Hey, I gave my brother Civ4 for his Birthday and so far we have been having a blast playing LAN games with each other.

The thing is I've tried playing M player games and the login screen doesn't work, also I've heard of all this pitboss and such and the whole thing is giving me a headache can anyone clear this up for me?
How does most of the community play with each other?

Also I tried Gamespy arcade but that didn't work :(

I have never played Gamespy and I don't play Pitboss. I can help you out with PBEM (Play by e-mail games) if you want to do that.

I did research and I pretty much know what pitboss is now, I'm just trying to find out if you can just type in the server name in direct IP or do I need to use the pitboss thingy, I connected to someones pitboss using direct but I didn't have a spot in the game so I couldn't go any further then the civ selection.

u can use "direct ip connection" too connect another people,hoster tell u his ip,and u enter ip,then u can join his game

my e-mail is ahandac@163.com,if u have problem,send me mails,and msn:ahandac@hotmail.com

I like to play a PBME or pittboss game too. If u need more players count me in.

Yeah, i want to try also. I assume the time constraints aren't too tight. How do i go about finding a game that is starting?

for PBEM games take this link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=200
for Pitboss check the forums