I never noticed that mechanism in any real way in the game play. Occasionally you would see the world map and get an occasional ghostly location pointer with "68 days" or somesuch, giving you an idea of how long other players took to get to locations nearby where you are. To be honest, I didn't even realise it was real-time information until I read the spruiking pages months later. The only "win or lose" is whether you meet the 80 day deadline and, given that that goal is quite achievable (it took me only my second attempt), the main joy is the narrative along the way.