An interesting development

[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.