Strategy games, ADHD, and the curse of 'one more turn'

When is it time to stop playing a strategy game? After just one more turn, of course! And then, maybe one more. And then one more...

I have fallen into the 'one more turn' (OMT) trap more times than I can remember. When I was young it was less noticeable, less important. It didn't matter if I was up past midnight turning Alpha Centauri into a waterlogged, irradiated wasteland, if I could drag myself into school the next day. At university, with no parent to give me a morning prod in the ribs, Armageddon Empires, Galactic Civilizations 2, and Sid Meier's Pirates! took a grade off my degree.

Post-university ambitions of writing professionally withered in the face of XCOM and a ROM copy of Warhammer: Dark Omen. Into the Breach was released after my daughter was born; I had to uninstall it because I couldn't afford to lose any more sleep. Why does that happen to us? Nuking Gandhi at 3am is never worth the brain fog and headache when the sun rises.

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