I can stop any time I want

I have decided that I should cut back on playing Civilization IV.

I have never been a great fan of computer games, certainly not the shoot ‘em ups and questm games. romney used to play a lot of Baldur’s Gate (probably still does), but I never understood the interest. Now Furtle plays World of Warcraft, which appears to be a similar beats only played online with others and rather more complex. It’s pretty, but I still don’t really get it.

When Civ first came out may moons ago, I got so stuck on it at one point that I was playing after work in the office on a severely underpowered (even at 1995 levels) 386 with a video card that couldn’t render all the colours for the blocky little do-dads that wandered around the screen pretending to be settlers and such. One Friday I recall playing and deciding to have just another couple of turns at 6pm before leaving. Next time I looked at my watch it was 10.30pm and when I left the building I nearly scared the wits out of the security guard who thought everyone had gone home. It was a spooky building to wander around in on your own too, was Marsham Street, so it’s a testament to how engrossed I got that none of that registered.

Later on, when we were living in Clapham, colonel_maxim and I got a great deal of entertainment out of various updates of Championship Manager, the football (soccer) management simulation. Even then, though, the main fun was in hot desking the game and nattering/watching telly while we were playing. (As I recall we were doing that when the film on Channel 4 suddenly went off part way through and suddenly we were watching a live feed of the bombing of Baghdad in the first Gulf War).

For solo play, the only ones that have ever really appealed are the Civ and Sim City variants.

Anyway, I find that I am spending far too much time on it again. I have fallen back into the ‘just one more turn’ state of mind and half the time I get annoyed because even if I am miles ahead on points (my last game for once, I actually beat the AI with three times the points of my nearest rival civilization, which was nice), the game sometimes suddenly ends when out of no where some troglodyte civilization with barely the tech levels available to bang rocks together achieves a diplomatic victory, whilst I am cruising the world in stealth craft and am two turns from landing on Alpha Centauri.

Still, there doesn’t appear to be any diplomatic downside to nuking your opponents from time to time. The fun with that is to develop the nukes, stockpile them and then use the UN to ban proliferation. Than you can nuke the crap out of people and while they are reeling, you have developed SDI.

Marvelous.

Of course, that’s even more pointless when the Neanderthals with the best cave art win anyway. But at least phalanxes can’t bring down stratobombers anymore. So let’s be thankful for small mercies.

I can stop any time I want

I have decided that I should cut back on playing Civilization IV.

I have never been a great fan of computer games, certainly not the shoot ‘em ups and questm games. romney used to play a lot of Baldur’s Gate (probably still does), but I never understood the interest. Now Furtle plays World of Warcraft, which appears to be a similar beats only played online with others and rather more complex. It’s pretty, but I still don’t really get it.

When Civ first came out may moons ago, I got so stuck on it at one point that I was playing after work in the office on a severely underpowered (even at 1995 levels) 386 with a video card that couldn’t render all the colours for the blocky little do-dads that wandered around the screen pretending to be settlers and such. One Friday I recall playing and deciding to have just another couple of turns at 6pm before leaving. Next time I looked at my watch it was 10.30pm and when I left the building I nearly scared the wits out of the security guard who thought everyone had gone home. It was a spooky building to wander around in on your own too, was Marsham Street, so it’s a testament to how engrossed I got that none of that registered.

Later on, when we were living in Clapham, colonel_maxim and I got a great deal of entertainment out of various updates of Championship Manager, the football (soccer) management simulation. Even then, though, the main fun was in hot desking the game and nattering/watching telly while we were playing. (As I recall we were doing that when the film on Channel 4 suddenly went off part way through and suddenly we were watching a live feed of the bombing of Baghdad in the first Gulf War).

For solo play, the only ones that have ever really appealed are the Civ and Sim City variants.

Anyway, I find that I am spending far too much time on it again. I have fallen back into the ‘just one more turn’ state of mind and half the time I get annoyed because even if I am miles ahead on points (my last game for once, I actually beat the AI with three times the points of my nearest rival civilization, which was nice), the game sometimes suddenly ends when out of no where some troglodyte civilization with barely the tech levels available to bang rocks together achieves a diplomatic victory, whilst I am cruising the world in stealth craft and am two turns from landing on Alpha Centauri.

Still, there doesn’t appear to be any diplomatic downside to nuking your opponents from time to time. The fun with that is to develop the nukes, stockpile them and then use the UN to ban proliferation. Than you can nuke the crap out of people and while they are reeling, you have developed SDI.

Marvelous.

Of course, that’s even more pointless when the Neanderthals with the best cave art win anyway. But at least phalanxes can’t bring down stratobombers anymore. So let’s be thankful for small mercies.

coffee

I really fancy a cup of coffee, but I am in a sort of limbo. I am scheduled to have a meeting at 2.30 with a chap from Communications Directorate to talk him through the specifics and vagaries of the housing revenue account and housing revenue account subsidy. We agreed to a half hour chat over coffee, though I wanted an hour, thinking two might be more useful. It’s a complex subject. Anyway, we will need coffee to get us through it; or rather he will need it to keep awake – complex it is, dryer that a Pharaoh’s sock, too. I’ll need the coffee to keep my vocal chords from drying out.

The thing is, this is the third attempt to have this meeting – the poor sap has no policy background in the area, but is the communications officer in charge of briefing the media. Each time we have tried to do it before he has had to cry off. I begin to wonder if his continued silence betokens further delay.

I like talking about the system; it’s like work but more fun.

I really want a coffee though. Will it be my own insta-caff, or will I get a proper coffee from the canteen?

coffee

I really fancy a cup of coffee, but I am in a sort of limbo. I am scheduled to have a meeting at 2.30 with a chap from Communications Directorate to talk him through the specifics and vagaries of the housing revenue account and housing revenue account subsidy. We agreed to a half hour chat over coffee, though I wanted an hour, thinking two might be more useful. It’s a complex subject. Anyway, we will need coffee to get us through it; or rather he will need it to keep awake – complex it is, dryer that a Pharaoh’s sock, too. I’ll need the coffee to keep my vocal chords from drying out.

The thing is, this is the third attempt to have this meeting – the poor sap has no policy background in the area, but is the communications officer in charge of briefing the media. Each time we have tried to do it before he has had to cry off. I begin to wonder if his continued silence betokens further delay.

I like talking about the system; it’s like work but more fun.

I really want a coffee though. Will it be my own insta-caff, or will I get a proper coffee from the canteen?