We’ve all been there. We load up a game at around 6PM, thinking we’ll play it for an hour or two - and then next thing we know, we’ve completely lost track of time. It’s 3AM, our eyes are on fire, and we’re left wondering what sorcery kept us glued to our seats.

That sorcery, for those wondering, is video games. Incredibly addictive video games. While some games might grab you for an extended period of time, others refuse to let you go for dozens of hours on end, forcing you into a trance-like state in which there’s nothing but you and the game. Today, we celebrate (and warn you about) these very games – the ones that make us lose track of time completely.

It starts off innocently enough. You take a quest to clear a dungeon and start marching towards it – but then things goes amiss. You find a cave on the way so you explore it, and then you see a mountain so you climb it, and then you find a camp of enemies so you clear it, and then you see a dragon so you fight it, and then you find a group of… yeah. By the time you actually get to your original quest you’ll have completely forgotten what it was, and completely lost track of time.

In fact, a majority of your experience playing Skyrim is spent doing just that: losing track of time. The world is so huge, so beautiful, and so full of stuff to do that it’s impossible to focus on any one thing for too long, leading every small adventure into a massive, sprawling quest with no end in sight. It's OCD pressed to disk.

Lumines: Electronic Symphony is complete sensory overload. You’re moving colorful blocks over vivid backgrounds as you’re gripped – not lulled – into a dream-like state, with pounding music that blinds you to your surroundings. Points are flying all over, numbers are flashing, your heart is pounding – it’s like some weird, video game version of a dance club. That’s what clubs are like, right?

Even more time-eating is the addicting score grind of Lumines, which makes the already entrancing game all the harder to break away from. Once you get to the point where you’re putting up high scores, it can take an hour or two to even get to where you have any chance of beating it, leading to a “one more game” mindset that can last for five or six hours without any problem.

Click click click click click loot click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click sell click click click click loot click click click click click click click click click click click click click click level click click click click click loot click.

*checks clock*

Click sell click click click click click level click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click loot click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click trade click click click click click click click loot click.

Ever hear someone say that they got “lost in their work?” It’s easy to do – once you get engrossed in a project, your perception of time is sort of shattered, and you’re completely immersed in whatever you’re doing until it's done. Minecraft is, essentially, a series of projects, and any one has the potential to completely envelop you, sucking you in and refusing to relinquish its grip.

Carving a tunnel through a mountain or digging into the ground to create the perfect mine can become an obsession, and before long you’ll realize that it’s been ten hours since you saw sunlight – either in-game or out. Minecraft’s freedom is enchanting, and its openness makes it magnetic and addicting. Good luck getting out.

MMOs are built specifically to feed you bite-sized pieces of satisfaction and keep you forever wanting more - and none have accomplished this as well as World of Warcraft . Blizzard’s game is expertly crafted to devour your life by making you yearn for minor, incremental improvements to your character. The knowledge that you’re an hour away from another level, or two hours from a shiny new helmet, will keep you locked to your computer, refusing to budge.

A night socializing with friends? Going to a movie? No thanks, you’d rather improve your Stamina by 70 – then you might finally be geared up enough to tank the next dungeon. Even after removing gameplay mechanics that literally punished players for not playing (by dropping their PvP ranking) the game still has over 9,000,000 players - a good example of exactly how perfectly created WoW is to hold you close and never let go.

There’s a reason 2K promoted Sid Meier's Civilization V's release with an advertising campaign for the mock “Civilization Anonymous” support group, with a mantra of “No more turns” - Civilization is crazy addicting. The tactical series puts players in control of a small city that grows to become one of the world’s superpowers, building up armies, trading, investing in culture and science, and attempting to rule the world, one turn at a time.

It’s a game of microscopically small victories leading to something bigger, and though nothing may happen on any one turn (or during any ten), it’s nearly impossible to stop your hand from dragging the curser to the “Next turn” button as soon as you’ve finished making your moves. You’ll lie to yourself – time and time again – saying that you’ll play “One more turn,” but then there you’ll be, four hours later, charging into the Industrial Revolution and murdering millions because their city happens to be near a coal mine you want. Manifest destiny, baby. Manifest destiny.

The Sims isn’t a life simulator – that’s not what makes it so addicting. Though it’s true that you can play through an entire being’s existence from birth to marriage to death in one day, it’s deeper than just “playing life.” There’s something primal, something instinctual that makes it feel alright to spend an entire day playing The Sims 3 instead of doing anything else. Human nature dictates that it’s our job to create life and to perpetuate our species, and that’s what The Sims does. That's what it really simulates.

You’ll meet another Sim, have babies that look genetically similar to you, and then watch them grow up, helping them through their troubles as you would an actual child. It taps into a part of your brain that most other things in life don’t, giving you a strange parental feeling that it’s hard to understand at first. You’re tricking your brain into thinking you’re helping extend your bloodline; that’s why it’s easy to lose all track of time, because, deep down, you're supposed to.

And then you can turn your Sim into ghosts and go around haunting people and stuff!

Of course, any game can become addictive, and these are just a small handful of the ones that have kept us up all night long. There are plenty of other absurdly fun games out there that will keep you gaming for hours on end. Which ones have you found yourself the most stuck to? Which worlds have you gotten completely lost in? Let us know in the comments below!

And if you're looking for more games that'll keep you hooked, check out the 100 best games of all time and the best free-to-play MMORPGs.