The last time I put serious hours into a game for more than just a few weeks was Descent. Before I had internet, I used to play against KW over a serial cable. He usually thrashed me, partly because he played it at work all the time!

Before that, Elite. I spent many many nights on an Acorn Electron around my mate's room back in college in the late 1980s. I also had it on my Electron, but his had a floppy disk which made saving more reliable. I think I did actually reach Elite status, but about 10 years after the competition finished

I still have it on tape somewhere, and my Electron still works. In theory I could play it right now. Probably best not to though, since I have to go to work in a few hours and it might take that long to convince it to load

If it gets that compulsive then you really need to get away from the game. I am not bothered about online games being older and most likely to be killed in nanoseconds online. So stick to civ 4 most of the time. A friend of mine was contracted to work for one of the big water companies but had nothing for him to do a lot of the time. So gave him an office and he played civ all day long for weeks. He ended up with "Civ wrist" from using the mouse all day.

Modern Warfare 2.

I wouldn't say it has completely over taken my life - but for now at least, it's a big part of it. I spent 6 hours on there yesterday with a friend.

It's part of my end of year, exams are over, woo I have a life again celebrations!

1. omg these exams are taking over my life - i cant even play xbox atm!
2. woot exams are finally finished, time to get trolleyed for a few days then turn the xbox on
3. omg the xbox is taking over my life - i cant think about anything else!

Hopefully there will be an end soon - it's strange because I know that it's not a particularly good thing, and I don't want to be spending 6 hours a day on my console but I just can't stop!

The last time I really couldn't stop was COD, partly because I'd found the perfect server with a realism mod and just the right standard of regs, I was better than most of the people in the clan whose server it was by the end (when they pulled the plug to all play WoW, but I remained an enigmatic mercenary, never seen the attraction of clans, I was in one for EverQuest2 for a bit but they all started 'requesting' me to be on at certain times, and I really don't want to have to wolf down my dinner because I'm late for collecting butterflies with my virtual friends. As soon as it gets to 'I need to do it but I don't really want to' the fun stops and i delete the files.

Does anyone else here watch the guild?

http://www.youtube.com/user/watchtheguild

Even if you don't have a bit of a crush on Codex, it's pretty funny.

+1! And FFVIII thinking about it.

Team Fortress...played over dial-up.

WoW about 5 years ago.

I started a month or so after the game launched a whole new set of servers.

I worked out that I eventually spent 1/6 ish of my entire time on it.

Then I just stopped for no apparent reason.

There was an online game on Facebook IIRC Kingdoms, where you had a kingdom and some money to buy troops and magicians, and as you attacked your enemies you took territory off them with each attack. It had a 4 hour cycle of regenerating troops and gold. I got so obsessed for a while that I woke up every four hours to do my attacks so there was no gold to enrich my enemies. I got to level 50 and then suddenly stopped when I realised how disruptive it was to my life. I put my kingdom on rest and disappeared.

"

Games have the ability to take over my life with worrying frequency.

Lately these have been

Mass Effect 1 and 2
Fallout 3
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3

But the game that has eaten up the most significant percentage of my free time would have to be Diablo2. Back in my student flat days, we played that over the LAN endlessly, only stopping to make tea, occasionally eat, and very occasionally sleep.

How do Ewan, thought you'd been written off by one of your learners.

Hey dude.

Nope still going strong. Just been a bit preoccupied with the work, and getting engaged, then giving up job and now being unemployed.

It's all good though.

Hell... it sounds like that game has too much realism for my taste

Good to hear mate.

So a househusband, good work son.

C&C back in the day kept me up all night. As did Gran Turismo with its bloody endurance races. I still play games to this day where its always 'one more level/round and I'' come to bed'.

One game more than any other took over my life like no other though. It was on last thing at night and first thing in the morning, I performed repetitive tasks over hours for not a great deal in reward, I used to speak about it at work at great length and spend a good deal of the day thinking about it, I spent real money to obtain some not-so-real currency..... and more and more besides. That game was World of bleeding Warcraft!