If some of us are sounding like squeaky wheels, it's because we feel strongly that a chat lobby is a crucial element of a TW multiplayer experience. We want the grease. The original STW is my favorite computer game of all time. STW MP was also my first MP experience, and no MP experience since has matched it. I continued to play MTW/VI despite the unit imbalances, because I loved the community and interaction so much that it was worth putting up with the game's MP limitations. Though it provided the platform, the game itself was not the key draw at that point.

In the long term, it was the human challenge, interaction, and community that brought me back day after day, night after night. Lacking the promise of interaction and community--rivalry and camaraderie--the better part of what made multiplayer so special would be lost. The chat lobby was a crucial piece of infrastructure; it enabled real-time communication between players and groups. STW even allowed the creation of sub-lobbies, which alleviated some of the problems inherent in the main lobby. Unless CA has some remarkable alternative approach (which the recent games have not delivered, based on what I've read here and there), they would do well to re-institute the chat lobby model.

If the specific benefits (and weaknesses) provided by a chat lobby were defined, they could be compared to any alternative interfaces/infrastructures. For example, the chat lobby could be compared--feature for feature, weakness for weakness--against the current infrastructure which few here seem to like. Pros and cons of each could be identified, and a list of "must-haves" (requirements) could be produced against which any alternative could be tested. I have no experience with the recent games, but some here do. Those with IT experience know what I'm talking about--what are the functional requirements that must be met by the multiplayer interface and communication infrastructure? What did the chat lobby have that the new interface doesn't, and vice versa? What functionality must be met in order to satisfy us no matter what interface/infrastructure is implemented?