Launcher Poll Results

[Caliban]

Hi all,

These results were sent to me by Wikiman. This is from the first few days of the launcher polls.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Some of the results were comforting, some scary.

If CA followed policy based on the plurality for each question, I would be scared.

[Yun Dog]

Man there are just som many tantelising morsells to be teased out of this. The bottom line is I think it confirms alot of what people have been saying.

MP just doesnt have the numbers

Few people are thinking of MP with these titiles

Mods are poorly recieved by the community (a tragedy....god save me from the great unwashed)

the Hardcore STW MTW vets are numerically insignificant

CA is pretty much responding to where the numbers are with a) its development of the game and b) its xpack

thats just a quick read - but Im sure this will give new life to those old tired arguments

"bring out yer dead"

threads that is

[Omisan]

I'm kind of surpised by the 33% wanting naval battles intead of improving the campaign and land battles.

[Didz]

I think the question that was missing from the poll was:

Would you like to be able to play the campaign game against other players?

As a result the MP results are a little bit scewed. I actually answered 'Not Interested' purely becuase I interpreted the question as related to the current MP battles option. What is quite clear is that a lot of people, myself included, have played MP battles once or twice but just not been interested in them beyond the novelty value.

More interesting is that 65% of players would like to at least try a Hotseat multiplayer campaign (I assumed that Hotseat could not be related to the battle game alone). Given the general bias against Hotseat games that would suggest that percentage interested in playing a multi-player campaign by other means would be much higher.

Personally, I woud be interested in the split between those wanting PBEM and those wanting an On-line Real Time campaign game.

[sapi]

Oh, and in case no one at CA's end has noticed, you can answer each question as many times as you want

[Caliban]

I asked Wikiman to add multiplayer campaign option to "What feature do you want most of all.." :)

I think the question that was missing from the poll was:

Would you like to be able to play the campaign game against other players?

As a result the MP results are a little bit scewed. I actually answered 'Not Interested' purely becuase I interpreted the question as related to the current MP battles option. What is quite clear is that a lot of people, myself included, have played MP battles once or twice but just not been interested in them beyond the novelty value.

More interesting is that 65% of players would like to at least try a Hotseat multiplayer campaign (I assumed that Hotseat could not be related to the battle game alone). Given the general bias against Hotseat games that would suggest that percentage interested in playing a multi-player campaign by other means would be much higher.

Personally, I woud be interested in the split between those wanting PBEM and those wanting an On-line Real Time campaign game.

[Magraev]

MP just doesnt have the numbers

the Hardcore STW MTW vets are numerically insignificant

I heartily agree with your first statement. MP'ers are loud but far between.

The second statement is obviously a mistake. over 50% have played STW - that is insignificant? 70% have played MTW (probably including the 50% that played STW). How do you figure that to be insignificant??!?

This speaks of a very large loyal fanbase, that (like me) have bought every item on offer. Well I didn't buy Alexander, but that's the exception.

[TinCow]

The second statement is obviously a mistake. over 50% have played STW - that is insignificant? 70% have played MTW (probably including the 50% that played STW). How do you figure that to be insignificant??!?

I think he was referring to the poll which asked which game was your favorite. Only 6.7% said STW and only 11.5% said MTW. Given that over 50% played STW and over 70% played MTW, that's a major statement. There are many people who repeatedly state that STW or MTW were the best versions of the TW games, yet the poll clearly shows that most people who played STW and MTW do not consider them to be the best games in the series.

[Cheetah]

I think he was referring to the poll which asked which game was your favorite. Only 6.7% said STW and only 11.5% said MTW. Given that over 50% played STW and over 70% played MTW, that's a major statement. There are many people who repeatedly state that STW or MTW were the best versions of the TW games, yet the poll clearly shows that most people who played STW and MTW do not consider them to be the best games in the series.

This is a bit misleading, though actually quite understandable based on the poll results. Namely most of the people (over 90%) were interested in the campaign an in this regard both RTW and MTW2 is a clear improvement over STW or MTW (at least most poeple would consider 3D campaig maps, agents, diplomacy, ect a clear improvement). Of course this tells nothing about the quality of the tactical battles, in fact had it been a question I am sure votes would have been more evenly dispersed.

The results though makes me wonder about two questions:
1, The clear novelty of TW series are the tactical battles (there are many empire building games with better diplomacy, more depth, etc). Yet, most people are interested in the campaign. Why?

2, People almost constantly complain about the weakness of the tactical AI. Many people would regard it as the weakest part of the TW series at the moment. Most people voted to spend more time playing the battles than the campaign map. Yet more than half of the voters voted to improve the campaign, and a only a small minority interested in MP where arguably you can find the very best opponents and can have a lot more challanging battles than you can ever have against the AI. Why is that that people spend their time playing SP battles, constantly complain about the AI, and yet not interested in MP?

