Ever been totally hooked on one game?

[partious]

I've played games all my life but I've never been addicted to a real time sink. I've always been more drawn to arcade style games. When a game goes over a certain number of hours I become painfully aware of the mechanics and repetition etc.

I've probably completed about 20 games in my entire life despite playing regularly since I was a kid.

 

What's the game you've put the highest number of hours into?

I think for me it's witcher 3, which took me 80ish hours over the space of 2+ years.

 

I've seen people mention losing years of their life to WOW etc and I always wonder just what the day to day of that looks like. I mean, what do you actually do in the games that makes them so all consuming. Was it mainly the interaction with other people (ie, a glorified chat room). I guess not because that doesn't explain putting that much time into it.

 

I'd be interested to hear from people who were totally hooked on an mmorpg (or any other game really). What did your journey through the game look like, from thinking "that looks interesting I'll give it a try", to being totally hooked to whenever you decided "I've had enough now" and stopped playing.

Do you regret the experience? Did you move onto other time intense games or swear off them for life?

 

I feel this thread might sink with no replies but so be it.

I'd also be interested in links to articles about people's experience of being hooked on a particular game (not Daily Mail type stuff).

[K]

278hrs 49m on Destiny, 358hrs 29m in Destiny 2. Will explain further when less addicted.

[outspaced]

I put about 1500 hours into battlefield 3, which sounds like a lot to me now, but it was before I had a kid and I was working pretty nice hours. I think the game that most took me over was Phantasy Star Online, I was a student, had to pay for dial up on the Dreamcast to play online but to hide from my real life issues I obsessed about the game. After I sorted my life out and inevitably drifted away from PSO, I decided never to play a mmorpg ever again, it was just too all consuming.

[Mr Do 71]

GTA IV online. I spent hundreds of hours on that.

[Danster]

Yeah I totally do, unless there is a story to end the game I can get massively hooked into certain genres.

 

Probably my worst/best that I actually have figures for:

 

 

Other notables include: GTA5, The entire Civilization series, Crusader Kings 2, Burnout Paradise, Skyrim (Two run throughs of 100+ hours and still not seen the end....), Stellaris, Tetris... omg Tetris how many hours...?

 

I'll have a quick go at something, but when I get really hooked I get totally hooked. Always avoided MMORPGs for that very reason.

[Broker]

400 hours each on Destiny and Destiny 2, 1500 hours of Dark Souls, 600 hours of Bloodborne, 1000 hours of Skyrim, 1300 hours of PUBG.

[CovisGod]

Football Manager, 

 

Literally thousands of hours on each one since 1998. 

[Danster]

Just to expand on that Elite Dangerous hours spent a little. At one point I watched almost the entire Star Trek TNG back catalogue whilst playing. It took me two weeks to fly to the centre of the galaxy and back - playing for several hours each night and more. A massive undertaking that still didn't get me the "Elite" level for Exploration.

 

I like games, as I have mentioned recently elsewhere, that allow me to play while listening to audiobooks. If there is to much narrative I can't concentrate on the book, but when I find one that does it means I can do two things that really interest me at the same time.

 

[Fletch]

I think the 500 hours or so on Halo Reach is my biggest but I'm sure it was more than that but according to the Bungie site it's that. 

[moosegrinder]

Back when I played WoW I know I had 25 days and 32 days on 2 of my characters. I had more than that but it's been ten years since I played so I can't remember the others.

 

300 hours in Diablo on Xbox one, no idea on Xbox 360 and PS4. WoW is probably the only game I played and forsake all other games though.

[joffocakes]

Across different versions of Street Fighter IV I've owned I clocked up 3000 hours or so. I'd never been so obsessed with a single game prior to that. Likely a few hundred hours more than that since I played at a load of events and at friends' houses etc. And I was playing it online on PS4 just days ago. It's very good.

 

I'd imagine Goldeneye and Smash Bros Melee would have been the closest prior to those definitely a few hundred hours on each. Generally if I've played a game a lot it's because I'm playing it with or against other people. That's when videogames are best.

