Quote Originally Posted by easytarget View Post
Core game mechanic is the same. You're just making the typical TW fan "I've been playing them since Shogun released" argument about dumbing down for casuals we've all heard a thousand times. Me, I'll apply occam's razor and look for the simpler more obvious explanation, they've been doing the shame shit for 15 years.

And I find the suggestion laughable there is or ever has been a huge market for "serious strategy games".
But you are wrong there easytarget in so many ways that I would think it would not need explanation. Apparently it does.
Let me start by saying that just because an argument has been made many times does not mean that argument is invalid. In fact, many of the best arguments in the world have been made millions of times by millions of people.
Second, how can you say that Total War is not shifting its focus from trying to be as realistic, serious of a simulation as possible to being more of a casual game?
The faction bonus, the character bonuses, the RPG element, the new fantasy setting, etc, etc, etc. At their core, current TW games barely resemble older TW games, and that is not a good thing.
And don't get me wrong, it is not that I do not like change. RTW was a massive improvement over previous titles (despite dumbing a few elements down); I said that then and I say that now.
Medieval II saw some improvements over RTW, so it was a tiny step forward.
Along comes Empire and it is a total disaster. My beefs with that game was that it was not complete, was bugged as hell, moved toward the DLC trap, and really suffered from being not modder friendly. I hated the game at the time. After literally years of being patched though, I consider the game it is in its current state to be a massive advancement. It still got us into the slippery slope of DLC, it was still not that modder friendly, and it still was dumbed down in a few areas, but for the most part it added depth and made the simulation more realistic and put more control into the hands of the players.
Then came Napoleon and laid the blueprint for the doom of CA games. They really messed up and hurt their reputation with Empire, but it turned out a solid game in the end. Napoleon on the other hand really made a push toward the casual crowd that the series has never recovered from. They added the stupid RPG stuff, the special abilities, took away control from the player, etc, etc.
Shogun II was more of the same. It took the casual push of Napoleon even farther and majorly dumbed down game mechanics to take an incredible amount of control out of the player's hands.
RTW II was the same type of half-baked release disaster as Empire, but instead of turn out to be a good game in the end like Empire did, it turned out to be more of a progression into the world of casual gaming garbage.
Don't get me started on the complete joke that is Total War Hammer, or Hammered Total War, or whatever the heck they are calling it.

The truth is that there is a big audience for realistic war simulations. The success of the Total War franchise is proof of that. Is it as big as the market for Pokemon Go or Angry Birds? No, but it is loyal and there is very little competition. Total War can own the market and be a huge success if they stick true to their real fanbase. Casual games don't want a casual game that is mixed with strategy, because it is not casual enough. Serious gamers don't want a strategy game that is mixed with casual gaming bull because it is too casual. CA is shooting itself in the foot with what it is doing, and the state of these forums is proof of that. I don't buy modern TW. I could see what RTWII was turning out to be just by the trailers. If CA was to put out a realistic true-to-their-roots strategy game with all the added depth that modern technology would make possible, me and so many like me would come flocking back to throw our money at them.
Unfortunately I think that they will not learn their lesson till they go out of business. They think that we serious gamers are a demographic that is dying off. They forget that most of us got interested in this stuff when we were kids, and there are always new kids getting interested in it. They can grow their fanbase only by playing to it, not shunning it.