Thanks to Ber I have been playing the poor-mans Civialization (by Sid Meier) Travian a lot, a "real time multiplayer" civ clone. Playable in a browser and with the same basic addiction of Civilization that nearly cost me an extra year in college (well, that and some friends who have a drinking problem ).

I recently played Civ IV, but thats just more graphical stuff around a great idea, I think Civ I still better. No, then I like Travian. Easy, simple! If you are using better browser, you can use some greasemonkey's scripts for Travian to make Civilization easier.

The downside of the game? Well, it's "realtime". Meaning, it is not real (not very graphical) and real realtime. So upgrading a building can take some hours... But just visit the site every day and play.