Time to Play!

[CWNut77]

OK, just wanted to throw a little informality in the mix -- for curiosity's sake -- how many hours per week does everyone play this game?

[Brochgale]

OK, just wanted to throw a little informality in the mix -- for curiosity's sake -- how many hours per week does everyone play this game?

It varies. In busy work weeks - about 12 hours a week - on slow work weeks about 24 to 25 I reckon. On holiday I never play because I take one month hoildays in Far East and my lady will not let me play when I am with her and her family - sacrifices I make for love?

[denisonh]

I do about 5-7 turns a week. Nice thing about playing PBEM is I play about one turn a day as that is all I can manage.

Into April 1865.

[Brochgale]

I should point out that I am self employed and I can pretty much make my own work hours according to demands work and social requiements of my lady. As to how many game turns - well that varies as well - early in games I make a lot of turns but later in game each turn takes longer and longer.

[boboneilltexas]

OK, just wanted to throw a little informality in the mix -- for curiosity's sake -- how many hours per week does everyone play this game?

I'm retired and I'm playing this and Sim Societies. War gets about 4 hours a day. More when my grandson does not visit but its summertime.

[Prussian Prince]

Monday's and Tuesday's (Days Off) play about 4-5 Hours each day. Work and family take the rest of my time .

Also have to make time for other AGEod Games

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[GShock]

When i'm in ITA or ROM i play about 36h/mo. When I'm in Cali, about 15 hours a week. I finally have some more time to play and test AACW since WBTS has been released...unfortunately I am being "relocated" to FoF betas so while WBTS is in brainstorming for first patch and FoF is at expansion/FoF2 private discussions with the DEVs so, until BOA2 is released, I can focus more on AACW.

I did buy TC2M as suggested by our spanish ambassador (the spaniards merrily go ahead while our lousy team of players, who can only win something after 50+ people get arrested for cheating scandals goes home). I have to say it's a very appealing game. The engine is very light on hardware...there's sprites instead of 3d models and *could* be a good thing for a joint partnership or for a license looking forward to AACW2.

After 1 hour of arty barrage in TC2M, the total casualties caused by my Union batteries is 15 and it's a 40.000 vs 30.000 battle (Corps tutorial).
I think the arty would kill more if they shot peppermint but in overall it's a very good game.

[MarkShot]

After 1 hour of arty barrage in TC2M, the total casualties caused by my Union batteries is 15 and it's a 40.000 vs 30.000 battle (Corps tutorial).
I think the arty would kill more if they shot peppermint but in overall it's a very good game.

I actually made my own mod for TC2M which resolved the ridiculous uber behavior of single/double cannister and improved the ranged fire of cannons. Of course, I didn't do any historic research, but it did do wonders for OP game balance and fun.

[chainsaw]

I'm jealous, as I can only do 3 or 4 hours a week...but even less lately as I'm waiting for the patches to stabilize.

[jastaV]

The very great issue with AGEOD engine is that game turn can be saved in any monent of the player planning phase!

JastaV

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Chaplain Lovejoy]

I spend more time reading the posts than playing. Sad, isn't it?

[MarkShot]

I spend more time reading the posts than playing. Sad, isn't it?

Yep, you need rebalance your priorities. On the other hand, I have found an incredible amount of cool stuff by reading online. They cool things have added tremendously to my gaming enjoyment. So, it often pays to follow new, utilities, and mods.

[GShock]

I began playing, proceeded testing, completed buying books and am still learning both the game and the subject. Forums are a mine of ...stimulation into learning new things about the subject. Some of the players here are real gurus...there's casual gamers, hard core simmers....and in overall these forums are haunted by wonderful people. Never a flame...never a curse or foul language...never.

It's a pleasure to haunt these forums

[arsan]

I spend more time reading the posts than playing. Sad, isn't it?

+1!
At least i can surf the forums at work from time to time... but i'm not sure my boss would be too happy if installed the game on the office

About actual play time... i envy most of you, guys
I get maybe 8-10 hours a week at most leure:

Regards!

[Franciscus]

+1!
At least i can surf the forums at work from time to time... but i'm not sure my boss would be too happy if installed the game on the office

About actual play time... i envy most of you, guys
I get maybe 8-10 hours a week at most leure:

Regards!

+2: During work I manage to check the forums from time to time, but in home I only manage at most 30-45 minutes/play a day, or zero.

