> One of the big draws of the ORG used to be its download section
> unfortunately this is no longer the case. The admins haven't opened
> the file area so everyone (myself included) are going over to TWCenter.

Meanwhile, over at the www.twcenter.net, most are not active anymore because all we did was hype over the new game in August/September/October 2004, and that was also during the summer holiday with loads of big movies to download (Time Commanders, 2 decisive battles, dozens of trailers). At some point we hacked the data out of the demo to see all the speeches, building texts, unit texts, 1 month before the game was released (the datapack files).

Basically, before the game was out, we knew EVERYTHING about it. I am not kidding you, the game didnt surprise me anymore. It took some getting used to and I still dont have any campaign game that goes beyond 200 BC, having started and finished 8 or 9 campaigns, all on VH/VH.

This translated into little animo to go online and multiplay, and those who did are happy i guess playing there or @home singleplayer. In any case it decreased the desire to post on forums. To each his own, and surprising enough, the biggest fun for me is watching my student friends at a scientific study getting hooked by Rome, and asking me for advice on the game.

There is only so much you can get out of a game concept, and limited as it is, the forum activity with the transistion from old to new members (there are a lot of noobs who dont post but DO read), can hardly be a surprise.