First off, since I see a lot of new faces here, I will give you a little of my TW history:

I began playing STW online (never an SP player) after about the 2nd month the game was out. I enjoyed the MP game so much I stuck around thru the Mongol expansion, MTW and its Viking expansion, and finally left TW MP after the first week of RTW's release. I do not like RTW MP. Each game in the series has taken a little more away from the MP experience and RTW finally ruined it for me (For a whole list of reasons I will not get into, but those that know me are well aware of.)

During my time in the TW community:

I hosted the first MP 1v1 tournament (STW) and then a 2v2 tournament (STW) a bit later.

I was a moderator here at the .org for several months until lack of time, forced me to resign that spot.

I actively participated in the MP clan community. First as a member of the small Blood Ronins clan, which then became the Fearful Ways clan.

I eventually became Fearful Ways Diamyo and remained for several months, until lack of time, once again, interfered and I resigned my position after making sure there was someone to take my place.

My love of Shogun, and the frustration of no MP campaign (which was the big issue at that time), made me want to try and host an MP STW campaign. After much open discussion and trial and error practice campaigns, a small group of us established a fairly good working MP campaign. Alas, time once again forced several members to drop out and the campaign faded away.

During the last days of STW, myself and Obake (A former .com admin), established an Honor Society which was a multi-clan group which tried to educate and influence the MP community on TW ettiquette and fairplay.

We also started a small community called Ugli (United Gamer's League, International). This group consisted of members from almost every clan in TW, at that time. It was created as a "non-competitive" group, which allowed members to leave clan-business/politics behind, while still maintaining membership in their respective clans.

Eventually, the Ugli's changed into a multi-gaming community, due to the problems many had with MTW's bugs, imbalances, gameplay, etc . .

During the last stages of MTW, I was asked to become a .com moderator and after a few months I was asked to admin. there. I had high hopes for RTW, especially since I was brought there initially to start up an MP forum section, and to gather ideas from the MP community on what was wanted for RTW's MP. It was a non-flaming environment with some great discussions, which led to a nice list of what the veteran MP community and newer MP players wanted to see in the next game. After, RTWs release, I realized that I had been misled as to the seriousness of CA towards creating a great MP experience for RTW. I thus played RTW MP for one week, created a long list of MP problems and expressed my dissatisfaction in the private .com admin section. I then resigned from my position as admin. since I no longer felt I could moderate patrons who were just expressing their anger at the direction RTW had taken.

I know this was a long intro, but I felt it was necessary since it proves how much I have enjoyed the series, how intimately involved I was in the community and the forums, and how dissappointed I was with RTW and CA's change of direction for the series (without letting anyone know of it until they actually bought the game and played it.)

First off: The .com moderators and Admins (With the exception of Eradosan) were all asked to become mods/admins by the current mods/admins (at that time) and not CA. There was and still is an unspoken rule, that if you actually WANT to be a .com mod. and ask to be one, you will never be asked to become one. Bat, Wart, Aurelius, Tarrak, Psycho, Killemall, all were surprised when they were asked to become mods. And they were not exactly sure they wanted to become one either, especially since they saw the way the community treats mods and admins.

Knowing I am not happy at all with CA and that I resigned from the .com because of it, I am hoping you will finally believe that there is no conspiracy to silence dissent, or complaints from patrons. Due to the sheer volume of new patrons and the unruliness of a few, many good threads get the short-shrift and are closed, moved, deleted or sent to the graveyard by the moderators and admins. Since none of the mods/admins are paid by CA and are not in any way, shape or form employees of the company or any of its affiliates, they are not compelled to defend anything CA does. The reasons some good threads get closed, is the mods/admins do so in their spare time, which in most cases is limited. This means they do not necessarily have the time to edit out pages and pages of a good post gone bad, so they just close the post. I was guilty of it quite often, but I always tried to go back to it, when I had the time and edit it and reopen the thread minus the bad stuff. I am not sure if any of you remember me from there, but I always tried to keep things light and fun for everyone.

The problem is not what is being said, but HOW it is being said. The problem you are complaining about with what MikeB (Fishpants), and the other CA reps have said, is the EXACT same problem the mods have with YOU at the .com forum: Many post appear insulting, flaming, trolling, spamming etc . . It is a fine line to know when to edit, delete, and ban and when to step back and let things continue on their course. The mods/admins always have to make a judgement on the intent of the patrons and try to keep things light and fun for the rest. Plus they also have to try to keep things tidy, by closing redundant threads and saving good threads from quickly running off of page 20. I saw a good thread started and run off of page 20 in the listings, in less than a day's time, recently in the RTW forum. If the mods/admins did not try to maintain order there, there would be NO good threads and everything would be a rehash of old statements/ideas/discussions.

So cut them some slack. I know them, I know their personalities, and I know they only mean well for the .com community. What you really have a problem with, with some of the mods, is with their manner of posting. Some may seem, at times, brusque, demeaning, short-tempered etc . . What you fail to realize is the mods not only take abuse in the open forum, but they also receive quite a few, extremely nasty PMs from individuals who feel they have a right to call people names, publicly demean other patrons, and other nefarious deeds. Being human, the mods/admins all have their breaking points and hot buttons and you might have been the last straw and they vent their frustrations on you. A lot like when someone at school makes fun of you and embarasses you in front of a lot of your friends and then you end up saying something to hurt your brother's or sister's feelings when you get home.

Until you walk in a .com moderator's shoes, you cannot know what it is like and do not know how you will react to patrons taking pot-shots at you and making false accusations. I can assure you it will feel EXACTLY like you felt when you thought Fishpants was dissing you. Now multiply that by 10 and you know what a .com mod has to put up with.

Lastly: On CA's PR and willingness/ability to patch. It is deplorable. They don't fully understand the game mechanics of the game they have been working on, and are offended when the community finds things and complains. This is why they appear arrogant. They fail to realize there is a big difference between the programming of the game and the playing of it. You guys are unbelievably innovative and in-depth in your findings, but you spend much more time at playing the game than CA ever had the time for. It is CA's job to make the game, and try to make it fun. They don't have the luxury of setting around playing the game and studying in-depth every problem that crops up. Especially with a completely new game engine and the next game/expansion coming up. This is the real problem occuring. CA doesn't understand your viewpoints and you don't understand theirs. Different focuses colliding and causing a spark which can easily to into a flame war.

I believe I have just created the longest thread I have ever made and that is saying something! Sorry, but I wanted to give you a semi-unbiased opinion on the .com forums and the people who moderate/admin there, and also cut CA a slight bit of slack. They are people just like us, who get angry, say the wrong things, are full of themselves, and sometimes easily offended, care deeply what the community thinks of them, and are genuinely surprised by all the commotion and don't know what to say to make things better.