Wow, so little activity

[easytarget]

A bit unfair, as in that sense any 3D tactical simulator is the same game over and over.

I've only ever played the original (WW2) trio, but by all accounts their rebooted engine has plenty to recommend it. Fans keep buying because these are niche products anyway, as with most military tactical/strategic sims. That shouldn't be surprising. Battlefront, Shrapnel Games, HPS Sim, and Matrix Games/Slitherine (though they're the most mainstream) all do this, along with a few small super-obscure developers.

Certainly, assuming their current engine keeps steady this thing -



could be the only playable product today for post-Cold War European battle.

Not sure how that changes my point, both series have been making basically the same game over about the same period. As for their rebooted engine, meh, I own and play all of them, it's ok. There's free demos of all of them, so not like you can't see for yourselves.

What is well and truly amusing though about Battlefront is their game forum (to return back to the topic of the thread), it suffers from one of the worst cases of Stockholm syndrome I've ever witnessed, it is really and truly a sight to behold. To use the term fanboi to describe their customer base doesn't come close to doing justice to the incest at work between developer and consumer there. I'd take the dead of this place over that any-day.

[Montmorency]

Not sure how that changes my point, both series have been making basically the same game over about the same period.

Certainly the point doesn't hold for market saturation in the latter case, is what I said. Unless you're making some deeper argument regarding design and aesthetic?

[easytarget]

Certainly the point doesn't hold for market saturation in the latter case, is what I said. Unless you're making some deeper argument regarding design and aesthetic?

Nah, there's no hidden meaning here, I'm really just saying both companies have made a living off of making the same game for 15 years. I guess I should be congratulating them.

[ReluctantSamurai]

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

Probably true enough, but I would guess their marketing gurus have statistics at the ready to show who is likely to buy their games. I'm not sure though, that you can draw the conclusion that interest in this forum has suffered as a result of CA's marketing strategy.

I still contend that weak multi-player support, and downgrading the ability to mod their games in a significant way in favor of DLC lies at the root. Back in the day of S1/M1, there was a huge following at the .org of folks that craved the challenges of multi-player. Playing other humans is always more challenging/fun than playing vs the AI. Spending hours and hours slogging through a campaign wasn't necessary...you fought a single battle, whether 1vs1, 2vs2, etc., and you moved on to another battle.

Through my own personal experiences, and what I've seen from other game developers, being able to significantly modify a game keeps interest fresh, and modders happy. Some of my favorite NWN games were done by modders (some of which were extensive 4 or 5 part series). Bioware actually encouraged modding by hosting competitions The venerable Baldurs Gate still has a significant following (as evidenced by the activity at the G3 Forum) more than 15 years after its' initial release because of the extensive mods and character development.

Just my 2cents....

[Nelson]

Back in the day of S1/M1, there was a huge following at the .org of folks that craved the challenges of multi-player.

I must disagree. There has never been a huge MP following for any Total War game. Never. I've been here since the first acorn fell, and this story of a Golden Age of Total War multiplayer nirvana is a myth. There were a couple of dozen (at best) very vocal MP players on this site who generated enough smoke to simulate a mighty conflagration from what amounted to a little campfire.

Perhaps MP was more popular relatively speaking in at some point in the past, but it was a sideshow, and a wee tiny one at that.

[ReluctantSamurai]

There has never been a huge MP following for any Total War game. Never.

There were a couple of dozen (at best) very vocal MP players on this site who generated enough smoke to simulate a mighty conflagration from what amounted to a little campfire.

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 threads and 1,335 posts.

Perhaps MP was more popular relatively speaking in at some point in the past, but it was a sideshow, and a wee tiny one at that.

Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

[Nelson]

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 posts and 1,335 threads.



Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

Fair enough. I still don't believe that the numbers represent "a huge following" in any meaningful sense, though. Regardless of how much posting went on, only a small percentage of purchasers bothered with MP. Certainly the activity then was greater than our traffic now. This is an Org problem, of course, not a CA/Total War issue. When Rome arrived, so did TWC where the game was received with far greater interest than here at the Org. This was the beginning of the Org's decline, IMO. Prior to TWC, the Org was it for no holds bared game critique/discussion. It was the publishers site or us, pretty much.

BTW, your response represents something that for sure was huge around here, and that is class. It represents exactly the sort of thing that put us on the map and kept us viable for so long.

[Slaists]

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 threads and 1,335 posts.



Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

Could it be that new players mostly go to .com, steam forums and reddit nowadays? Looking at the sales figures, total war series is far from dying. Warhammer has broken sales record for the franchise?