An interesting development

[dreadedmob]

By shogun

I ask that the community show a united front

We have always had a front against them but now we have another front and its against you.

Shogun you have been decent about this but infact the whole thing is not excusable by you guys finally talking about something.

Im sure the comunity will forgive you if you start taking our opinions alot more.
If you don't it proves you don't really care about mp.

[Emperor[1G]]

Seems to me a simple solution:

Install a code on the chat lobby that blanks out or puts in random characters such as %&$&$ in place of an offensive word.

or

barring that, install an option so people can turn on a profanity filter. MANY games use this. And while Blizzard Inc. pisses me off no end in other ways, the way their lobbies and Bnet are setup would be a good example.

Having killed off chat lobby communitcation, our show matches that we broadcast over our radio network are now dead since we can't hear the responses of the players/observers. Then again, trying to get anyone to play the game anymore has pretty much made the venture pointless, hence the fact none of our casters (myself included) has had any interest in doing more audio replays due to the frustration and time sink just getting a game going is.

I don't know how many people setup matches on your forum boards, but except for show matches almost every game Ive ever played in was pick ups, with people needing to advertise an opening/rules for their game to fill it up.

Finally, I take personal offense to the insinuation that WE as a community have NOT already put up a united front. You think we condone this kind of behavior? Our problem isn't that your dealing with the issue, its that its taken you THIS long to deal with it, its something that should have been addressed before the games release by your development team (as so many other games have done) and rather then taking the suggestions of your community who play this game all the damned time, you instead shut the whole operation down. So tell me Shogun, if you were the consumer and this had happened to you, on top of an already ungodly interface and horrific hosting by Gamespy, how would YOU react? I challenge you to try and play a night of ONLINE Rome: Total War, either version, then come here and tell us you've done a marvelous job.

This isn't the kiddie Battle.net crowd you're dealing with. Those kind of people don't play this game. You're dealing with older gamers who are more serious about the hobby then enjoy. Having said that: I bought RTW on the success and fun of Shogun and Medeival. You lost my business BECAUSE of RTW, and the support of my gaming community.

[Grey_Fox]

This isn't the kiddie Battle.net crowd you're dealing with. Those kind of people don't play this game. You're dealing with older gamers who are more serious about the hobby then enjoy.

Actually the game is marketed at 12 year olds up, so CA is essentially dealing with a large number of children. It was STW and MTW that had the older fanbase. Sad but true.

[Squirrel_of_hatred]

Marketed at 12 year olds up now there could be a reason.

They take a fantastic game/military simulation like Medieval total war then dumb down the realism to create a game RTW appealable to children did you not hear the expression, boys will be boy's, YES kids will behave like kids when in the lobbies you make a game for kids then Gawp at childish behaviour in the lobbies

The Sparkling! units in BI and Beserker animations are downright condesending, whats next -lightning bolts? the inhuman abilities given to the urban cohorts for example makes one scratch one's head and say well that aint right. Its like the main priority was on the single player campaign and the romans where souped up to increase enjoyment, after all they where not noted for their cavalry yet have the best cav in the game. Its all wrong and feels as such after all how many people have downloaded RTR. In a game like this if doesnt feel real it doesent feel right.

The Bugs have been there for age's not just a while (When was RTW released?) i.e. unit control and units simply not obeying your commands as given or doing an order contrary to that issued this turns joy into bemusment and frustration.

If i am checking the lobbies community then i dont have time to fix the problems you imply sorry lad im an adult so that just doesent wash for a myriad of different reasons.

You create a game for kids and up, But kids generally dont buy tactical/strategy games those that do, behave as expected. The main purchaser for this game i would guess would be the gamer looking for an plausible and intelligent experience, history/discovery channel fans' that prefer RTW even over the flash and dazzle of the half lifes and such, yet im not sure you have grasped this.

There is a great many things right with RTW dont get me wrong. Just what was so wrong with shogun and medieval that you felt it the need for change? did it not sell enough copies?

[cromwell]

Whoever is the one pushing the legal actions or causing the trouble, has obviously not played online much. Any game no matter what age it's marketed towards has all kinds of people playing. Everyone knows you have to put up with topics you dislike, or names that are offensive... you know what I mean.

In other words it a big world out there and you have to learn to have thick skin.