I could resume my feelings like thus:
I play more than that I should but less than I would

[CWNut77]

I began playing, proceeded testing, completed buying books and am still learning both the game and the subject. Forums are a mine of ...stimulation into learning new things about the subject. Some of the players here are real gurus...there's casual gamers, hard core simmers....and in overall these forums are haunted by wonderful people. Never a flame...never a curse or foul language...never.

It's a pleasure to haunt these forums

I must second this notion! This is most likely the most "clean" forum community I have encountered in a long long time. I have yet to spot a true troll and have only come across one post that had to be removed due to flaming. I am glad to be a part of this.

Now I suppose I should let ya'll know how much yours truly plays...being that I rock the wife & kid thing, if I manage 10 hours a week it is a lot. I am currently in the middle of my first PBEM game and it puts a whole new light on this game altogether. As I told my opponent, the full depth and intensity of AACW is starting to be revealed to me now.

[MarkShot]

For me, I think the following questions about people's habits are more interesting generally:

(1) How many games do you have install on your hard drive that you feel are worth playing?

(2) Of those, how many do you actually play over the period of a month? How many times and for how long? How many hours all games in total?

(3) Assuming that you already own games which are worth playing and you do not have enough time to invest in them, then what is it that motivates to go out and spend money and time on yet unproven new titles?

(4) Obviously, there is a process by which some acceptable titles move from the actively being played list to the retired list. Can you describe what drives that process and that decision? Is it that the retired game itself loses its appeal due to replay issues? Or is it that your fickle heart always falls for the next dazzling 3D belle of the ball?

---

I ask these questions not as part of any research project, but just personally interest. Myself, I've already accumulated enough games worth my time that I never really need anything new. Each of the games I have selected have superb depth and replayability. Although I do still acquire new games, it is rare. My goal is to find the time and energy to immerse myself with those that I already own on my "A list".

PS: I think I'll post this over at the http://www.wargamer.com and get a discussion going.

[MarkShot]

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tm.asp?m=299879

[Brochgale]

Since I bought AGEODS ACW I play no other games. I have a pile of games in my collection but they just sit gathering dust now. My nephew will occasionally want to take a crack at me with one of the Talonsoft battlegound series but since we are engaged in a battle to the death in our present AGEOD ACW game - I guess he forgot that I whipped him at Gettysburg last time we played any of those particular games.
I have some RPG s I used to play a lot but married friends dont have so much time to play these days and I find my lady takes up a lot of PC time when she wants to communicate via web cam with her family in the Far East.
AGEOD has provided agame that I wanted to play for a long time - I am well addicted to it in a way that I have not got addicted to other games.

[TheDoctorKing]

For me, I think the following questions about people's habits are more interesting generally:

(1) How many games do you have install on your hard drive that you feel are worth playing?

(2) Of those, how many do you actually play over the period of a month? How many times and for how long? How many hours all games in total?

(3) Assuming that you already own games which are worth playing and you do not have enough time to invest in them, then what is it that motivates to go out and spend money and time on yet unproven new titles?

(4) Obviously, there is a process by which some acceptable titles move from the actively being played list to the retired list. Can you describe what drives that process and that decision? Is it that the retired game itself loses its appeal due to replay issues? Or is it that your fickle heart always falls for the next dazzling 3D belle of the ball?

(1) Currently three - AACW, Freeciv, and VASSAL (for ASL and World in Flames). I also have Vicky, HOI2, Silent Hunter III, Operational Art of War III and Age of Empires but I can't stand any of them. TOAW I sometimes play with a friend. But if space becomes an issue they will be retired.

(2) AACW about twenty hours a month, all against the AI so far. Freeciv maybe ten, mostly against a human opponent. World in Flames about 20-30 hours a month (regular Saturday night session) versus a human opponent (no AI).

(3) The subject matter. I occasionally use computer games in teaching, so I am looking out for historical games that might be useful. Eighteenth through twentieth centuries, strategic scope is what attracts me.

(4) Mostly I retire games because the AI can't put up a good enough fight and I can't convince a live opponent to play them with me. That's what happened to the Paradox titles -- the AI is weak, strange ahistorical events take place, and I get disgusted and stop playing.

[Prussian Prince]

(1) How many games do you have install on your hard drive that you feel are worth playing?

I have AACW,BOA, NPC, HOI2Doomsady, Crusader Kings, EU3IN, Total War: Rome, Pacific War, And just got Geo-Political Simulator. A few others that get played every so often.

