Has anyone been to totalwar.com recently

**Aetius the Last Roman** · 03-17-2005, 08:26

You do know that the guy that started the thread is the SEGA Europe's' Web community manager. It is basically a thread where you can ask questions about it and he will try and answer.

Kraxis, I know it is an official thread but did you see the responses from most of the 'registered users', they reply was oh how great. I really love and trust Sega. Hail to our mighty CA leaders. I personally find it very hard to believe that the merger was taken soo well by any TW gamer. After all, the reaction it got here and TW center was one of shock and horror. Am I to believe the .com users did not have similiar concerns.

This sucks, back in MTW, we could say what we wanted without the CA's Gestapo censoring our thread.

Let the dissent flourish!

**steve** · 03-17-2005, 08:37

i find it ammusing that the people at CA even bother to check or read peoples opinions at all, since it seems all anyone does is bitch and complain about this bug or this bug or something not being up to your standards. People dont seem to apprecitate that CA atleast makes an effort to please people and to fix their screw ups, i mean they could have just put the patch on the expansion and charged for it but they put it up for free.. You have to understand that they are a business and although they try to please the consumer, they ulitmatley have to make a profit. Im happy with CA, and i am also happy that they have a huge fanbase that fills in voids that Ca doesnt, such as people who work so hard to share Mods with everyone. I mean honestly, get a life and stop worrying about a video game company and obessing over it. I dont know if its sad or scary that some people care so much , i mean i love RTW and try to squeeze it in between playing guitar and school, but damn some people need to find a girlfriend.

**Browning** · 03-17-2005, 09:22

Originally Posted by steve

i find it ammusing that the people at CA even bother to check or read peoples opinions at all, since it seems all anyone does is bitch and complain about this bug or this bug or something not being up to your standards. People dont seem to apprecitate that CA atleast makes an effort to please people and to fix their screw ups, i mean they could have just put the patch on the expansion and charged for it but they put it up for free.. You have to understand that they are a business and although they try to please the consumer, they ulitmatley have to make a profit. Im happy with CA, and i am also happy that they have a huge fanbase that fills in voids that Ca doesnt, such as people who work so hard to share Mods with everyone. I mean honestly, get a life and stop worrying about a video game company and obessing over it. I dont know if its sad or scary that some people care so much , i mean i love RTW and try to squeeze it in between playing guitar and school, but damn some people need to find a girlfriend.

Exactly why do you think that fixing one's own mistakes is such an exceptional achievement that should be praised? I thought that it should be a standard, but probably I am just too old for this.

And basically because I have a life, I can only play one hour a day or so, thus the load-game bug is pretty ruining my game experience.

Perhaps when I deliver a faulty product I should tell my boss (and the customers of the enterprise I work for) to just get over it.

**AussieGiant** · 03-17-2005, 12:42

I think it is standard practise for people or companies to take responsibility for their actions. In this case I do believe CA would wish to continue correcting any serious gameplay issues. On the other hard I believe this CA desire is being negatively affected by business deals in place with Activision. That of course is not just Activision responsibility but also those in CA you struck the agreement.

I just hope that CA, in its "NEW" deal with Sega have have taken note of all the undesirable aspects of the previous relationship and removed or modified them for the New relationship. This would include topics such as patch support, development issues, and creative (realisms) areas.

**SpencerH** · 03-17-2005, 13:33

Originally Posted by steve

................i mean they could have just put the patch on the expansion and charged for it ......

Any ideas about how few people will pay for an expansion to fix bugs that came with a game they already bought?

**Browning** · 03-17-2005, 13:44

I will not.

This is my first game of the TW series, and if the things go on like they do, it's the last.

**steve** · 03-17-2005, 16:09

I agree that when the game was put out it should have been bug free ... no doubt. Maybe that wasnt a good example, but it seems to me that i do see people on their site bitching and having unrealistic expectations of a video game company. On the other hand i have seen people on there that seem to just search for the slightest imperfection of the game so they can just complain about it. I also do think that CA could have put alot of those fixes in an expasion pack that included many other features and many people would have bought them. One question i have , did MTW have so many issues when it was put out?

