Finding the time to NOT have fun

[Zapmeister]

I've recently gone AI in a game that was taking me almost 3 hours a day to play. It was a 12-hour game and, until recently, I was having a great time.

Recently, though, things have been going less well and I was having less fun. However, I was still a major nation - some may even have said I was winning. With a sudden increase in my work/study commitments, I had little choice but to abandon the game.

Now, before I'm accused of Cohen-esque play-and-run behaviour, I should point out that I survived some very grim times indeed, writing off my winning chances altogether at one point, to ultimately emerge as one of the leading contenders. I chucked the game at turn 75. The important point here is that during those grim times, turns were not taking a long time to play, so I didn't mind that they were not much fun.

However, I'm also aware that it pretty much ruins a game when a major nation goes AI. So what's the solution - find a replacement? Rarely, I think. Apart from the difficulty of finding someone with the available time required, there's the fact that the replacement is unlikely to have any more fun than the departing player, so what's the point?

So, at Last, to the point of this post. How do we solve the problem of games being ruined when large nations go to AI for the understandable reason that if you're going to commit 3 hours a day to something, you need to be having fun?

[ July 19, 2004, 03:39: Message edited by: Zapmeister ]