No games show up ever

Either no one plays this game, or something is wrong.

When I go to the multiplayer screen, look at the internet lobby, no games show up, i refresh it, wait to see if anything pops up, nothing. Refresh again and repeat the process.

I've unblocked it on my firewall, i've even tried turning off my firewall. Nothing

I've searched this forum for answers, as well as the internet, nothing, i seriously can't be the only one with this problem.

Is there some secret that I don't know about that lets you play on the internet, i really want to play this game again, but at the moment if I can't play it with my friends, its terribly boring.

Krypteia

Can't think of a turn-based game i played online that i liked, or one that even worked well...

CIV4 was great multiplayer. Which is why it really gets my goat that this bloody thing doesnt work

could someone please help me...

There's probably not anyone playing, that is my guess.

but its like one of the most popular games played on steam, surely that can't be the case.

I get the feeling that people usual plan out their multiplayer games in advance and with whom they will be playing, but I don't play strategy games in multiplayer anyways.

Also the multiplayer isn't great yet in Civ5 from what I've read, you'll have better luck in this subforum:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=406

Does'nt it only look for games in very restricted regions? Isn't there a way to enlarge this?

I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised given some of Firaxis' other decisions.