(2) Of those, how many do you actually play over the period of a month? How many times and for how long? How many hours all games in total?

I play AACW the most right now, about 8-10 hours a week. HOI2 Doomsday comes in a close second. The others get played as a change of pace from the first 2.

(3) Assuming that you already own games which are worth playing and you do not have enough time to invest in them, then what is it that motivates to go out and spend money and time on yet unproven new titles?

I don't usually just buy games anymore until I see a review. Keeps me from getting burrned (ie..throwing my money away)

(4) Obviously, there is a process by which some acceptable titles move from the actively being played list to the retired list. Can you describe what drives that process and that decision? Is it that the retired game itself loses its appeal due to replay issues? Or is it that your fickle heart always falls for the next dazzling 3D belle of the ball?

I usually stop playing a game because I find another one that is a better game simulating the same era/genre. AACW is better to me than Forge of Freedom, so FoF was removed from the hard-drive. Games with Bells and Whistles don't always grab my attention, it's the play that matters.

[Banks6060]

For me, I think the following questions about people's habits are more interesting generally:

(1) How many games do you have install on your hard drive that you feel are worth playing?

(2) Of those, how many do you actually play over the period of a month? How many times and for how long? How many hours all games in total?

(3) Assuming that you already own games which are worth playing and you do not have enough time to invest in them, then what is it that motivates to go out and spend money and time on yet unproven new titles?

(4) Obviously, there is a process by which some acceptable titles move from the actively being played list to the retired list. Can you describe what drives that process and that decision? Is it that the retired game itself loses its appeal due to replay issues? Or is it that your fickle heart always falls for the next dazzling 3D belle of the ball?
.

(1) Let's see, AACW, NCP, Medieval TW2 Kingdoms (all campaigns), Vicky, Crusader Kings (Deus Vult), EU3 (fully upgraded), TC2M, Sim City 4 Deluxe...some of the Tiller Games.

(2) I really only play AACW...probably about 12 hours per week. I will usually get on EU3, Sim City or Vicky to pass the time between PBEM turns on AACW....but since I was a kid I've dreamed of a game like AACW....and now that I have it....playing anything else just isn't as satisfying anymore.

(3) I study games THOUROUGHLY before I buy them. As a previous poster mentioned....I've been burned by the marketing "sizzle" WAY too many times to just go out and buy a title that "Looks really cool". Because just about all of them I end up hating. I have several websites that host reviews, I monitor games' development to see what sort of experience its shaping up to be. And I use my own judgement when I see a flashy title that I know is "more of the same". NOW....all that being said. I'm usually far quicker to jump at the strategic titles I see online via Matrix Games, Paradox, and now AGEOD....

(4) I suffer from a massive case of gamer "ADD". AACW is actually the ONLY game I've kept on the hard drive for more than a couple of months. Before, I was ALWAYS getting distracted and moving to newer titles...or most of the time....to old favorites.

[CWNut77]

What, no one here plays World of Warcraft???

Sorry yall...couldn't resist...

[tagwyn]

All of you people playing "at work!?" Doesn't your company have a computer manager who has access to everyone's computer, ready to "turn you in!" Shame on you!! apy:

[Brochgale]

All of you people playing "at work!?" Doesn't your company have a computer manager who has access to everyone's computer, ready to "turn you in!" Shame on you!! apy:

I am my own company. As the saying goes - Do as the boss says not what he does?

[Brochgale]

What, no one here plays World of Warcraft???

Sorry yall...couldn't resist...

Ah now there is a name from my very mis spent youth - Warcraft.

[Jbeoddy]

I generally play between 4 and 16 hours a week, mostly on the weekends. (But remember, I'm 'on the road'. I'm pretty sure once my wife sells the house there and moves here, (with luck sometime in the next month), that my playing time will fall off 'drastically', most likely in a relationship directly proportional to the length of the 'honey-do' list.

Games I've got on this box:
AACW, CivIII, RailRoad I & II.
Games I own, but not installed:
CivI, II, Panzer General II, Age of Empires, Sim City, Zeppelin.

I've got some others, but either they no longer load due to system incompatibility, or they were not worth much even when new and I didn't bother to reinstall when I got a new box.

