I had to register to reply to Bossconian, because I played Rome in the game he mentioned. His point illustrates the best parts of Civ IV multiplayer, it is damn exciting to plot a war against germany to clear the way for my epic conquest of Europe, only to find that France bungles the joint attack and leaves me facing an equal number of fortified axemen. After talking it over with Bossconian we decided to turn on France while he was weak, and I "agreed" to raze Paris. Of course I did no such thing and took the city for myself, planning to turn on Germany once his axemen were in the open.
Unfortunately, at that point the PO'd french player rejoined the game and used the retire bug to completely break the game. I think you can tell that playing with/against real people is both the best and worst aspect of civ multiplayer. I hope that CiV takes multiplayer to a new level, and (hopefully!) fixes many of the instability and griefing issues that plague CIV multi. The simultaneous move issues will still be there, but atleast you will have to move each unit one at a time, instead of double moving a 50-unit stack in one click. The biggest factors in the success of multiplayer will be 1. Bugs, 2. Stability, and 3. Griefing. If these issues can be kept to a minimum I expect CiV will be the best multiplayer civ in the series.
Unfortunately, at that point the PO'd french player rejoined the game and used the retire bug to completely break the game. I think you can tell that playing with/against real people is both the best and worst aspect of civ multiplayer. I hope that CiV takes multiplayer to a new level, and (hopefully!) fixes many of the instability and griefing issues that plague CIV multi. The simultaneous move issues will still be there, but atleast you will have to move each unit one at a time, instead of double moving a 50-unit stack in one click. The biggest factors in the success of multiplayer will be 1. Bugs, 2. Stability, and 3. Griefing. If these issues can be kept to a minimum I expect CiV will be the best multiplayer civ in the series.