The dawn of Civilization – Civ as a MMO
I would like to discuss Civilization and the possibilities to make a MMO of it. I think that we all can agree on that it would be very difficult to make one. But it would be great if all of you who read this can post your ideas on it. Just for the fun of it of course!

It has been about a year since Sid mentioned MMO in media the last time, atleast what I can see on the internet. I think that Civilization as a game is just to good not to try to make a MMO of it.

There is something very intriguing with the dawn of civilization. To understand and play around with the ideas behind the cause of why people at all organized them self in cities tells us something about our societies today. There are a couple of inspiring books and TV-documentaries out there on the subject which are very interesting and all makes me think about Civ (and makes me wanna play the game).

I got some thoughts about how Civ could look like if it would be a MMO. I have not put that much thinking behind them, so please consider them as a try to get a discussion going on Civ as a MMO:

1. Turnbased? This is one of the basics that makes Civ. I think that you should be able to make one to several turns each day.

2. Relatively short games – Since the game depends on development during passing of time it can not last forever. Therefore I think that “game over”, must be in reach. You should be able to jump on a new game after some time.
3. Massive amount of players must either make many servers and/or many players in either one civilization or in one huge map.
4. The creation of one civilization could be a choice of several players. To start one can be done by several critrias like amount of villiages, technology, common religion and language.
5. Civ with added feauters? Civ is much about exploration and exploring new land and finding new technologys is a big part of the game. This can be done through several ways, not only moving forces on the map like before but also through first person in a added mini-game which can be played for each turn. Maybe you can play a leader of a group of people (npc:s) who has cattle and farms or maybe you take control of a warrior who sets out to do a raiding-mission. Woman in particulary prefer to play as a character then an abstract. I am thinking about EVE online where the walking in stations will expand the game with its new feature.

There are no large strategy MMO:s out there today and I think there is a reason. I read a blog that put up some reasons:

"# Map and the amount of players. How do you make a map for a strategy game when it could have an unknown number of players? In a MMO, everyone needs to have a fair chance of winning, so the map must be equally balanced. One things that makes Civ fun is the map can be quite random.
# Time frame. Does the game go on for a long time? How do new players join and have the possibility to compete?
# Loss. What happens when a player is knocked out of the game? Do they have to wait until a new one starts up? Seems like a bad idea for a subscription model.
# Time spent in game. MMO's are giant time sinks. A game of Civ is too, but it is spread out over turns. Turns would have to be scheduled as to be fair, so what does a player do after they make their moves? Questing would not really work in Civ."

Source: http://www.weritsblog.com/2008/06/civilization-as-mmo.html

Please comment and share some of your ideas. I would love to see a future Civ-MMO!

I just got Civ 4 at target for $5.  I'm trying really hard to like this game but am having a hard time.  Maybe turn-based just isn't my thing or maybe it's a Sid Myers thing.  If I want to build something, I find myself just clicking the turn completion button over and over, watching the years roll by until my "thing" is built.

Please help me like this game.

I love Civ4 and it is certainly in my top 10 games ever in terms of time spent.

Still, I have huge problems seeing how it could work as an MMO. Unless they manage to create a completely diffrent way that people play MMOs and work together.

Would the idea be to try and be part of the winning Civ? If so would each new player be allocated to a civ at random?

Also a huge part of Civ games is the initial discovery of geography and resources, how would that work with an MMO which is only new once?

Also would each Civ have a leader to decide where resources are spent? Or some group voting system maybe - I guess that could work but then it's difficult to feel ownership unless you are the leader. What happens if you want to try and build a Wonder whilst someone else wants to go to war.

I suppose you could allow people to change Civilisations by moving to their region, but this would also mean people dumping their homelands in times of difficulty.

Maybe I just haven't thought long and hard enough, but it just feels wrong to me - sorry.