Oh, an idea! What if we could be two players controlling the same civ? It's then up to the players to decide who takes care of what. With a Voice over IP software - or in LAN of course - I think it could be easily manageable.
This could also be a way to have more than eight players on a map. I can imagine duo partners tournaments.
Aye, I suppose it could be boring in the beginning of a game. But one could take care of sending explorers around the map and capture wild animals, and give orders to peasants, for example, while the other places the buildings and takes care of the economy.
PS: Sorry for I should have edited the previous post.