Novelist's Work Becomes Casualty of Civilization

Anyone notice the comments from Jason on Idle Thumbs? :) I assume it's him since it's the nick he uses?

I'll add him to the list of people whose lives have been ruined because of Civ.

and

We're going to send him a copy of Warlords, a copy of Civ IV and a dvd with all the Civ Anon (http://www.civanon.org/) videos.

(slightly edited to save space here)

Iain Banks is a very decent author and a pretty fun guy, often making fun of himself (so this article doesn't really surprise me). He writes both sci fi and mostly crime fiction. If it's sci fi it's Iain M Banks, the non sci fi stuff is just Iain Banks.

Wasp Factory and Crows Road are is biggest known non sci fi books. The Algebraist is my favourite Sci Fi book of his.

he needs to have his work computer in one seperate area, where all he does is work and be creative. and then have a entertainment computer in a different seperate area, that way your mind has a better seperation of work and play based on how you usually feel in the area you spend the time in doing either..

I can see where he's coming from.

I,too,am trying to make a graphic novel in my spare time. It's a very involved process too:draw for months,scan into computer,clean up drawings and assemble into panels. But unlike him I work nights 48+ hours a week. And when I get home from work,all I really want to do is entertain myself,and that means gaming. I've been trying to streamline my life so I can get the needful things done by noon so I can draw for an hour or so every day. But I fall asleep. And my night off I REALLY fall asleep.

But this guy has no "day job",so these long blocks of time not scratching a living are commonplace to him. I guess he has no sense on urgency to compel him,no real clock to fight. No real "love" for his art or characters that demand his attention enough to prefer spending time with them than making bunches of pixels attack other bunches of pixels.

Oh well. Arranged to be vacated starting tomorrow night right through Labor Day. Lets see how well I stay away from the games...

All I have to say: 'Turn off the computer, dumbass.'

Regarding the "sic," isn't that spelling of civilization OK in the UK? It would still make it wrong if the game wasn't spelled that way, but I wonder, just how is the UK version of the game spelled?

This makes me realize I haven't played Civ 4 in awhile, and now I want to reinstall it.

Civ 4 is indeed total crack.

GOOD crack, though.

I hate getting invaded for no reason. At least my new strats seem much improved.

Space Race is awesome, Diplomatic is also awesome. Conquering is damn near impossible cuz the computer always makes 209384928374 defensive pacts.

I was the same way when I first got Civ4 but it got really boring after a while. The AI sucks and is only a challenge at higher difficulty levels because it cheats (production bonuses, combats rolls in its favor). When I do play I use very small maps and set the timer to only let me play for two hours at a time.

Never heard of Iain Banks though. What has he written?

Civ 4: Greatest game of all time.

hahahaha that is so awesome.

Damn man, thats pretty funny. I've never once played any of the Civ games because they look a little dull, but apparently I'm wrong. I know some people who arnt even gamers that play this game and this game only. Hell, they barely know how to turn their computer on.

Had to uninstall Civ IV for the same reasons. Luckily I realized that the game was just as much a time sink as WoW after a couple weeks, rather than a year and a half.

I feel ya Chris! Every time I get sucked into a game like World of Warcraft or HalfLife 2 and spend every non-waking second playing the game, what pulls me out is the thought that I could have spent the last 2 months boning up on X technology and adding 10k to my salary...

I know the feeling. Civ 2 stole my life by going three straight days at a time playing it. :[