**Musashi** · 03-17-2005, 18:39

I was worried about the buyout when I first heard about it, as much as I like Dynasty Warriors type games, I was hoping to see more Total War style games (Including being one of the minority who'd like to see a fantasy Total War...)

However, when it was pointed out that CA has always had a console division, that they've been producing console games the whole time they've been producing the Total War games, and that Total Warrior is a different line with a different team, I'm not worried anymore, and I figure I'll probably like Spartan: Total Warrior, just hope they release it on the only console I own (PS2).

**Kraxis** · 03-17-2005, 18:54

Aetius, there was a lot of complaining. Why do you think that Alex starts out his post trying to be dimplomatic and saying he wants to calm people's fears. Hardly something I would do if there hadn't been anything but praise for the Sega buyout. Alex certainly did settle a lot of fears, and if you would care to read just the first page you will find a number of posts where people have flamed him. So obviously the .com is very much differnt than your view of sellouts and fanboys.

By that last post you just confirmed my suspicion about you. You think that your fears are the only right way and that Sega and console gaming is a bad thing in all. Other opinions (such as those you complain about) is just stupid people with little idea about how the real world revolves.

**Browning** · 03-17-2005, 19:29

Originally Posted by steve

I agree that when the game was put out it should have been bug free ... no doubt.

It is close to impossible to release a 100% bug-free software of such a complication grade as a modern PC game. But it is the self-righteous attitude of those developers (as in locking the threads with complaints about The Bug) that disturbs me.

Maybe that wasnt a good example, but it seems to me that i do see people on their site bitching and having unrealistic expectations of a video game company. On the other hand i have seen people on there that seem to just search for the slightest imperfection of the game so they can just complain about it.

You (and Kraxis in his post before this one) are very much right about that. This is why I registered on this forum and not in that one, after a period of lurking around.

I also do think that CA could have put alot of those fixes in an expasion pack that included many other features and many people would have bought them.

If they don't resolve the problem with that Major Bug in a patch before The Expansion, I will not buy the latter one. The Expansion will introduce new bugs (I have no problem with that) and I want to be able to hope that those bugs will get fixed, without me paying for an expasion-to-expansion, and then expasion-to-expasion-to-expansion etc.

**Old Celt** · 03-17-2005, 20:39

CA is behaving in a less than honorable way toward the buyers of RTW. The right thing to do is to fix gamebreaking bugs immediately, and to do it in a free patch release. Imposing censorship on people who complain, no matter how bitterly, over LEGITIMATE issues, just shouldn't happen.

I develop software and know you cannot create perfection on the first shot with a large, sophisticated program. Users know this too, and they will be tolerant to a degree of the first effort. But once you address the issues and say, "We've done all we intend to do", as CA has, you then best better have a nearly perfect product, with no bugs rated as serious or critical. The HA bug is serious, the scarring issue is serious, and the save/reload bug borders on critical for its threat to good gameplay for many users. This is hardly the kind of stuff that should have escaped them, and they need to be accountable for their errors- EVEN IF IT COSTS THEM MONEY TO FIX!!

We aren't going to get fairness though, because CA has sold its corporate soul to the devil, and we will have to pay for fixes in the expansion pack which should have been caught with release 1.1 at the latest. Abusing your customers for short term gain is never a winning business plan.

I admit I'm hooked deeply enough on RTW to pay whatever for the expansion, but I'm disappointed at the lack of both pride in their work and business ethics the management of CA are displaying over this patch fiasco. To the management of CA: If you want to play in the big leagues, then be prepared to play professionally. If you want to be anything more than a "one hit wonder" remember the importance of doing your job right, and then standing by it to correct any errors on your part.