[quote name='tekworm']Check out EVONY, TRIBAL WARS and TRAVIAN for really interesting, fun, MMORTS games.
They are all online, Evony even features global, alliance, private chat, etc.
I believe all of them have built in friends lists, and are full-featured RTS games similar to civilization and/or age of empires.
Evony is the prettiest, and has the most social features but is also the most criticized and controversial games due to its microtransaction model and controversial advertising campaign.
If you read about EVONY don't listen to the haters who say you have to play to be competitive...this is simply NOT TRUE. I play in a top alliance and have yet to come across a player who doesn't play completely for FREE.
www.evony.com
www.tribalwars.net
www.travian.com[/QUOTE]
Civilization is turn-based strategy not and real-time strategy.
I'm not a 'hater' of those games but there is a lot of downside you are not covering in recommending them to the OP.
I mean it's great the games are free but they come with a lot baggage and hassle in using them.