At the very least it gives me some solid comparison points regarding goal, replay, and time sink value when discussing the game with my friends.
I've put more than 200 hours into AI War, almost as much as I've put into CounterStrike: Source (which I owned earlier), over 300 hours into Mount and Blade: Warband (and another 300+ hours into Mount and Blade), nearly 300 hours into Oblivion.
In contrast I spent less than 30 hours for the entire Half-Life 2 series (finished all of them).
I tend to play strategy games over other genres but sandbox-style play really increases my gameplay.