I really believe that it would be great for us to come up with some constructive ideas about how to tell our friends about Gal Civ 2, so please post your idea here if you've found it worked for you!

Personally, my technique is:

"Hey you know, the other day my friend who's a veteran in strategy games was telling me how great GC2 is, so being skeptical, I went to buy it yesterday after class, and the game is indeed awesome!"

or

"You know, my friend who always play FPS games had recently become addicted to this new strategy game. Oh, you ask what the name of the game is? I think it's called Gal Civ 2 or something"

or

"Today my TA (teaching assistant in college) who majors in artificial intelligence just told me that he had encountered the best AI in strategy gaming, he said it's called Galactic Civilization 2"

I'll add more later. In the meanwhile, keep the ideas going, guys!!