Here’s how the Civilization Online MMORPG will work

Civilization Online will launch in Korea “very soon”, according to 2K senior producer Garrett Bittner, but the rest of the world world has been kept in the dark about this game… until now.

Civilization Online is a cooperative MMORPG in the truest sense. Unlike traditional MMOs, emphasis in this game is on each individual civilization’s success, rather than the player’s. 2K Games has been heavily involved in the production led by XL Games.

There are a total of four civilizations players can choose from at this point, and since the focus is not on the individual player, there are also no player classes. Instead, at the hands-on demo at G-Star 2014, I was able to choose from a variety of pre-set character models, ranging from the strapping Roman hunk to the generic, broad-shouldered craftsman.

Players will need to work together in order to fight off invaders and get cities set up. This involves chopping trees and smashing rocks for wood and stone building materials, and performing simple quests. From there, they’ll be able to work together to ensure their civilization’s dominance.

How things will work




Having a massive bunch of people running around the map, setting up their own little towns would be chaotic, to say the least. So XL Games and 2K have decided to allow only guild leaders set up cities. Guild leaders will be in charge of the city’s layout, so they’re the ones who get to choose which building goes where, after which all you non-guild-leader peons need to start mining stone and chopping down trees to get these buildings up and running. During this layout stage, the camera view switches from third-person to top-down, and the city planning UI comes into play.

Anyone can be a guild leader, but since these cities have to literally be built brick-by-brick, each will need a minimum of 20 players to progress at a playable rate. There is no limit on the number of players who can join, and subsequently, no limit on the number of people who can go to war! These cities, or guilds, in Civilization Online will also be more fluid compared to traditional MMORPGs, with players being able to join at will depending on each guild’s settings.

See: Warlords of Draenor is one of the best World of Warcraft expansions yet (review)​

Guilds will have to work together within their respective civilizations to do battle with the other three battling for dominance. War will take place within server-initiated sessions – which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to three months. It appears that a standard game session will last for a week. These sessions will have victory conditions straight from the boxed Civilization game: domination, culture, and science.