Only a couple of responses, as this discussion is essentially pointless while I'm not in charge of CA...

>>Compared to TW, Stronghold is a pathetic excuse for a tactical game. I'm surprised you could even put it in the same class its so bad. I kid you not, I haven't put it into my computer since I bought it over 3 years ago. Really it was just Lemmings on crack with no tactical elements--just puzzle solving and fast clicking.

But to me, that's all the Warcraft games are. I don't get traditional RTSs at all. The fact that millions of people want to play it online, beautifully polished and easy to play though it may be, is completely baffling to me. But Stronghold? Stronghold has castles. Lots of castles. I love castles. I don't care if it's a pathetic excuse for a tactical game; it's got castles.

>>Because we are the players and we say so. That's about all we have that we can tell you. If you would share some of your figures or even your opinion maybe we would have something to work off--but you are asking us to persuade you without even knowing where you stand.

That 1% thing is a number. Why would it be industry gospel that's constantly slapped in your faces if companies hadn't tried and died to prove otherwise?

My personal opinion? I get through almost as many opinions as this board does. I can see sense in much that people say. I personally would like to provide a fantastic MP component, but on the other hand it would be very tempting to just ditch it. The figures that come to mind concerning MP are that it gets somewhere between 5% and 10% of the programming effort, 1% of the customers, and 50% of the abuse.

But ultimately, I'm not in charge, so your not knowing what I think doesn't matter.