What's your longest single gaming session you remember?

[BudAshes]

In swg days I would sign on when the server booted at like 5 am then play till it went down the next night at 4am. Of course I could be at school or doing whatever while I played since you could set up macros

 

[Matripe4]

it would have to be WoW session;
i think it was around 12 hours with a meal between them

 

[Kristijonas]

Ultima Online. Almost 24 hours I suppose. Possibly more. But that was with a few random 30min breaks of course.

 

[Locut0s]

A few weeks straight of Diablo 2 with my bot running baal and getting 99, all the while I was watching 5 seasons of The Wire.

But on a more serious note, probably 48-72 hour stretches of Diablo 2 pre expansion trying to get my barb up on US East Ladder, as well as similar stretches in Dark Age of Camelot and WoW.

All nighters and 24 hour days were common with DAoC and WoW.

72 hours with no sleep, gaming!?

 

[rangda]

36-38 hours in Everquest doing an XP grind trying to get to level 60. I forget the name of the camp, it was in one of the early Planes of Power zones back when that expansion was new.

The sad part is I was unemployed then so I slept for 6-8 hours and was right back at it for another 14-16 hours after that.

 

[Nebor]

Ultima Online. Almost 24 hours I suppose. Possibly more. But that was with a few random 30min breaks of course.

I have to say, during it's golden age (before Trammel\Felucia) UO was the best game I've ever played to date. It's amazing that no one has ever been able to replicate that gameplay in the last decade.

 

[rangda]

The Rathe Council encounter to gain access to the Plane of Time in the original EQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-hkrDNkCbk

This isn't my guild but that's the encounter alright. I was a bard and was chain mezzing mobs and playing mana song for I think 5 hours or something ridiculous.

I think my entire playtime that day ended up being around 8-10 hours. Ridiculous.

I HATED that friggin' raid. I think my guild did it 2304820945820958965829 times before we finally beat it. Hundreds of hours pissed away on that. Fortunately(?) I was a wizard so instead of spamming mez or heals it was a lot of sitting around doing nothing. And yes it was at least 8 hours or so for a win (when the expansion was current anyway). I remember many, many 6+ hour wipes on that.

The elemental plane raids to unlock time were horribly defective IMO. Each required the full 72 man raid but the optimal class mix for each was so radically different you needed 100+ toons to get by all 4 of them.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Longest was probably a LAN party at some point in high school or early college. I remember starting around 6 PM and playing until 8 or 9 AM the next morning.

 

[Locut0s]

I have to say, during it's golden age (before Trammel\Felucia) UO was the best game I've ever played to date. It's amazing that no one has ever been able to replicate that gameplay in the last decade.

Perhaps because of the relentless dumbing down of games for the masses?

Game Developer: "Damn you aren't going to believe how immersive your next game is going to be"

Marketing Department: "Yeah but will grandma be able to play it"

GD : "Umm... well no but that's not...

MD : "I don't want to hear it. Until grandma can sit down, pick it up and at least get the gist of it I don't want to hear it"

GD : "But...

MD : "I have spoken, BACK TO YOUR CAVE!!

 

[Nebor]

Perhaps because of the relentless dumbing down of games for the masses?

Moreso the candy-assery of lossless death. You lose nothing but XP in virtually every MMORPG out there today.

In UO, when you died, anyone could take all of your stuff. Sure, it might flag them criminal for 2 minutes, and that might bring the wrath of others down upon them, but that's the choice that they made, which in turn risked all of their stuff.

Also, in retrospect, I enjoyed the lack of player levels far more than the level system in most games. If you were only 90 swordsmanship, you could still fight whatever you wanted, you just wouldn't be quite as good. In most MMOs, if you fight something more than a couple levels above you, you have virtually no chance of winning. And it went the other direction too. Sometimes a magic using monster would hammer you with an ebolt and a flamestrike, leading you into a panicked retreat.

Sigh, if only we could go back. :\

 

[BudAshes]

Moreso the candy-assery of lossless death. You lose nothing but XP in virtually every MMORPG out there today.

In UO, when you died, anyone could take all of your stuff. Sure, it might flag them criminal for 2 minutes, and that might bring the wrath of others down upon them, but that's the choice that they made, which in turn risked all of their stuff.

Also, in retrospect, I enjoyed the lack of player levels far more than the level system in most games. If you were only 90 swordsmanship, you could still fight whatever you wanted, you just wouldn't be quite as good. In most MMOs, if you fight something more than a couple levels above you, you have virtually no chance of winning. And it went the other direction too. Sometimes a magic using monster would hammer you with an ebolt and a flamestrike, leading you into a panicked retreat.

Sigh, if only we could go back. :\

Someone stealing all your stuff is brutal. That might be too far, but I like it in swg where all your items took a 25% durability hit. It made crafters soo important and created a real economy as even the best stuff could quickly break down if you died.

 

[vshah]

i beat freespace 1 and freespace 2 in one sitting...took the better part of a weekend

 

[Via]

Someone stealing all your stuff is brutal. That might be too far, but I like it in swg where all your items took a 25% durability hit. It made crafters soo important and created a real economy as even the best stuff could quickly break down if you died.

I liked the system in AC, where your stats took a penalty every time you died. It was cumulative, and if you got too low it forced you to find someone to group with to get back up to snuff.

And every corpse had one of your best items, forcing you to go back and retrieve it. I remember nights when I dug myself a pretty deep hole.

 

[Nebor]

Someone stealing all your stuff is brutal. That might be too far, but I like it in swg where all your items took a 25% durability hit. It made crafters soo important and created a real economy as even the best stuff could quickly break down if you died.

