the future of MP

[Cheetah]

I don't think CA is trying to deliberately kill the MP community; they don't even run their own servers so doubt there is any substantial cost in keeping it going. Can still play the previous editions in Gamespy afterall, can't see why that would change.

There is more cost than that. someone has to write the MP code, there is unit balancing, MP bughunting, then someone has to test the MP changes, etc.

It's the remainder though which is the issue, I think many people we play x number of games, find they're beating everyone, but there isn't the infrastructure in place to find better opponents, it's just pot luck. There's no ladder, no decent match making service, no lobby to find others or clans to play with, nothing apart from a screen listing games (on which even the user rank doesn't even display anymore) of which you have pretty much no idea over the quality.

Well exactly, but do not you find it strange that CA denies basic infrastructure that was present in all previous games and does not move a finger to fill the gap?
Moreover, even the existing infrastructure is dysfunctional, steam code for people online/in game is highly misleading, people in green are actually in game so they are not suitbale opponents and all the rest are in blue even if you just swithced on your computer to read the news. Strange coincidence?

Stopping the servers being decentralised is a no-brainer imo, can't imagine it being hard really.

Yet you can be sure it will not happen.

Why anyone ever thought regional game lists would be a good idea without making sure there were many playing throughout all the regions is beyond me.

That is the point. This and similar decisions make no sense if you assume that CA wants a thriwing MP but makes a lot of sense if they want to get rid of it.

At the end of the day, it's starting to get too late for ETW now. It's just being let down by silly factors, which is a shame, as the balance of the game is much better than previous versions and the game does have a lot of (unrealised) potential.

I definitely agree with you on this one! The problem is that IMO CA long give up on the current MP format seeing the failure of it to draw in large crowds like RTS or MMORPG games. Remember the RTW changes, green highlights, flaming arrows, elephants, RTS camera settings etc. This all was done to bring in the RTS crowd. It failed. I think that from that point on MP was regarded as a neccessary but unwanted burden. With the new MP campaign at last they can get rid of it.
Of course the crying shame is that they made the wrong decision at the wrong time. It is like seeing a blindfolded long distance runner to give up just a few meter short of the finish line. CA was running all these years and they never finished a proper MP product after MTW. Either the balance was missing or good maps or both, or there were game breaking exploits (blobbing and pushthrough). Not surprising that despite the core support these games failed to pull in a large crowd. They just missed the quality and substance.
Finally after so many years with ETW they nailed it down. They have the balance, they have the best maps, there is no game breaking exploits I am aware of, with STEAM they have the largest pool of potential players ever.
I hoped that we could get an MP game at least of the quality of MTW if not STW.
Then what happens? CA gives up just a few meters short of the finishline and denies core services. Ducky digged up the stats: thousands of players tried out ETW MP. With the core services running there could be still hundreds playing each days. With a bit of an effort, like CA sponsored tourneys and map making competitions even more.
Alas, I do not think that they will change their position. IMO the decision was already made and what we see here is the implementation of it. It is a crying shame but I have no idea what we could do about it.