Announcing Civilization Network for Facebook!

[ZachScape]

I posted this on Sid's announcement thread, but I'll post it here too: (it might give us all hope)
I've been thinking, this may possibly be a prelude for Civ V. If put on Facebook, EVERYONE will have access to a Civ game. It will spread like wild fire. And Firaxis is going to PERFECT this before releasing it, because it will have the chance to either recruit more fans or deter them. People who have never heard of Civ will get invites, which will open up the Civ market. And the more customers Firaxis gets mean the more the demand for a new game (not to mention $).
Civ V may already be in its testing stages, but they may not announce it until the market explodes like I'm predicting.

 

[LegioCorvus]

Lots of groaning here. Does anyone honestly believe that there won't be a Civ5? That's preposterous. It's also not a very good way to represent our forums.

As for this itself - not very interested. I enjoy Facebook, but just for keeping up with old acquaintances & friends, not for playing games or installing apps. I actually refuse to install most apps, and quickly hide all "someone's playing farmtown!" messages on the homepage.

I will give Sid props for a smart marketing move, as this will help the Civilization brand and probably rope quite a few people in... it's just that I have no personal interest in it.

 

[Conspirator]

I doubt this will be a game that will be played by members on these forums as it appears from the comments thus far that most members have joined to perfect their skills at normal Civ.

However, I do think that this proposal has potential. The majority of games in the world are played online in places like FaceBook and other social networking sites. Apparently a great deal more games per day than conventionally (i.e. consoles or a Windows game).

Moreover, if they get this right it could prove to be a very interesting experience - Civilization has never really been playable with friends. To get a cult following however will be tricky as the game would need to be both accessible to casual gamers and very quickly learnable whilst also including that strategic depth that will attract a hardcore following.

This definitely will not be an easy task and frankly I have no idea how they are going to manage to get this to work in a way that will be a massive hit. I do hope it does work out because Civ does have potential to be a lot more popular and recognised than it is at the moment.

 

[Intellectus]

Hate social networking. Just another silly fad on the internet.

 

[Vortilex]

I think this is awesome! If only I had that many facebook friends that were into Civ I don't think Civ IV was the last PC version of Civ. Rather, I think Firaxis is looking at new stuff to see where Civ V should be released. i.e. whether Facebook (or any other social networking site, Facebook is thus far the largest), Console, PC, handheld, etc.

Way to go, Sid

 

[Vortilex]

Hate social networking. Just another silly fad on the internet.

he said as he posted on a forum The only differences between CFC and Facebook is that our real names aren't (supposed) to be given, and we don't post photos of ourselves every three minutes.

 

[_hero_]

Great marketing tool. A game that will most likely be free to play, and will be exposed to many of the 100-200million facebook users.

As for Civ V, I think the lag with that and in fact the small number of PC games in general may partly be due to the fact that computer processing technology has been moving gradually and is getting ready to take a big jump. When the intel core i7 processors come out, the low end PCs and Macs will be faster than almost all our high end computers right now. It sounds like 6 GB of ram will be the low end and 24 GB of ram will be the top of the line.

This of course means computer games and other software can run at a much higher level, additionally the new operating systems are moving from 32 bit to 64 bit which means a lot of the software has to be made for both to be backwards compatible.

Maybe (hopefully) the Civ creators have simply been stalling to avoid making a game that quickly becomes incompatible with the new technology.

 

[Darth Fred]

This could be a dangerous time consuming combination.

F

 

[CouNterOrdeR]

Sounds like it will be an Elitist/ popularity contest. Who ever gets the most friends to play will win.

Ill pass aswell.

 

[Vortilex]

Wow, even thought Facebook is (I'm told) the most used social networking site, so many people are dissing this new idea! I would think something like this would be embraced, not shrugged off! I didn't quite understand if this is a free app, like geochallenge (oddly popular among my friends) then this is even better! (Which is why I think I could be a beta tester, among other things). If it's not free, I don't know how it's even possible to do so, I've never looked at the market app.

 

[Agent327]

i dont want to scare away Sid or anything but, Facebook really? im not gonna join facebook to play this game

but i think its cool that he joined our forum

Yes... and so soon after it's been founded too!

No offence intended, but I think Facebook marketing will have a wider reach than CFC, Apolyton and WePlayCiv combined.

 

[echosfolly]

At least tell us are we getting a civ V eventually or not.

 

[davane]

I, for one, cannot wait to see how this game develops. I am a big fan of Facebook, and the many games available within, that have a stronger emphasis on the social side of the game than most PC titles. Given the success of team games on this forum, such as the Diplomacy games, I can easily see this becoming a hit for those who prefer the more social aspects of the game, and already provide a myriad of ideas for the development process.

There are an exceedingly wide range of games already on Facebook and other social networking sites, all of which take differing formats and have their own playstyles. While some are indeed casual games, others have interesting degrees of strategy that would appeal to most Civ players. I would urge those dissing Facebook to go and give these games a try before dismissing them as fails - especially since the player bas for these various Facebook games rival that of World of Warcraft, and is continually growing.

Most importantly, however, Facebook is a Social Networking Site on the Internet, which most people access with their PC. You don't have to be genius to figure out that successful features from this concept may be converted to a future PC game, to expand the scope of Multiplayer Civ beyond what Civ IV provides. Imagine having team diplomacy games and HOF games integrated within the program itself, and having forums like CivFanatic accessible directly within the game. You may even be able to play a game of Civ directly within such forums as well.

PC games are making increasing use of the internet, and this will only continue in the future, until PC games and internet games become the same thing. Something I heartily endorse!

 

[chrissifniotis]

Civilization on Facebook?

It's a little early for April Fools, isn't it?

Someone tell me they're kidding....

Good segway for a Red Dwarf joke;

"What's going on dudes? We are taking jape of the decade. We are taking April, May, June, July and August Fool. That's right, I am Queeg.....Queeg never exsisted, I was me all along. Driving around in circles for 18 months, getting my knowledge from the Junior Book of Astronomy. The respect you have for me is awesome, innit?.....*Queeg voice* That's right suckers. *normal* And the moral of the story is; appreciate what ya got, because in the end, I'm fantastic!" - Holly the ship computer, Red Dwarf.

This will be a very strange way to play Civilization, I'd love to have a look, but I'm not a reasonable player to be a beta tester.

 

[V. Soma]

Do I understand right that this Facebookthing won't have single player?
uhh...

I want civ 5, I want single player civ...

 

[Aravorn]

Good news!

 

[Mustakrakish]

arrg I hate facebook...

 

[xcrissxcrossx]

I have played a number of browser based strategy games, and I'm expecting something similar to that. What I have learned is that most games on facebook are almost exactly the same, and its probably just going to be a "X turns per day, build a small civ, attack your friends" type game and that will be it.

 

[Adam7Eight]

Not interested...

 

[Willowmound]

And so we enter another cycle of marketing, launch and follow-up of a game that is not Civ 5. And we keep on waiting.