Civilization World, which just went into open beta today, is a browser-based game that doesn’t need disclaimers. It’s fun, not just for a browser-based game (which is what you’d tend to expect if you’ve played many of the diversions that pass for games on Facebook), but for a PC game in general. The fact that it’s free and can be played in your browser is just icing on the cake.
Ahead of the holiday weekend, I had the welcome opportunity to participate in the game during its closed beta phase. I was interested to see how the game would play, as I have some experience with Zynga’s attempts within the genre. Having sunk more time into both CityVille and Empires & Allies than I care to admit, I thought I had a good idea of what I should expect, only perhaps with a Civilization logo instead of clever little notes about clearing sidewalks. I set the bar for success pretty low because everyone knows that’s what you do when you’re looking at a browser-based game, but I came through the weekend with the pleased realization that things no longer have to be that way. They only have to if you’re playing the wrong games.
Civilization World, or CivWorld for short, is not one of those "wrong" games. It begins with some much-needed tutorials. You’re walked through a few simple quests that handle things like the rudimentary task of placing houses and structures, choosing professions for your citizens and playing a number of mini-games. Though some of the interface is clunky (it’s difficult to figure out how to join an empire, for instance, and what should be the simple process of moving buildings around lacks the polish one might expect), for the most part menus are intuitive and each process works as you might expect from standard simulation games. That’s actually quite the accomplishment, because there’s a lot more depth here than most would expect from something without a product key.
CivWorld is a treat and unique within its increasingly crowded field because it doesn’t pamper the player. That means a steeper learning curve up front, for the first hour or two, but the reward is that you soon find yourself happily addicted to an experience that’s actually worth your while. Before long, you are juggling several balls at once and wondering two things: how did running a city get to be so ridiculously complex all of a sudden, and how in the world is it that you’re handling everything just fine?
In other city builders, you set down a donut shop and then you wait for a while as customers shop. Then you get to click and collect a little bit of money that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things and then the process repeats with the promise that if you repeat it 50 times, you can upgrade to a shop that earns half again as much money for every three or four minutes of time you waste. If you leave the game for too long, it’ll cost you because potential earnings reach a cap and you can’t earn money fast enough to matter unless you’re checking in all the freaking time, building cities with a bunch of friends and tolerating a slew of notifications on Facebook asking if you’ll help find a home for a lost puppy or work in someone’s wretched factory.
CivWorld has a better solution: you play the game when you want and you set things up the way you like them, maybe sit around for a while and boost your earnings... then you go do something else like work or spend time with your kids or take a shower or write user reviews for games. You know, quality things. Then you come back and you’ve earned a lot of money and resources and there are activities waiting for you that are a lot of fun. Your friends are waiting to chat, there are rival nations to conquer, and when you finally leave for a few hours or for the day or even a few days, you know that you’ll come back soon not because you have to but because you’re looking forward to having more fun.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s a first for a social media game. The developers at Firaxis have truly done something special and all it took was a willingness to trust that people will play a game and come back if they’re having fun. You can purchase a limited number of “bucks” to boost your performance in the game if you want (there’s a cap on how much you can spend each day, though, to keep things fair), but the idea isn’t shoved down your throat and you’re not constantly running into roadblocks that prevent you from getting anywhere if you decide not to make that investment. All that you really have to invest here is time, and the more time you invest the more you can accomplish.
Another thing I like is that this isn’t an endless slog. There’s depth to the game that I can’t really describe without turning this preview into a ridiculous mini-FAQ or worse, but the game also ends. You start at the dawn of time and you work through to the contemporary era and then there’s a winner and you can start fresh if you like (though your throne room remains, so that you can show off the wealth of experience and style that you have amassed). The result is that CivWorld plays out very much like a proper Civilization title, with a clear beginning and an end, with battles and expansion and wonders and discovery along the way.
Whether or not Civilization World will wind up being a success remains to be seen. It relies heavily on the presence of a lot of players and that could wind up being a problem given how fickle we all are, but so far that’s not an issue and perhaps it never will be one. With proper promotion from the publisher and from fans who start playing and realize what a great time they’re having, this could be the big one, the game that turns the Facebook gaming platform into something that matters not just to people who have 15 minutes to kill, but to people who like good games and will play them and enjoy them wherever they happen to find them.
Consider me cautiously optimistic about the game’s chances, or consider me the Greccian warrior who just sank your ship. Either way, consider me hooked.