It's not brutal if the game isn't a gear grind. Everything you got in UO was either a random magical drop from a monster, where virtually any monster could drop any kind of magical weapon, or it was player crafted, and the best crafted stuff was as good as mid-level magic stuff. Sure, you didn't want to lose that silver katana of vanquishing, so maybe you only carried it when you were fighting undead. But if you wanted the edge from using it in PvP, then you risked losing it.

The point is, people weren't all wrapped up in gear. There was no camping some boss spawn to kill it 80 times hoping to get the piece of gear that you KNOW it'll eventually drop. There was no "kill 800 of these monsters to collect 15 silver sigils to trade for a legendary dildo."

 

[Narynan]

I remember one weekend just shortly after the launch of EQ, where I played the entire weekend leading into spring break '99. 2 1/2 days straight. And it didnt matter cause I had nothing going on and nowhere to go. I wasnt alone in my social circle when it came to playing the game. I remember my friend going to bed early Saturday morning and waking up in the afternoon, and he asked how much sleep I got, and how I logged on before him.

"I never logged off".

It was pretty epic. I had alot of 20/24 hours sessions as well, but that was the only time I have EVER been up for 2+ days in a row. I was grinding solo some of the time, and let me tell you, as a Healer during those days, that was no small task.

I do miss that game.

 

[subtraction]

WoW release day. A few adder all and a couple cases of dew. Me and a friend set up our pc's in his basement and played for around 48 hours before sleeping. Upon wake began playing again. That cycle continued until level cap essentially.

How great being a parents basement dwelling teenager with nothing to do nor the desire to do anything besides play games. And if it weren't for stupid society expecting more and needing money I would quit work and live every day in such a manner.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I used to game quite a bit back in high school ...

Often we would have lan parties that began Friday after school and lasted until Sunday evening, naturally we would crash and eat too, but there were quite a few ocassions where we started a big Total Annihilation game on a huge map at like 5pm, and at 5am we were still in the same game....

That said, usually we would all crash by some time Saturday evening ... so maybe 28 or 29 hours with friends....

On my own ... well, I used to work overnight hours and had a "7 on" "7 off" work schedule ... my sleep rhythm was completely destroyed and I would essentially sleep for like 36 hours in a row, then go 3 or 4 days without sleep, then sleep 2 days in a row ... then work 7 days with a couple hours of sleep each day ... rinse/repeat ...

During that stint, there were quite a few sessions where I'd play about 30-40 hours with only snacks, coffee, mountain dew, or piss breaks ...


In the last 5 or 6 years ... I don't think I've done a stretch more than about 7 or 8 hours

 

[JEDIYoda]

Back when Doom first came out probably 18 hours. It was on my uncles computer, and he went to bed, woke up, went to work and then came home and I was still playing. The only reason I stopped was because he wanted to play. Some lan parties with Quake 2 went around 12+. Nowadays if no one bothers I me can go 4-6, but my eyes aint what they used to be. :biggrin:

Yep.....when Quake2 was out we would stay up the whole weekend......it was not unusual to stay up for 2 days straight....

 

[BladeVenom]

72 hours with no sleep, gaming!?

3 days without sleep and people start hallucinating.

 

[shortylickens]

3 days without sleep and people start hallucinating.

Yeah I am gonna have to call shens on some of these numbers. I've stayed awake for 24 hours a couple times and even worked for 24 hours straight, it fucking sucks donkey balls. Was not voluntary.

I think they meant they played for 30, 40, 50 or more hours WITH breaks and naps, not continuous.

 

[MacLeod1592]

First time I played Doom on the Playstation 1, me and a buddy stayed up from around 7PM til 6AM. Went home and crashed, came back the next evening and did it again.

The longest Ive had in recent years was Mass Effect. The wife and kid were at the inlaws for the weekend and I sat in my trusty computer chair for 9 straight hours. Only got up to get food and hit the head.

With a 2 year old and 2 jobs, those marathon sessions dont happen too often.

 

[Naeeldar]

Yeah I am gonna have to call shens on some of these numbers. I've stayed awake for 24 hours a couple times and even worked for 24 hours straight, it fucking sucks donkey balls. Was not voluntary.

I think they meant they played for 30, 40, 50 or more hours WITH breaks and naps, not continuous.

30 hours isn't that tough to be honest. At 18 I can remember starting up all night partying going to work at 8am and partying again the next night to crash.

That said after my 33ish hour stint on EQ i ended up crashing into a deep sleep for 14 hours. And it's worth mentioning that I was dealing with insomnia issues at the time and I couldn't stand to lay in bed at night so I played EQ.

 

[Locut0s]

First time I played Doom on the Playstation 1, me and a buddy stayed up from around 7PM til 6AM. Went home and crashed, came back the next evening and did it again.

The longest Ive had in recent years was Mass Effect. The wife and kid were at the inlaws for the weekend and I sat in my trusty computer chair for 9 straight hours. Only got up to get food and hit the head.

With a 2 year old and 2 jobs, those marathon sessions dont happen too often.

First a long gaming session with Starcraft on the N64 and now Doom on the PS1.

 

[MacLeod1592]

First a long gaming session with Starcraft on the N64 and now Doom on the PS1.

Huh? Never played Starcraft.

I've been a PC gamer since my Commodore 64 back in 1983. I only switched to the PS1 version of Doom cause the music and sound effects were 100 times better.

 

[shortylickens]

Huh? Never played Starcraft.

I've been a PC gamer since my Commodore 64 back in 1983. I only switched to the PS1 version of Doom cause the music and sound effects were 100 times better.

I played it once. The music was better but the sound effects sure as hell werent.