Not enjoying this, here's why:

[KBlackthorne]

First let me say that I'm not new to the MMO-world, OR to Civ. I've been leading top alliances in strat-based MMOs for well over a year, now. I've also loved playing Civ for some time. I applied to the Alpha, with a group of friends who shared that interest.

I've been playing the Beta now for about 2 days, maybe 3, and I think I'm ready to quit.

Here's why:

I suppose my primary complaint is that this game leaves me wanting to log off and go play real Civ instead. It's close... it has many similar characteristics.... Managing your growing pop, GROWING your pop, creating production, culture, science..... BUT. It very quickly feels like just a Facebook game (NOT a compliment!) designed to make you log constantly.

There are HUGE chunks of time when there's not a thing to do. You can't send your units exploring during this time, like in Civ. You can't chat with other players while watching the game like in an MMO. Yet despite the lack of reward, I'm expected to watch the screen for little floating production/food/culture/science/money bubbles, and click on them to claim my stuff. That they can appear anywhere on my map at any time is its own problem. This means I must scroll the map to look for them (since I can't zoom out to look at it all at once), and the map-moving itself is a tricky process. While the map likes to be moved, and you can't start movement quite easily? It doesn't like to STOP being moved. It is routine to try to 'drop' the map to click something on the screen (for ANY reason) and instead of a successful click, have the map suddenly move instead.

The buttons for tech, culture, etc, are often confusing. Is this MY tech? My Civ's tech? If I want to contribute a Great person to a Wonder for my Civ, do I do that under my Civ? Or under Culture? (Yes, I know the answer. But during game-play, it is confusing to figure out.)

When there are related tasks -- such as generating culture, assigning a (culture-based) person to a wonder, and viewing wonders -- one should not have to go three different, unrelated places to do so.

I enjoy the mini-games, but the limits on those are too strong. Rather than being a way to fill the (prodigious) down-time, they are themselves a source of down-time.

Indeed, it ends up being so much work to play this game that the easiest move becomes to NOT play it -- to walk away for 12 hours, and then spend 15 min playing. Once can't even chat with one's team-mates during that time, as - if they're on - they probably have their screen set to a window that involved doing something IN the game, rather than the chat-window which completely blocks out the game.

Speaking of pacing... When I woke up at 6am, my Civ was being invaded by the Germans. It's now well after 8am, and that battle is still going on. The combat itself has taken over 2 hours. I can see a MARCH-TIME of 2 hours... but COMBAT for 2 hours? Come ON!

And finally, the names. What if I want to play a game without the whole game knowing my real first name? (Not everyone's named Jen and Mike, you know. Some folks DO have names they prefer to keep more private.) Or, for that matter, what if I AM MikeS. How are the folks I like to game with supposed to find me in the mass of other MikeS's? And the city-names? I'm really not sure I could come up with a WORSE way to name them. No one over 14 will think "Jennyburg" sounds like a good city-name.


Usually, if I leave a game, I just leave. I have no great need to tell folks what's wrong -- I'll just go do something I enjoy more.

This is a closed Beta, however, that I was excited to get into. So I feel like I owe some feedback.

I think I'm going to go play some Civ.... You know, in the down-time on my MMO.

[Bernardo Batista]

There are HUGE chunks of time when there's not a thing to do. You can't send your units exploring during this time, like in Civ. You can't chat with other players while watching the game like in an MMO. Yet despite the lack of reward, I'm expected to watch the screen for little floating production/food/culture/science/money bubbles, and click on them to claim my stuff. That they can appear anywhere on my map at any time is its own problem. This means I must scroll the map to look for them (since I can't zoom out to look at it all at once), and the map-moving itself is a tricky process. While the map likes to be moved, and you can't start movement quite easily? It doesn't like to STOP being moved. It is routine to try to 'drop' the map to click something on the screen (for ANY reason) and instead of a successful click, have the map suddenly move instead.

(...)

Indeed, it ends up being so much work to play this game that the easiest move becomes to NOT play it -- to walk away for 12 hours, and then spend 15 min playing.

My problems EXACTLY. Playing CivWorld is like being all tied up. If the population is not big enough, I can't apply my nation to anything new. Harvests are few and far between - even though the wiki says it gets more abundant with time. I can't walk around with units exploring the map. All I can do is play two rounds of 15 minutes each day.

[spfitzinger]

I agree with many of the complaints listed here. It's awkward, still clunky, and doesn't use my time well. Probably my biggest wish is the zoom or full screen option, with in-screen chat a close second.

That said, I've seen too many games, both in Facebook and out of Facebook, that I gave up on and left, and where down the road they evolved into a much better game that would be more fun to play. Since this is CIVILIZATION, even if not exactly like the regular game(s), I'm sticking with it to see how it evolves. I'm sure that in a couple of months it will look and feel different and many of the more common complaints will have been dealt with. And it's CIV, so it's worth the wait! :-)

[ShowtekGER]

Alright, here's my question: am i actually supposed to collect my resources by scrolling over them? And otherwise they won't be collected? If this is the case, what a giant waste of time.

[semag]

Indeed, it ends up being so much work to play this game that the easiest move becomes to NOT play it -- to walk away for 12 hours, and then spend 15 min playing.

Imo, this game is more targeted towards casual people who don't have much time to play games rather than hardcore gamers who play games all the day. It's obviously opposite of the civ series which hook you up for a long time.