I have always wanted the ability to host my own TW servers. I can police them the way I want, and if you don't like it go to another server. ie: CS

CA, give us the "internet.cfg" file back, and tell the person(troublemaker) you now offer private servers and a public one(gamespy). If the person offended by racist remarks wants to play in a sterile environment he can host his own server and play with his friends.

Cromwell

[Puzz3D]

Maybe the quality of play will rise in RTW/BI if the chat is left disabled because the people who go there to offend will no longer have a reason to be there.

[dreadedmob]

glad you guys agree with me.
shogun no msger should be shot but i am not buying your games again (CA) and my high feelings for sega have my damaged heavily for the simple reason that you are not worthy of my trust.

i did not trust you guys to leave the lobby up because i expected it and this is a stab in the back.Don't expect money from me or anyone i can preach the word to.
thanks for at least posting shogs.

edit** puzz thats a stupid comment as new ones come all the time and we would have to leave chat off all the time and if that happened no one would be recruited and clans would decline and eventually turn to nothing.

[Redleg]

Makes me glad I don't play RTW online -

[Orda Khan]

puzz thats a stupid comment as new ones come all the time and we would have to leave chat off all the time and if that happened no one would be recruited and clans would decline and eventually turn to nothing.

I do not think the comment is that stupid at all. Unfortunately, the swearing and abuse that appears in the lobby is perpetuated by others who try to admonish the culprit/s by going one better. As for Clans and recruitment, some of the biggest culprits are actually Clan Members. Again, it is possible to play online without being in a Clan. From my experience, these culprits need drastic action because the abuse is not limited to the lobby chat area, it is present during army selection and also during the battle itself.
Now, where CA have been a bit naive, I will not join the mob and hurl abuse at them as I do not hold them responsible because of the behaviour of some pathetic fools who need a lesson in respect and manners

......Orda

[Just A Girl]

way i see it...
Is
constant abuse = cd key banned.
i dont see the problem with that

[dreadedmob]

I will not join the mob and hurl abuse at them as I do not hold them responsible because of the behaviour of some pathetic fools who need a lesson in respect and manners

......Orda

Oh stop it, you know nothing about online and yes some clans get spammers and stuff, most clans if not all get rid of them asap. You know little or nothing of our comunity, that is for sure.

Also CA made the "mistake" of letting people curse. The majority or people are at least respective of others. Why then are we being punished?

[hellenes]

Oh stop it, you know nothing about online and yes some clans get spammers and stuff, most clans if not all get rid of them asap. You know little or nothing of our comunity, that is for sure.

Also CA made the "mistake" of letting people curse. The majority or people are at least respective of others. Why then are we being punished?

Sorry to harm you feelings....but YOUR community discovered (UNFORTUNATELY) the TW series only after the CA turned the eye candy on and dumbed the game down enough for you not call it "not so real time ugly risk cr@p"...
MTW foyer didnt have even 10% of the abuse immaturity and idiocy that are present in RTW foyer.

Hellenes

[Orda Khan]

Oh stop it, you know nothing about online and yes some clans get spammers and stuff, most clans if not all get rid of them asap. You know little or nothing of our comunity, that is for sure.

That is right, ROFL, I know nothing about online play. I bow to your obvious superiority.....You are very welcome to your community

......Orda

[Puzz3D]

puzz thats a stupid comment as new ones come all the time and we would have to leave chat off all the time and if that happened no one would be recruited and clans would decline and eventually turn to nothing.

Yes I know that, but clans have declined anyway. The foyer's design isn't supportive of organized teamplay. All RTW/BI is really intended for is to log in, join a game and play. Creative Assembly isn't going to redesign the foyer to support organized play. All they are concerned about is getting sued.

I understand you are coming from the perspective of someone who currently plays RTW/BI, and is fighting an uphill battle to maintain a clan in that foyer. I'm coming from the perspective of someone who had already stopped playing. My clan, which had played total war since Dec 2000, didn't make the transition to RTW because of the state of it's multiplayer. We all bought RTW, but most of the clan decided it wasn't worth playing.

[PFJ_bejazuz]

D'you know I'm loading up RTW now after a drunken - lets get the old mob back online

it appears our timing is as good as ever

lol

long live the PFJ

[Olorin I]

Here my last two posts on the Total War Forums on this subject - offered to the community here as food for thought.

12/23/2005:

@ Shogun:

It is simply absurd that you have not crafted a solution to this issue after the passage of this much time. I do not say "problem" because this implies that CA had something to do with causing the lobby abuse. Clearly, this is not the case.

