Very aptly put Krast, your post has summed up the essence of STW.
From the moment I saw the dayglo demo of MTW I was sure that things were not going in the right direction. STW had mood and setting that these cheap imposters will never live up to, but more than that, it had a community.

The community died when MTW arrived and MP became the haunt of a different kind of player. To an extent I suppose we were, ourselves to blame. There was far too much 'in fighting' and factionalising. I still think we should have worked with each other rather than against each other, for the common good of what we all enjoyed. I did not play MTW for 3 months after its release and when I finally did, I was well aware of the many names who were no longer around..... one 'RageStorm' comes immediately to mind. So many good friends left that I began to ask myself why I was still bothering to play. The old feeling got carried away by the terrible imbalances and it would seem that RTW has even less to offer.

Lord Buddha proclaimed that nothing is permanent, all things must change and this is true for Total War too. There is a 'Fakeserver' that runs but I fear there will never be a community as there once was, no matter how much we would wish there to be. Once people begin to depart there seems an innevitability that they never return and too much time has elapsed since those initial migrations for us to ever imagine that STW could be half of what it once was.

Sadly, it is the loss of friends and aquaintances that hurts the most, the way your post describes..... Only 'type' in a window on a screen... but there is a person on the end of it.... and you may never chat with that person ever again... This is a concept that I find very difficult to come to terms with and although it does not make it any easier, all I can do is tell myself...

" My life has been made all the richer for having known these people, yourself included "
As an archer, I can't help thinking about STW each time I shoot, it's part of what attracted me to the game.

It would be nice to think that people such as yourself do not just fade into memories

.....Orda