Firaxis has announced the existence of Sid Meier's Civilization Network which looks to be a "Facebook version" of Civilization. The game is currently in development and the official Facebook page indicates that they will be seeking for beta testers soon.
We’re calling this project Civilization Network and the full game will be available next year on Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world’s most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it’ll be free to play.
"Civ in a fully presistent environment" at least sounds real2136ly interesting. While the classic Civilization gameplay isn't very MMO-like, I could see many ways to make a Civ game persistent and Firaxis is a company who just might be able to come up with something genuinely innovative.
No word yet how they are going to be making money out of it. I guess in theory it could rely on ads or just be a huge promotional tool for the real deal - Civilization, after all, is a game that keeps selling year after year. Still, until we're told otherwise, those unholy words "free to play" do trigger the "possible stupid milking through microtransactions detected" alert I my systems, so at this point I have some reservations... Could be interesting, could be yet another failed attempt to cash in on the Facebook craze.
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