When you can’t play Anno at work, there’s always Excel

Desperate times

Ever become so obsessed with a video game that it consumes your every stray thought, to the point where you suddenly find yourself resorting to “playing” it in Excel during your lunch break? …No? It’s an oddly specific scenario, I know, but games like SimCity and Anno can have that effect on people.

Over on the Anno subreddit, user -Paxom- shared their now-not-so-secret shame: they’ve started mocking up their Anno 1800 city entirely within the confines of Excel. I mean, hey, if you can’t run the game on your work PC without worrying someone will catch you, this isn’t a horrible alternative.

As a point of reference, here’s a generic screenshot from the game:

And this is what all-too-relatable desperation looks like:

I’m digging -Paxom-‘s nice, orderly layout, the decision to not neglect greenery (I’m horrible about procrastinating), and the small note-to-self that “This is actually quite sad, stop, friend.”

We have a tag on Destructoid for “Things gamers do.” That about sums this story up.

I can sympathize: I’m utterly into Anno 1800 right now even as a newcomer to the long-running city-builder series. When I strike the balance between efficiency and beautification, my brain feels like it’s being massaged. I may not be planning routes in Excel, but I’m constantly thinking about the game.

Lunch-hour withdrawal symptoms made manifest [reddit]