I generally quit playing once I've 'mastered' the AI or once the 'novelty' wears off. Some games have a great deal of 'replayability', notably, the Civ series and Railroads. (Both Sid Meier's products, hmmm, could there be a correlation there?) And AACW, which has a great deal of replayability as there is a certain amount of 'chance' (which 'events' fire) and how battles play out (sometimes a given militia unit will repulse an assault, sometimes they 'evaporate') which gives a level of uncertainty to strategy. For instance, you can't be sure, in Missouri, playing CSA, whether you are planning a strategy to capture Rolla or relieve it. Makes a difference.

Most games do not have the 'replayability' level required. (They're too 'formulaic', that is, if you allow the AI any leeway, it forces the game into a standard pattern, which allows for all sorts of 'gamey' solutions.)

I tend to purchase new games when one shows up that features a 'new era' or a different treatment of an old one. (I've had several Civil War games, but AACW, for example, offered a 'strategic' treatment of the war, as opposed to the almost purely 'tactical' treatments in the past. For which, by the way, I truly thank Ageod, as this was a truly new treatment, and one a long time overdue, in my humble opinion. I suppose that it is similar to the reason I'd buy a new board game, back in the day. Most board games, notably Avalon Hill's excellent line of games, tended to focus on tactical capabilities. Simulation Publications Inc. brought out a couple of games called 'War in the East' and 'War in the West'. These attempted to look at the strategic level while still offering the tactical level options. These were a completely different approach (at that time) to the issue. The signal advance they introduced, in my opinion, was the capability to modify the 'construction' of the two largest armies of the war (over the initial course), the German and Soviets. Plus the ability to allow for the dual front nature of the conflict, a nature that was not fully realized in other games of that era.

(Now, in keeping with Markshot's earlier thread about AI's, if Ageod could just come up with a way to model the POLITICAL AND SOCIAL variables of the era and modify THOSE now THAT would be a GAME!!! Unfortunately, I suspect that such a treatment will have await the development of that 'super AI' as I don't believe either side even agreed on what the 'political and social variables' even were. So it would have to model them differently for each side, producing complexities I don't even want to CONTEMPLATE trying to model. )

[StarMan99]

[quote="MarkShot"]For me, I think the following questions about people's habits are more interesting generally:

(1) How many games do you have install on your hard drive that you feel are worth playing?

(2) Of those, how many do you actually play over the period of a month? How many times and for how long? How many hours all games in total?

(3) Assuming that you already own games which are worth playing and you do not have enough time to invest in them, then what is it that motivates to go out and spend money and time on yet unproven new titles?

(4) Obviously, there is a process by which some acceptable titles move from the actively being played list to the retired list. Can you describe what drives that process and that decision? Is it that the retired game itself loses its appeal due to replay issues? Or is it that your fickle heart always falls for the next dazzling 3D belle of the ball?

---

Ok, I started playing video games back around 1990, on an old
Atari 2600, `River Raid', played it till 2am, and that was it, I was hooked!

Since then I have played more console games than PC games. I really love Racing, RPG's and an occasional top quality adventure game. Racing never gets old, but I am starting to need some cool inovation to spend time with an RPG, because, without a great mix of characters, upgrades, monster battling, etc, it's just another character level and there's no point.

Also, I no longer have much patience for superfluous tedium. (moving endless quantities of units), too many additional `things to do' in an attempt to create `depth', etc.

`AACW' and `Advcanced Tactics' seem to strike a good balance with having enough different and interesting stuff to do each turn, and maintaining a decent pace.

1) I have a lot of games installed, my computer is mainly a `gaming machine'.

2) I actually play most of the games every month, because I am an eclectic person.

3) Being an eclectic personality, I always seek out new games to play. It seems a lot of people make a big deal out of spending $50, but that is such a sad testament to a society with such advanced automation and technology, resources, and manpower. There is way enough to go around, so when are we going to `let it go around?' I am just an average wage earner, but if I want a new game, I go ahead and buy it if it seems cool.

4) The only thing that makes me retire a game is hard drive space. Obviously this is not an issue with a console games. I will uninstall a game to make room for a new game, but later, I will uninstall something else to go back and play an older game that I had uninstalled.

No game is `permanently' retired, unless it just won't run on the new operating system.

I guess you could say that I am a true video gaming aficianado.

Of course, this being the AACW forum, I consider AACW to be one of my `top shelf' games, and will stay on the hard drive pretty much at all costs.

AACW is a game that strikes a great balance between depth and pacing, that's the bottom line.