Basically I grew up with a few games. The first one was the unforgettable wolf 3d, which was soon replaced by doom (which I never really seriously played). Then came quake and I think pretty much everyone knows the rest. However on the strategy side came Sid Meierīs Civilization game which I had heard of from my dad, who knew a friend, who knew someone else, who knew about the game (complicated? u havenīt seen anything yet :p). I still remember my first day of game play... when I had no clue what to do or what anything meant. I was just using my common sense, which is one of my strongest points but my lack of game knowledge kind of overtook common sense. If u canīt picture it yet, imagine me having 4 to 5 undefended cities and 15 phalanx outside of them. U must be wondering why not put phalanx in cities, well the explanation to that is quite simple. I didnīt see the units as what everyone else saw them. I just figured that the phalanx just kind of looks like a farmer so Iīll just get him on what looked like arrable land. So I think u pretty much get the first picture. Well as time went by I actually bothered to check the civilopedia and stuff and from that moment on I was pretty much addicted to the game.
        Unfortunately I grew up with another horrific thing... SCHOOL and therefore had to suspend my prolonged civilization games, sometimes restricting them only to my holiday periods and then voila! Civilization II appeared and I got it ASAP. Started playing as chieftan and then continued to warlord and started being really successful. As I was still stressed by school, I didnīt really have time to develop strategies and I pretty much got owned every time I tried prince or higher.
        Since I would have wanted Civilization to be continued by Alpha Centauri I couldn't wait for Alpha Centauri to be out so I could try it. For a while I played only that, but since that game required even more time than Civ2 since I needed to learn what each building does and stuff I didnīt get far in the game.
        When I moved to the Netherlands, the first thing I checked were the game stores and I saw the first Call To Power game. I gave it a few tries but it wasnīt as good as the Sid Meier games. It had pretty much lost very much of the game. I still look over it from time to time, maybe Iīll see what the problem is, but I canīt put my finger on it. Every game that I started was too boring, whether I won or lost. So it was back to civ2 and Alpha Centauri until Civilization III came out. And well, I guess everyone can catch up from that moment on. Play the World came just before I had to really study for my exams, so I gave it a try and found it the best ever.