An Obsession, Revisited

So Kelly found a copy of Civilization III (originally released in 2001) at the dollar store and picked me up a copy for Xmas. Ruh-row. I had bought this computer game when it originally came out and spent WAY too much time playing it. I'm talking multiple hours at a stretch. But now I just don't have too many spare hours!
I did find myself with a day off a few days ago. I had just come out of a long, dark tunnel of illness and decided to (mainly) devote the day to me. So what did I do? What you might expect - went for a run, relaxed with a good book - but I also spent a few hours playing Civilization.
Essentially, Civilization is a world domination game. It’s like Risk on crack. You build cities, distribute your armies, control how your resources are spent, and negotiate (and fight!) with other civilizations. It's fun, time-consuming and addicting.
But why is it so addicting? I suspect that part of it is the element of control - you have complete control over your world. The other part of is that there are so many little things going on – cities growing and building resources, armies traveling from one place to another, scientific advances being made – that each turn brings something new, so it’s hard to find a stopping point. There are probably other reasons, but I can’t think of them now – I’ve been spending too much time on the computer!