Surely, you cannot take this Choja fellow too seriously. He is abusive and parochial. He derides the manner in which free speech is protected in the USA without a true understanding of the complexity of the issue under US Constitutional Law. Although he is certainly verbose, mostly his diatribes are specters -- they may appear formidable, but they are without substance. It is difficult to believe that a true litigation exposure assessment conducted by counsel experienced in this field would yield a conclusion that CA is at siginificant risk of being held liable in a civil proceeding for the intentional bad acts of others.

As for fear of bad publicity, do not make me laugh. Racial comments, religious ridicule, abusive language, foul language, etc are certainly not confined to the Gamespy Lobbies of RTW - unacceptable behavior is rampant on the net --- and RTW is not even an egregious example of this kind of reprehensible behavior.

Let me leave you with this thought. Barbarian Invasion is an expansion pack. Only people with RTW will buy it. If the percentage of your customer base that plays multiplayer is important to you, then you will find a solution to this issue that permits lobby communication without further delay. This is not a threat, but I am merely predicting that potential purchasers who primarily play multiplayer will not purchase the game without the lobby chat function restored. Those of us who have already purchased the expansion will begin to consider returning the title to the stores where we purchased BI requesting a cash refund based on the product not conforming to its advertised capabilities by reason of an action undertaken by the game's developer. This would be truly tragic as RTW and BI are, all things considered, excellent products. I enjoy playing, but much less so now, I must admit.

Olorin I

12/28/2005:

@ Shogun

It has been four weeks since you unilaterally announced the disabling of the chat feature in the RTW multiplayer lobbies. It has been two weeks since your last comment in the very thread that YOU started to keep the multiplayer community advised.

If you are serious about crafting a solution, then it is beyond reason to think that you have not, at least decided on a course of action and taken the initial steps along that course. It is time for you to apprise the community of the progress of your efforts in some degree of detail.

Of course, the cynical amongst us might think that multiplayer is not important to you and that CA never intended to do anything to restore the chat function - but that you/CA simply intended to make enough posts to prevent an initial firestorm, hoping that the ferocity of the storm would ebb as time passed. Certainly your conspicuous silence for the past two weeks gives creedance to that line of thought.

Since the total war forum moderators and administrators are largely intolerant of opinions that differ with or are critical of CA policy/comments, I imagine that one or both of these posts will be edited out and/or I will be banned. Nonetheless, I stand by my critical commentary.

Olorin I

[Grey_Fox]

Since the total war forum moderators and administrators are largely intolerant of opinions that differ with or are critical of CA policy/comments, I imagine that one or both of these posts will be edited out and/or I will be banned. Nonetheless, I stand by my critical commentary.

I doubt you'll be banned and I doubt the posts will be editted. I've said pretty much the same thing and nothing has happened to me or my posts. You are allowed to be critical over at the .c0mmie, despite what the self-styled 'martyrs' and 'suicide bombers' (I kid you not, that is what they term themselves) over at the .Net and TWC might say.

[RTKCharlemagne]

Your posts Olorin, are indeed direct and to the point. iI has been 4 weeks since Sega's decision, and at this point they should be apprising us of their intentions. To still be in the dark after 1 full month is completely unnaceptable, and they need to know this so they do not confuse our patience and goodwill with naivete.

[TosaInu]

Since the total war forum moderators and administrators are largely intolerant of opinions that differ with or are critical of CA policy/comments, I imagine that one or both of these posts will be edited out and/or I will be banned. Nonetheless, I stand by my critical commentary.

Olorin I

It's bad language, schoolyard bully behaviour and the like that will have a post edited, the poster warned, removed for a few days/weeks or even banned at totalwar.org. Not voicing critics, concerns or even rants ('I don't like it' can hardly be called critics).

[RTKCharlemagne]

Mablung's reply on 12-30:

Perhaps you could wait until the Christmas holidays are at an end, I imagine the CA crew are having a break.

My next post on 12-30:

I wonder if the Publishers of other major games like BF2 or WOW would be completely silent on such a a major issue, and

"wait until the Christmas holidays are at an end"

to address it?

Most in our MP community are mature, respectful, and patient. Conversely however, this is no way for a responsible company to treat consumers who have purchased its product and the products ancillary services.

RTKCharlemagne