For any gamer worth their salt, the name Sid Meier is well known, as his company, Firaxis Games. Formed in 1996 after leaving Microprose alongside veteran designer and composer Jeff Briggs and now lead game designer of Zynga, Brian Reynolds. Although he has designed other games, Sid Meier and Firaxis are normally coupled alongside the venerable strategy series, Civilization. With its fifth iteration having just recently won the game critics award for best strategy game at E3 2010, it’s clear the series hasn’t lost any of its appeal in its 19 year lifespan.
While Civilization V stole the show at E3, another extremely important chapter in the Civilization family is also coming to light: Civilization Network – the game’s first foray into the global social network gaming scene. Indeed, Civilization has always been a game of relationships – whether it was playing solo against the AI, online against other players from around the world, or hot seat with a buddy, extending into the social network gaming market seems like the next logical move for the genre. With a powerful IP behind it, Civilization Network looks to truly revolutionize the market – there really has not been anything like it ever made, and if promises hold true, will usher in a start of really compelling games across networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
Although a rather young genre of gaming, social network gaming has become huge business over a very a short period of time. Just take a quick Google of Farmville or Mafia Wars and you will undoubtedly find references to the large sums of money both games are making. Despite their successes however, these games have never been seen in a fair light from the core gamer demographic, with criticisms of shallow game play being the main source of frustration. Indeed, even for many industry players, the social network gaming scene is currently seen as a playground for casuals – where complex systems of game play are likely not going to be well appreciated.
With the introduction of Civilization Network, Firaxis hopes to change this outlook. The series has always been known as being an easy to pick up, difficult to master style of game play, and has always been widely regarded by the core gamer demographic as one of the cornerstones of PC gaming. Although few details have as of yet been revealed about the game, Sid Meier has stated that it will be “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.” With a statement such as that, it would be safe to assume that the core Civilization game play will not be altered or “dumbed down” in any major fashion. What has kept many gamers wondering however is everything else: Will you be able to create individual nations based on the number of friends you have? Will it include advertising and / or micro transaction financing? A multitude of other questions follow.
Despite this, this author can’t help but feel excited about this. Growing up, Civilization was always a staple of my gaming regimen, so to see it expand and grow into an area with incredible potential is really exciting for me. No release date has been forthcoming for the game, but rest assured this author will be one of the first in line to try it when it is.
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