[Norfolk Enchants]

Easily 1,000 hours and counting on Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas across PS3, PC and now Xbox One X.

[Nespresso]

2008 hours on CS:GO (across two accounts) - getting the highest rank possible after 1100 hours, ahem

492 hours on Warframe and that number will likely surpass that of CS:GO. 

 

(Also have spent hundreds of monies on both games. )

 

EDIT: I've probably also put a lot of hours in Minecraft and on our very own forum server. Glad there's no way to check how many hours that has been though.

[ChewMagma]

250+ hours on Monster Hunter World this year is probably a personal post-teen record. A couple of the Souls games and Skyrim I've put 100+ hours into, but for most games that grab me 60-80 is the maximum and generally I'd rather do 20-30 or less.

[Illyria]

I have over 2000 hours on CS GO, accrued over the span of maybe 2-3 years. I was really addicted to it for a while after I finished my first degree.

 

I also put hundreds of hours into HL2:DM and L4D2, nowhere nearly as much though. 

 

I must have also spent a LOT of time on Diablo II and the first two Sims games, I kind of wish I knew just how much, although it's probably better I don't. 

[Mr. Gerbik]

The Witcher 3 is my most recent one. I've avoided starting it up again after finishing the last expansion because I really like the look of exactly 300 hours.

 

300 hours sounds like a lot, but it pales in comparison to the time I spent playing Morrowind obsessively for a few years. I could lose myself for an entire day at a time in that game. It's a shame it didn't have a playtime counter, but in total I've easily surpassed the 1000 hours mark on that one.

 

Even more recently I was completely absorbed by Vampyr, but I rinsed it in 50 hours and there's no way or reason to keep playing after completing the storyline. As such I didn't put in a ridiculous playtime count, but I was completely obsessed with it while it lasted. Dark Souls, the first Tenchu, and FF7 had a similar effect on me while playing.

[Sun Tze]

Used to buy a lot of games for various systems. Realised i kept replaying my favourites instead of delving into the ever growing pile of shame. Changed my buying habits and now only buy 1-2 games a year. The games that i do play get played a ton though.  Over the last 7-8 years I've played 1000+ Dark Souls (mostly pvp in first two years after release), 1000+ hours on Ace Combat Infinity and 1000+ hours on Let it Die. Still play other games (last year i bought and really enjoyed Horizon ZD and GT Sport) but whenever i come home from work booting up something like Infinity or Let it Die and continuing the grind feels like putting on a comfy pair of slippers. There's also something very appealing about getting very far in a F2p games while not spending any money. 

[Gotters]

Clash Royale - almost 3y in with the other forum clan members (about 25 still going strong)

 

iPhone screen time is showing me about 7-8h a week NOW on it, so even at a conservative estimate that is well over a thousand hours in that app !

 

it just integrates so well into your day its always bite sized bits of play, rarely long sessions (though those have occurred)

 

Oh lord that sounds a lot.

[strawdonkey]

2,400 hours on Phantasy Star Universe. That's 100 days. Had a group of friends who were also basically always on, hit the level cap constantly and just loved existing in the world, with its ultra-clean neon scifi aesthetic.

 

The actual playing of the game was relatively straightforward and repetitive, but there was something about the gameplay loop, hanging out with friends and the shared enthusiasm when events or the expansion released meant I rarely needed other games to play. I dread to think how many hours alone I spent synthing and upgrading gear and hunting for bargains in the player stores. The rush from buying a premium item with a good elemental stat for cheap was unparalleled, second only to the first time you got to show it off.

 

Eventually the content started drying up, and the updates were coming later and later after the Japanese servers, and we all trailed off at similar times. Without that group of friends I doubt it would have lasted as long but it remains one of my fondest periods of gaming.

[Kiwi Cake]

 

*wistful sigh*

[pinholestar]

Over 1,000 hours on Final Fantasy XIV and counting. 

Across both 360 and PS4 versions I topped 1,200 hours on Destiny 1. About 460 so far on Destiny 2, although I'm done with it for now.

About 500 hours on Battlefield 1.

