1. The ancient dos game No Greater Glory

I have allowed this game to seriously damage my career.

It’s about the American Civil War.

I have played it so much that I know exactly what kind of AI bugs and mistakes can help you win. Sometimes I choose to play as though am unaware of them.

To keep playing this game I have often invented my own rules to keep it challenging. Like you have to lose your capital again and again until you can abolish slavery as the Confederate player. In this game the CSA player only gets the opportunity to abolish slavery if things go very badly. So then I abolish slavery and challenge myself to still win the game. I also know that same of the decisions you are asked to make in this game have absolutely no effect. And some of the things that are theoretically possible in the game actually never happen.

I have also often tried to conquer the entire USA with the CSA. This is tricky because the USA surrenders automatically after it loses a specific combination of cities. So you have to make sure the USA gets to keep one of those cities until you are able to conquer all its remaining cities in one turn. Plus, you have to do this before Lincoln loses the election in 1864 OR you have to play badly on purpose for a while so Lincoln does win the election and you have more time to conquer every city.

Because I know the game so well I can play it and still focus on a movie, docu, series or a conversation.

This is true about all the games on this list.

2. Robert E. Lee Civil War general

Ruined my school results for two years

3. Civil war generals 2

Significantly lowered some of my grades in college

4. The very first version of Civilization

Yes, I have to use a dos simulator to play it

5. Port Royale

6. Anno 1602

7. Age of Empires 2

8. Age of Empires 3

That’s pretty much it.

Again, I use(d) these games primarily to silence my mind. And that only works if I combine them with something else. A movie, a series, a documentary, some interview on YouTube and sometimes a conversation.

When I think about how much time I put into these games I am almost crying.

The fact that I have always combined them with some sort of, let’s say, ‘intellectual’ (if we are being very generous) stimulation cannot hide the fact that I could have done way better things with my time.

PS

Another reason why I keep playing these is that they are connected to a time when I felt things were going to be great. It was before I kinda fell apart.