I thought a post I put up in another forum last night would fit in nicely here. So...
Hail governors,
I am looking at this thread with a smile. I remember three short weeks ago I was pulling my hair out and glaring at the computer. Now I have about three hundred sheets of notes, graphs, maps, charts, and html code. I am addicted and loving it!
To airw23 I say:
"Enjoy the next three weeks. It's only after that period of 21 days - that get's you three full weekends - that everyone you know wonders what happened to you. Initially your family enjoys their respite from you. Your significant other definitely enjoys your sudden absence for awhile, they always do. Your workplace notices the bags under your eyes, the crazed look you get when you try to describe how awesome the game is, and the speed at which you drive out of the parking lot to get home and pop in that almighty disc. During about the second week of your transformation your friends and family will grow to hate you. You are never around. You never call. You only talk about the game. You are losing weight (who has time to eat when invading forces are closing in?). You are always tired. You go to bed too late and wake up too early.
This is only the beginning. By the third week the newness has worn off. You have to do about a million things you put off. You need to actually do some work at work (school). People tell you that you suck for not being around for so long. You make hasty ammends to your significant other. You tell your mother that you still love her. You find that the rest of the world is in the year 2000, while you have been living and breathing about 300 years before the birth of Christ!
By this time you will have gone far in one of two ways. You will have rocketed through many missions, or you will have slowly and laboriously sifted through a hand full of missions and find yourself licking the proverbial chops at the prospects that lay ahead. You will find yourself thinking in terms of economics late at night tossing in your bed. You will spend way too much time posting here and at every other posting forum you can find. You will email a million people for advice, because it always seems like you are looking for more people to post here (sorry Brugle ;-) ). You will begin to come to terms with your addiction. That is the first step. Realizing that you are powerless to control you addiction to C3.
But I digress. What you can expect at the end of three weeks is far greater knowledge of Ancient Rome, city planning, realestate issues, military strategy, business practices, and politics than you ever thought possible. You will have a host of friends around the world that are genuinely interested in your career. I know that I would never have gotten to meet an awesome group of posting friends such as Caligula, jasoncowgill, RSC, Caius Menginus, Olivia Chillia, eraserhead, Citizen Paul, lu latsch (great advice about sleep a couple of posts down), Brugle, Bob the Lethargic, Tom the Bold, AkwaticCityDude, Claudia Gallacia, Grumpus, Jayhawk, Caesar Alan, Theo, theodorus, proconsul, and too many more to keep listing them. I am eternally grateful for that fateful day in Toys 'R Us looking at C3 in the sale bin for $9 and wondering if it was worth the cash. I know my wife would pay a million dollars to take back that nine bucks, but I consider it one of my greatest investments ever. It was like winning the lottery.
Now, on the threshold of truly difficult missions, I find myself much more Caesar-like. I am figuring out the most minute of minutia. I am anal about my setups and efficiency. And I am ready to try to not only master this game and every homemade scenario worth playing, but to ascend to the levels that the legendary play at (I am thinking of the guys that kicked serious butt in Abelius' Olmpic games, i.e. Marty Party)! I may never get there, but I will fiddle while Rome burns trying. And as for Pharoah...all in due time, all in due time.....
Cheers,
Procurator Marcus Lindicus
P.S. Caligula, you are the greatest C3 friend and mentor a neophyte could have. I am holding a grand festival in your honor and building a large temple complex for you as I speak. Cheers to you good friend.