Around 300 hours on The Division.

GTA 4 and GTA 5 both clocked in over 200 hours by the time I was done with them.

Monster Hunter World around 230 hours.

Witcher 3 and expansions total about 200 hours.

 

There's a bunch of games that have topped 100 hours but that would be a long list. Things like Skyrim and Red Dead 2 etc.

 

Some of those numbers are quite scary but I have a pretty rich life in other areas so I've managed to strike a good balance I think. I've never let my gaming hobby intrude on relationships or my social life so it's all good but some of those I was quite clearly addicted to for periods of time.  

[Qazimod]

Street Fighter IV, particularly around the Super era - the rllmuk lobby crew always kept bringing me back.   I never got any better though.  I also spent a lot of time on 3rd Strike with the Anniversary Collection because it was the only thing installed on my Xbox before the drive started chewing up discs!

 

Also Persona 4, I guess; the structure allows you to dip in and out and play as little or as much as you want, and it has the best pacing out of the newer games so there's always something to work towards and keep you coming back. An average playthrough is probably 50something hours and I've completed it numerous times on PS2 and Vita.

[Skull Commander]

Over the years I must have put hundreds of hours into Street Fighter games specifically Turbo and more recently Street Fighter 4 and its various enchantments. 

 

Other than that some of the online modes on the glory days of Call of Duty titles on the Xbox 360 ate up a fair amount of time. 

 

This year I know I have put over 80 hours into Forza Horizon 4. That game sucked me in more than any other recently. 

[Trumpets]

I played XBLA Worms and Tricky Towers for a couple of years each, racking up God knows how many hours. Thankfully I'm free from both of them now, and I hope not to find a replacement.

[Flub]

I got mad hooked on WoW during the Lich king expansion. Currently I'm  85 hours deep into the Switch version of Warframe.

 

With me it tends to be online games (Normally MMOs) I get hooked on but that only lasts while I feel like I'm making achievable progress. If what I need to do ends up taking an endless grind with no interim sense of achievement I end up drifting away.

 

I tend to rotate around different F2P games. I have a full set of characters to choose from in Guild Wars 2 and my lifetime sub to Star Trek Online gets me enough free IAP currency that I go back every now and again to buy a new ship and end up playing for a week or so.

 

 

[davidcotton]

Be an even split on Counter-strike Source to the point I had to uninstall it to play something else, and Eve-Online (thanks Tehstu ) again had to uninstall it to play something else.  Right now I'm just starting out on Witcher 3 (finally) and getting an hour a night in on that.

[Nate Dogg III]

I’d guess at 1,000 hours of Street Fighter IV. Some of my fondest gaming memories there for sure, most of them spent with people off here. 

 

800 hours of Destiny, 350 of D2. As above really, it was just a nightly chillout space with a regular gang of (mostly) forum bods. 

 

I have no idea how much Puzzle & Dragons I’ve played. But I’ve played it just about every day for five years. Must be 2,000 hours at least. 

 

 

[RaoulSilva]

For me it tended to be one game played almost every day over several years, in between other games,  these are the main standout ones 

 

1997 - 2001 Goldeneye 

2001 - 2005 Halo

2008 - 2012 Rock Band series

2013 - 2015 GTA V 

2017 - Breath of the Wild

 

 

 

[Squigs]

I was addicted to Championship Manager/Football Manager when I was younger. Spent 100s of hours on them all from CM97/98 up to about FM2010 before I started losing interest in all the new features.

 

I think CM01/02 would have been the most played, had several save games that ran for 10-20 seasons. Plenty of 'just one more game' moments playing it til 4 in the morning on a school night!

 

Quite a few friends played it too, so tactics, signings and achievements would be discussed during lessons the next day.

 

Although I don't play it these days, I really wish I'd kept backups of some of the saved games. It'd be great to load them back up again.

[Adrock]

Ultima Online. Took years out of my life, it's now free to play too for the Endless Journey.

 

Which prompted me to restart this week, the population is a fraction of what it used to be but the people left are nice and the community that endures is active and helpful.