Civilization Facebook Game Admits Defeat

[IanDavis]

Civilization Facebook Game Admits Defeat

CivWorld shutters its doors after two years on Facebook.

"Rulers of great civilizations, repent! The world is coming to an end!" While one [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117862-The-Eternal-War-Ten-Years-of-a-Single-Civ-2-Game]Civilization II game[/a] has slogged on for a decade now, the social spinoff CivWorld [a href=https://www.facebook.com/civworld]announced[/a] that it will be going under after two years. Current players have until May 29th to customize their throne rooms, spend their CivBucks, and say goodbye to their personal empires until the Facebook game goes dark forever.

Famed series creator Sid Meier was involved with CivWorld's design. While it still had the strategic core the franchise is known for, it also mixed in other elements common to the social medium. The result was a game that focused more on cooperation with other players rather than competition between them. Unlike traditional Civ games, CivWorld had no actual end, with the intention to keep players clicking indefinitely. CivWorld hit its peak in July 2011 with 88,754 active daily users. In January of last year, that number was 5,000. Today, it barely scrapes by with 2,000 daily active users. Even happy cartoon Sid wasn't enough to keep players clicking.

Facebook has not proved to be a very receptive place for social versions of AAA titles. CivWorld joins other failed social adaptations like [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117357-EA-Closing-Dragon-Age-Legends]Dragon Age: Legends[/a] and [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120395-Ghost-Recon-Commander-Cancellation-Kills-Development-Jobs]Ghost Recon Commander[/a]. Ironically, Civilization 2 designer Brian Reynolds joined ([a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121773-Zyngas-Chief-Game-Designer-Jumps-Ship]and recently left[/a]) Zynga. Along with the former giant's [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121931-More-Zynga-Games-Get-The-Axe]recent cullings[/a], it's not difficult to speculate that the social bubble is deflating a bit, if not yet fully collapsing. It should be interesting to read postmortems about these experiments with social gaming in years to come.

Starting April 2nd, players will no longer be able to redeem their Facebook credits for CivBucks. This gives players two months to spend their balance until the sun sets in CivWorld forever. Interested parties can read more details about the eminent apocalypse [a href=http://support.2k.com/entries/23283618-CivWorld-Shutdown-Frequently-Asked-Questions]here[/a].

Source: [a href=https://www.facebook.com/civworld]CivWorld Facebook[/a] via [a href=http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2013/03/01/civworld-shutting-down/]Inside Social Games[/a]

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[Carnagath]

I remember checking this out. Expected a "Civ-light" that I could play with friends. What I got, was a bloated, buggy mess which exists only to push microtransactions.

What they don't seem to get, is that Civilization traditionally attracts actual gamers. When you replace it with a horrible cowclicker, they won't play it, which leaves you with housewives and 17 year old girls as a target audience. They won't play it either. That's why cowclicker versions of AAA games always fail. Let's hope more of them pull the plug soon, it's just sad to see such malformed "games" existing.

 

[Ldude893]

And the most tragic thing about this is that absolutely no one saw this coming. Absolutely no one.

 

[oldtaku]

Boy, why wouldn't players want a Civ game you can't win. That it can't possibly let you win because it needs to keep c@#$teasing you and trying to get you to buy more stuff forever.

 

[Alandoril]

And you know why it's not been the most receptive place for these games...because they're terrible.

 

[IanDavis]

I remember trying it out back in the day and after the tutorial, I never logged in again. It wasn't at all what I expected from a Civ game. I logged back in to take that screenshot and found myself ranked 120th on the leaderboard for some reason. I actually tried to get into the game a bit more this time and found that it devolves into the slow, steady, staircase of accomplishment that social games are known for. For some reason, the entire "genre" is this way, which seems like more of a market thing than an actual platform thing.

 

[Evil Smurf]

next time, just make a new Alpha Centuri.

 

[MorganL4]

I remember, I played this for all of a week....... It was the week I was on jury duty....... I would wake up, go to jury duty, come home at noon, boot up facebook, play the game and go to bed, wash rinse repeat for the week..... When I was done with jury duty I was done with the game.

 

[Evil Smurf]

next time, just make a new Alpha Centuri.

News article some time in the future

"Alpha Centuri 2 makes more in first week than Facebook Civ made in 2 year run, developers wondering how they could have been so stupid."

I'd forgive them for any facebook game too.

 

[SecondPrize]

I tried this when the beta was announced. Couldn't get past the 'wait a while' to do something. I'm usually popping in and out of facebook, but when playing a game I want to play it, not check up on it every so often. Perhaps I wasn't the target market for this, It's the first FB game i've played so maybe this is how they're all designed.

 

[Rastrelly]

Heh, when I saw CivWorld announcements I was really engaged. I was hoping they'll make it like more dynamic version of Civ for lesser sessions of intense gameplay with some sort of fights for provinces while developing the core of the Empire to support those province combats... But THAT stuff??? Who could even think it can work at all???

 

[Greg Tito]

next time, just make a new Alpha Centuri.

A thousand times this.

 

[The Funslinger]

next time, just make a new Alpha Centuri.

Yeah, but not as a Facebook game.

Dear God, anything but that!

Also, I'm asking you about your cat user group.

 

[DoveAlexa]

Honest question: if the social bubble has burst, does that mean the whole 'everything must be tied to sharing' system that the PS4 is going to have is just Sony jumping onto a bandwagon that has not only long passed, but is in a ditch and on fire?
Does this also mean that the generation after these new-boxes might be free of this constant and superfluous style of socializing? I'm really hoping it does.

 

[DoveAlexa]

Honest question: if the social bubble has burst, does that mean the whole 'everything must be tied to sharing' system that the PS4 is going to have is just Sony jumping onto a bandwagon that has not only long passed, but is in a ditch and on fire?
Does this also mean that the generation after these new-boxes might be free of this constant and superfluous style of socializing? I'm really hoping it does.

I wish it would die, die in a horrible fire...

But ass Angry joe pointed out, the Share feature for the PS4 is more likely aimed at people who do things like Lets Plays and such, even though it will probably be useless for them as it doesn't allow them to do any of the editing and the like, just shows everything on the fly

Well, I hope that's more the case. I was worried it was going to become a new sort of achievement system where you get bothered constantly to do things right in the middle of playing. Like for example, you're playing an intense stealth game and right at a crucial moment the game pops up with some semi-relevant advice and asks if you want to share your progress (make a useless status update) with friends right then and there, which will pull you completely out of the game to do so.

If its about game streaming, I know a friend who streams games on PC constantly. If the system can play it without lag, good for it, but if not, why even bother?

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

Yeah if I want an endless play game that you can't win so to speak I'll play fucking Illyriad. CivWorld was a horrible decision, a waste of time and effort, a bloated mess and a piece of shit all around. I'm glad it's gone under and gone.

 

[weirdee]

The true reason for the PS4's share button is to ensure that the only friend left for PS4 owners is Sony.