to wear my sandals stained with cherry soda? We will, We will!----

[This message has been edited by Dying Sun (edited 03-20-2001).]

[Sazerac]

Hi, Slip, and thanks! Well, I don't have much to moderate right now while the forum's pretty quiet; will be until the game comes out) but something tells me this summer it's going to be a lulu! (or a Luau, maybe!)

Yes, I used to play the old Gold Box SSI games. I knew there was some I was forgetting! I still have a lot of the collection on CD-ROM now. Ought to dig them out sometimes just for auld lang syne.

And, yes, I was big into P&P role playing as well. I didn't mind stingy DM's, just fair ones. I was a stingy but fair DM. The ones I hated were the demonic ones who seemed to take infernal joy at your characters' demise. I hated killing off any characters and would sometimes deux ex machina them if I felt something had gone terribly wrong by accident. I only knew one DM of the "demonic" variety, but he was a geek . He soon didn't have anyone that would play with him. That's when I started DM'ing; pulled all his long-suffering gamers over. One thing I learned about successful DM'ing...it's just like successful teaching. "Explain things carefully, and check your Ego at the door!"

You sound like the kind of person I would have enjoyed table-top gaming with. Actually, there's a lot here who would fit that bill.

Talk to you soon!
-Sazerac

Hmmm I would have to say Daggerfall and Wiz 7~somewhere pretty close to a tie since I played Wiz 7 twice and never beat Daggerfall but played it well into the wee hours of many a morning when I was not working and had nothing better to do other than re-do cabinets, which I took my sweet time at.

Bard's Tale and Previous Wizardry games all run in third since I remember playing them almost non-stop til I beat them.

Games I thought about playing while in class? LMAO, Fooseball, billiards, and pinball!!! I don't think those qualify here though! ; )

; )
Moni

Hmmm I would have to say Daggerfall and Wiz 7~somewhere pretty close to a tie since I played Wiz 7 twice and never beat Daggerfall but played it well into the wee hours of many a morning when I was not working and had nothing better to do other than re-do cabinets, which I took my sweet time at.

Bard's Tale and Previous Wizardry games all run in third since I remember playing them almost non-stop til I beat them.

Games I thought about playing while in class? LMAO, Fooseball, billiards, and pinball!!! I don't think those qualify here though! ; )

; )
Moni

[Dying Sun]

Foozeball, eh, Moni! That's one of the games I've heard spelled so many different ways.. Foozball, Fuzeball, Foosball, Fozeball, Foozeball, Foozeyball, etc.. whichever way you spell it though, it spells fun

Saz, that's true on the RPGs! I always enjoyed DMing; I never used the pre-gen sets, always made my own. My first adventure was centered on the continent of Australia, where the PCs had to battle not just the endemic species, but the climate as well! It's fun to see characters trying to trudge across the heat in plate.. soon everyone was reduced to their leathers, then their tunics, then their bare skin & tribal ointment covered in salve to repel the heat, the piercing sun.... and then? Well, of course, that's when the sand lizards struck, heheh...
It was fun, though. To strike fear into the PCs, but to let them know, subtly, that their role-playing would be well rewarded if they PAID ATTENTION to the story and followed the clues and leads generated by the NPCs. I don't think many attentive PCs ever died under my tutelage. If you're at all like me, the first to go were the guys (or gals) in the team that didn't pay attention, that ignored your subtle clues, that seemed "bored" when they weren't in a combat situation. Those were the souls that disfigurement/decapitation/transmission into the realms of the beyond came much more swiftly

The best adventures were the ones where all of the little numbers on the character sheet meant nothing compared to how the PC answered the riddle, opened the door, touched the idol of the gods, reacted to the guard's suspicion........



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Who's going to wear my sandals stained with cherry soda? We will, We will!----

[slug]

other than some the FRPG games listed here i also spent thousands of hours on these games:
X-COM, Allied General, Panzer General, Jane's Fleet Command, Warcraft, SimCity, Warlords, Master of Orion, Risk, Imperialism, ChessMaster, Prince of Persia. Not to mention the flight/combat simulaters such as X-wing, Tie-Fighter, and MechWarrior, and oh so many whose times were shorter. Any expansions and sequals of these games, i have them all. this does not include any TV system games. and still i know i am forgeting a few.

...and still i manage to have a friend or two.