As a history buff who also loves video games, Civilization V is one of my favorite games ever. It is one of the games that I have put the most games into on Steam and that is also one of the reasons I don’t like to play it all that often. The game is a gigantic time sink that rips you away from real life and forces you to play for hours. There are several rates at which you can play, but the first time I played, I started a game on the standard time rate and ended up playing for a total of 11 hours. I can’t tell you how many times at 3 in the afternoon I’ve said, “ ooh I can play Civ. I’ll just play for an hour or so and start up a new world.” Next thing I know it’s eight o’clock and I haven’t eaten dinner. My main reason for avoiding the game is also one of my major pulls to play the game. I love it when I can be so immersed in a game that I stop worrying about my real life issues if only for an hour or so. ­I play video games, read books, or watch movies to be told a story or to be given a place to come up with my own story. Civ is a game with no story except what you come up with for yourself. You choose from one of 18 great historical leaders and start off in a world inhabited only by hunter-gatherer nomads, famous historical city states and barbarians. You are one group of nomads that is trying to win by settling and developing a “Civilization that will stand the test of time”. You either: build the UN and have enough city states that love you so that you have the most pull in the world; build the world Bank and make everyone invest in you so no one ever goes to war with you; build space ships and go to Alpha Centauri first; or just kill everyone else. I love being able to talk to my brother and tell the story of how I was Bismark and went ahead and conquered Gandhi, George Washington, and Alexander the Great with nukes. All in Al,l I love this game that has stolen 118 hours of my life away.