A player has spent over 20,000 hours in a single game. More specifically, in Civilization 5. His impressions of the game were captured in a Steam review.
What game are we talking about? Civilization 5, written as V in Roman numerals, is a strategy game developed by Firaxis released in 2010. Remember the year of release, it will be important later.
The Civilization series counts six main entries to date, as well as a handful of expansions and standalone games that incorporate elements of the main titles. For example, Civilization: Beyond Earth, which takes place in a foreign galaxy.
Civilization, affectionately dubbed “Civ,” belongs to the genre of global strategy. In it, players guide their civilization through various epochs to victory, which can be achieved in different ways. Regardless of whether one defeats other nations through military, culture, science, or diplomacy, everything always takes place in turns.
This causes players to quickly lose track of time. Hours pass, and before you know it, another night has gone by. Just recently, a player shared the story of her mother who spent a lot of time in Civ 3. It must have been similar for a player who spent not a hundred, not a thousand, but a full 21,136 hours in Civ V.
After 20,000 hours, it was time for a conclusion
What does this mean for the player? Primarily, that the player, who goes by simon on Steam, truly loves the game. The 21,136 hours do not come about by chance. For comparison: Since the game’s release on September 21, 2010, more than 108,000 hours have passed. Over 20,000 of those were spent by the player civilizing his digital nations. In years, simon was engaged for almost two and a half years.
What is the player’s conclusion? While many players are quick to write a Steam review after just a few hours in a game, simon apparently wanted to know for sure. Only after the aforementioned 21,136 hours did he type up his review on Steam. And it was, contrary to what one might expect, short and concise.
He writes: “I guess the first 20,000 hours were okay…”
That the game must have pleased him outside of this extremely modest assessment is shown by the impressive playtime alone.
While Civilization is a series that works wonderfully on the “just one more turn” principle and can definitely keep you in front of the screen longer than initially intended, the playtime still reflects an above-average passion for the game. Another player, on the other hand, dedicated 20,000 hours to an MMORPG.
What do other players think about it? Some other Steam users are a bit skeptical about simon’s impressive number. Under the review, some comment that the user Kaszanka-Szatanka finds it “fake” or the user Cyril asks: “Don’t you have anything else to do?”
AfricanBear is mainly interested in one thing: “Did you get all the achievements?”
A response remained unanswered by simon. It seems he has also neglected the current sixth installment of the Civ series in favor of part 5. Instead of switching to part 6 upon its release in 2016, simon remained loyal to his good, old Civilization V. Otherwise, the enormous playtime cannot be explained. MeinMMO author Schuhmann has a current hot tip for fans of the strategy series.
