An interesting development

**Tomisama** · 01-07-2006, 23:30

Wasn't Spartan Total Warrior developed by CA though?

Yes that is correct. Please forgive my ignorance. I was speculating on possibilities, with no in-depth knowledge. I will be sure to do my home work in the future.

Theory is wrong.

In that case, I am happy to be wrong. I too was initially glad to hear that SEGA’s involvement. But believe that they are, and will be operating only in the same capacity as Activision and Electronic Arts before them, with little or no concern with the development and maintenance of the actual games.

But I would love to be wrong about that also

**UgliElmo** · 01-08-2006, 01:11

I decided to add my two cents worth in that thread at the .com:

"The online community has never been given much priority with CA.

With each new TW game the MP community fell lower and lower on CA's priority list. The initial RTW MP game was proof of exactly how low on the priority list MP had dropped. It had fewer features, old problems from the past, and a really bad lobby interface which didn't attach usernames with CD-Keys (which is the main reason for chat being removed). Without the CD-Key-to-username, players cannot be banned from the server, nor can they be permanently #ignored or #banned from games since all they have to do is log on with a different username. This is very interesting, since MTW also used the Gamespy servers, but had the ability to permanently ban and ignore players from the MP lobby. Why would this have changed for RTW? Cost issues? New programmers?

A vast majority of the old STW/MTW MP community left once they tried RTW's MP and found it to be lacking. A vibrant MP community was deemed unneccessary and unimportant since CA's target market had changed. I am sorry to hear that the new tarket market group of MP players (who replaced the old MP community) are already having to deal with the reality of where MP stands in the overall CA TW grand scheme of things.

If you believe things will change for the better: They will not. Ask anyone who has been here since the STW days and they will tell you the truth (if you have any doubts) about the history of the TW MP and CA.

Some would agree, the only reason MP was included at all was due to the fact the game would not have gotten very good reviews, nor sold as well, if it had left MP out entirely. It has been said the MP community is a small percentage of overall sales of the TW series, but it is used as a major selling point when marketing the game. This "small percentage" mindset is why RTW MP does not receive the attention the current MP community expects. There has never been, and will never be, an interest shown in the needs of the MP community."

CA needs to be reminded every now and then they ignore the MP community at their own peril. Eventually their games will stop selling, since they haven't added anything to gameplay since STW. I think it is a dead franchise, on its last legs. I am not sure if they have lost their best programmers or if they have just decided to milk the game until everyone shows their displeasure by not purchasing future TW games. THAT is the real way to get their attention. If it doesn't effect the bottom line, it isn't important to them.

**RTKCharlemagne** · 01-10-2006, 08:33

Very good points Elmo.

**Oswald** · 01-11-2006, 00:06

<sighs>

**ElmarkOFear** · 01-12-2006, 06:18

I am setting up a thread to collect a wishlist for the next TW game. Please participate in it and point out what absolutely must be in the next game to make MP work well and be attractive in drawing in new players.

Example: CD-Key-to-Player-Username feature so CA will not have to shut down chat to stop the current problems with harrassment etc . . Need to be able to permanently ban/ignore players from your chat screen and games. Also, in extreme cases, a player could be banned from the MP lobby altogether.

Things such as this. It may not do any good, but now would be the time to present a list since CA's attention has been drawn to MP with the shut down of chat. I am sure they would like to avoid that in the next game and will be more susceptible to take a close look at the MP community's wish list as long as it is non-critical of the current game and lists a valid reason why the item would be good for the game (MP and/or SP).

I will also post at the .com asking for ideas/wishes.

I am willing to come back to TW if they bring back features of old, which made the MP game so much fun to play. Atmosphere is what is missing from RTW MP. For some reason it just doesn't have that "THANG" which keeps you coming back. :)

**RTKCharlemagne** · 01-16-2006, 09:43

My latest post at the RTW forums...

In a conversation I had with Choja several weeks back, he stated that in a personal meeting with 2 upper level Sega managers concerning the lobby issue, the Sega representatives made a comment alluding to a perception that MP had only 200 people playing. The comment was made in relation to making decisions investing more money to fix the chat issues based on such a small number of people playing.

At this point based on the lack of response from Sega, I have no reason to doubt his statement. Where is our answer Shogun???

The wait, along with the unresponsiveness of Sega is unnaceptable.

**cromwell** · 01-16-2006, 16:30

Maybe we need another letter from the community, with sigs attached. We could mail this directly to Sega, and put pressure on from another angle. Forget going through "shogun" and the .com. There are more than 200 people all told, it's just that the online atmosphere sucks.

If Sega isn't concerned due to the small amount of people online, I wish CA would just release a server patch, and let us run our own servers. This takes them off the hook, and gives us some control.

Later all

Cromwell