[BoMbaStiXxX]

No, you're not, they are just bonus resource. Does nobody actually READ what the tutorial has to say?

[Matthias99]

Indeed, it ends up being so much work to play this game that the easiest move becomes to NOT play it -- to walk away for 12 hours, and then spend 15 min playing.

I think that's kind of the point. It's a casual game where you can check on it once or twice a day without falling behind. That's why it lets you bank lots of harvests and culture/science game moves, and the caravan minigame pays you more the longer its cooldown has been up.

If you had to put in hours of play every day to keep up, that would make the game a huge time sink, and it would be impossible for casual players to have a chance. If you want a huge time sink, just buy Civ 5.

Some of the UI things could definitely be improved. And they REALLY need to fix the bugs with civilization joining and size limits. While it's somewhat entertaining that I'm in a civilization with 100 members while everyone else has 5, it's not exactly fair. We're also getting the bug where science discoveries sometimes get credited to the wrong civ.

And finally, the names. What if I want to play a game without the whole game knowing my real first name?

Yes, this should be changed, if only for privacy concerns.

re: floating resources -- I think that while you're logged in, you don't get the normal 'trickle' resources from your town center, so the little bonuses make up for that. (It might also just not be displaying them correctly.) But you accumulate resources steadily while you're logged out.

[Telgard]

Imo, this game is more targeted towards casual people who don't have much time to play games rather than hardcore gamers who play games all the day. It's obviously opposite of the civ series which hook you up for a long time.

...and yet, it is the hardcore gamers who are the only ones within the top 10-20 ranks.

No, you're not, they are just bonus resource. Does nobody actually READ what the tutorial has to say?

No, A good number of players do not read the tutorial or the wiki. ...or even the forums for that matter before posting, complain, or asking (FAQ) questions..

[semag]

...and yet, it is the hardcore gamers who are the only ones within the top 10-20 ranks.

Well, that has just proved my point that hardcore gamers are the minority then.

[Matthias99]

..and yet, it is the hardcore gamers who are the only ones within the top 10-20 ranks.

I think this is more because there is very little strategy advice offered within the game, and even a quick persual of the wiki gives you a big advantage. (e.g. there was NOTHING in-game that told me that placing houses of the same type of workers next to each other makes them happier/more productive, or that a Granary is also a dropoff point for farmers, other than trying it and observing the results.)

A lot of games are also skewed right now due to the bugs with joining civilizations. e.g. in my game (610) the civ I'm in has easily twice as many players as all the other put together. The top 20 or so players in our game are ALL in our civ, because we're getting so many more production and tech bonuses than anyone else.

There are some advantages to being able to log in every few hours. But they're way less important than coordination and overall strategy.

[Telgard]

Well, that has just proved my point that hardcore gamers are the minority then.

...LoL, Minority that gets all the wins?

I think this is more because there is very little strategy advice offered within the game, and even a quick persual of the wiki gives you a big advantage. (e.g. there was NOTHING in-game that told me that placing houses of the same type of workers next to each other makes them happier/more productive, or that a Granary is also a dropoff point for farmers, other than trying it and observing the results.)

A lot of games are also skewed right now due to the bugs with joining civilizations. e.g. in my game (610) the civ I'm in has easily twice as many players as all the other put together. The top 20 or so players in our game are ALL in our civ, because we're getting so many more production and tech bonuses than anyone else.

There are some advantages to being able to log in every few hours. But they're way less important than coordination and overall strategy.

Little strategic advice? Hardcore players are going to win over casual players regardless. ...Your game might be skewed and your nation might be skewed to win but most of the hardcore players probably have the titles of King and princes meaning that in the end game they'll have most of the fame points.

[semag]

...LoL, Minority that gets all the wins?

Not sure I understand. All I'm saying is that this game are likely to appeal more to casual gamers rather than hardcore gamers.

[Glinda]

The change to the trickle was a response to people complaining that players who play more do better. This business about it not being "fair" that people who put more time, effort and brains into the game do better than people who look at it once a day for 5 minutes and don't read the wiki or the forum or ask for advice really annoys me. Do you REALLY want a game where everyone does the same regardless of effort? Here's your "participant" ribbon.

[Matthias99]

Little strategic advice?

Yes, unless you go and read lots of articles on the wiki. As people have been playing longer, more players will have a clue.

Hardcore players are going to win over casual players regardless.

I'm just saying that right now, a lot of things seem to be affected by bugs, so I don't think you can draw a lot of conclusions based on the games played so far.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "hardcore" here. Someone who knows what they are doing should do a lot better than someone who just places some random houses and doesn't know how to min/max things. A civ full of people who know what they are doing and coordinate their efforts should do a LOT better than one full of random, semi-inactive players. So yes, the people who play 'smarter' should end up with the most rank and fame points.

But someone who checks the game every five minutes is not doing to do dramatically better than someone who checks it once or twice a day. That's by design. The complaint of "I can do everything I need to in 15 minutes a day" has it backwards -- it would be a major problem if you had to spend two or three hours a day to keep up.

[sparek]

A lot of games are also skewed right now due to the bugs with joining civilizations. e.g. in my game (610) the civ I'm in has easily twice as many players as all the other put together. The top 20 or so players in our game are ALL in our civ, because we're getting so many more production and tech bonuses than anyone else.

At some point you will realize that being a member of very big civ is not really an advantage. In my game Spanish Confederation has got over 70 players. Together with a few people we formed small civ (5 people) and after some time we turned the game around and Spain is no longer winning