I can't help but wonder if this Facebook thing is really just a way to test if the Civilization formula can translate to a persistent world, and if that then is the first step towards some kind of a Civ MMO. Otherwise I don't see much incentive for them to do this if it's going to be free to play. Unless some of the developers have just been sitting around coding this in their spare time, which makes them almost as pathetic as modders
....
Well... a fly on the wall of the Facebook boardroom is rumored to have heard this conversation:
"Our demographics are troubling. After the initial buzz, our only growing demographic seems to be women in their 40's."
"Yeah... the desperate houswives."
"How can we broaden our demographic?"
"Well... we don't really need to broaden our demographic! What we need to do is monopolize our strong demographic. Give them what they want most, and they'll all be here."
"What the heck interests women in their 40's most?"
"Ummm... men in their 40's?"
"Yeah, but not stupid men, they want doctors, lawyers, etc to
chat with".
"How the hell do we give them that?"
"Hmmm... I've heard that there are some computer games that have as strong position in this male demographic as we have in the female. Civa... something or other. Too bad we don't know anything about making decent games."
"Hey, there was some nerd here from Firaxis trying to sell us something, maybe he knows... lets check it out."
...
"OK, so we'll pay the development costs up front, plus a guaranteed token payment to Firaxis. You get great big exposure to a wide market that will be pushed by word of mouth, we'll not only broaden our demographic but give our core constituents what they are wanting. Whaddya say, deal?"