Alright! Galactic Civilizations III is on its way and this time confirmed with multiplayer! Yay!

But since I well remember how many people pleaded for some sort of hotseat implementation in GalCiv II (and there was a way by cheat to at least somewhat approximate that) and how we were then told by the developers that it would be impossible due to how the games code was built, I'd like to ask from the start of the development cycle to please implement hotseat multiplayer for GalCiv III. It has been by far the most deciding factor for many of my friends, all whom remember well lots and lots of hotseat sessions with Master of Orion II, if they would buy a new 4X game. The last years have been very disappointing in that regard, with even games like Infinite Space not giving the hotseat crowd a bone. I would hope that Stardock will help us out and give us with GalCiv III a game which can draw friends together again, sitting around a computer and strategizing together and against each other.

For the people who have never played a 4X game with hotseat multiplayer, "hotseat" is to mean that you are running one copy of the game on one computer, with multiple people switching control, as each one takes her/his turn controlling ones empire. Obviously turn-based games offer themselves to this style of play.

And, no, as far as my circle of friends goes, nobody much cares that you can see what the other player is doing. The important thing is going to a friends house and playing a good strategy game together.