Want an easy way to play Civ V online? Say hello to Giant Multiplayer Robot!

[m4stermel]

I've already posted this in the Multiplayer forums, but wanted to let those of you who haven't given multiplayer a shot a chance to see this. It's easy and convenient enough that you might just want to try it out!

Ever tried to do an email game of hotseat in Civilization V? Not the easiest thing to put together or maintain. It takes lots of repetitive work, and gets even more complicated if someone decides to stop taking their turns. And standard multiplayer? Sure, it’s fun, but simultaneous turns makes it a different game, and it’s a hassle to have everyone online at once.

Well, we didn’t think this was cool, so we made a new service called Giant Multiplayer Robot. It’s a simple (and free!) way to play hotseat games over the internet, either with people you know or with complete strangers.

Here’s what we’ve got cooked up right now, with more features coming in the future:

• Play hotseat games over the internet without exchanging emails or keeping track of whose turn is next
• Login through Steam – no need for yet another online account
• Browse public games to play with strangers or invite your friends to private games
• Lock your turns from being messed with by setting an in-game password on our website. Want to change the password later? Your new password will instantly apply in every game you’re in
• Desktop app that manages downloading and uploading your save files automatically (it’s also the only way to use the service for now, but we hope to make website-only an option later on)
• A player can leave a game at any time. In your game, they’ll be turned into an AI player (in the future, you’ll be able to votekick players too, if someone’s really trying to ruin your game)
• Notifications for when it’s your turn via our website, email, and/or the desktop app
• Play in up to 10 games at once for free (our server can only handle so much – but Moderator Action: link preemptively removed, further decision pending. if you help us out with our costs[/URL], we’ll let you play in as many games as you want!)

Anyway, if you want to give it a shot or find out more, we’re going beta right now! Just head to Moderator Action: link preemptively removed, further decision pending. . If you run into any problems or have questions, feel free to Moderator Action: link preemptively removed, further decision pending. .