[crpcarrot]

I think he was referring to the poll which asked which game was your favorite. Only 6.7% said STW and only 11.5% said MTW. Given that over 50% played STW and over 70% played MTW, that's a major statement. There are many people who repeatedly state that STW or MTW were the best versions of the TW games, yet the poll clearly shows that most people who played STW and MTW do not consider them to be the best games in the series.

if this same question was asked b4 M2TW i think you would have seen how many TW fans were really upset. I thnk CA have done really well with M2TW the battles really are interesting and the seiges are great. but before M2TW and atch i would have answered that same question MTW. during RTW CA lost me as a cutomer i never bought any of the expansions and wasnt even going to buy M2 but did sine i got it really cheap. and i'm glad to see that CA has turned things around.

I voted M2 as my fav game

[Yun Dog]

I think he was referring to the poll which asked which game was your favorite. Only 6.7% said STW and only 11.5% said MTW. Given that over 50% played STW and over 70% played MTW, that's a major statement. There are many people who repeatedly state that STW or MTW were the best versions of the TW games, yet the poll clearly shows that most people who played STW and MTW do not consider them to be the best games in the series.

Yes thankyou TinCow, I shouldve elaborated - but you nailed it
RTW a whopping 90% of respondants and 77%'s favourite was M2 or RTW

and almost 70% believe the titles are getting better - to me this is all the confirmation CA need to keep doing what they are doing and not to listen to the vocal detractors - I include myself amongst them

There was an impression amongst the 'grognards' (is that what they are called? - vets cant be used it encompasses 4 generations now) that RTW was the worst, but the numbers tell a different story.

I agree Econ that polls aint polls and often how you ask a question can be as important - and the multiple voting etc - but I think the numbers look like a reasonable sample of the TW buying public

and I agree with the others that the reason people are hooked on campaign yet the battles is because a battle only becomes significant in the context of the bigger picture - as there is nothing like this on MP anymore - even in the form of a ladder competition - then the battles on MP have no significance

looking at that further - the "have you ever played online" question didnt have a null or no option - 50% had played 'Once' - this says to me they came they saw - it was ordinary/ it was gamespy - they left

maybe it was lag or poor interface or the only context being bragging rights with a bunch of people you dont know... meh .. says to me their first M2TW online experience was so horrible they ran screaming. Then most said they just werent interested... but does this go back to the lack of context or setting for the battles in MP.

As an amusing aside we had 5% pacificts playing a Total War game - I find this warmongering trend amongst pacificts very concerning - and I hold TW and CA responsible for converting these nice fluffy pink pacificts into a wild bezerker blood thirsty mob !!!

Im going to go out on a limb here and say I think the numbers for online campaign will be almost identical to those for hotseat - some hardcore TW lovers want it more than sex (which they probably havent had in a very long time ) and the rest of the masses are like - meh! I know this is upsetting as I am one the aforementioned..but again when it comes to a commercial product we are all slaves to the will of the great unwashed!!

Naval battles - played it in Imperial Glory - naval battles are a game in themselves - tacked on to this or any other game they will be lame - sorry - let it go - and push for someone to make a Master and Commander game - or go back to pirates - HAR!!!

40-50% had never played a mod, with EB out and others MTW XL I could go on - sorry that means 40% of TW consumers are lamers and its surprising they even know how to turn their computer on to play M2TW.

Interesting there was a spread on the total war fantasy - but a clear majority saying yes which I think goes someway to the disappearance of much of the need for historical content and accuracy in the games - and it may diminish still further - which would be a pity - but can be modded back in, which is encouraging.

Finally 80% believed CA were listening which if you bothered to read alot of the post over at the .com, you would feel was not the case, again a vocal minority.

disclaimer - not intending to hurt anyones feeling its all a bit tongue in cheek - please read it thus.

[helmeteye]

I heartily agree with your first statement. MP'ers are loud but far between.

The second statement is obviously a mistake. over 50% have played STW - that is insignificant? 70% have played MTW (probably including the 50% that played STW). How do you figure that to be insignificant??!?

This speaks of a very large loyal fanbase, that (like me) have bought every item on offer. Well I didn't buy Alexander, but that's the exception.

Yea me too. Alexander is the only one I haven't played. I'd love to find a mp campaign. I haven't really had to to see what the hotseat is all about so I haven't really messed with that at all, although, It does seem interesting.

[helmeteye]

By the way, I couldn't handle this game, I thought it sucked, until the official 1.2 came out.

As of now, I like campaign better because you can role play and battles and troops have a more emotional attachment:)

Whenever I get used to the campaign and can whip the AI, I generally start getting into the mp part. Right now, I have only been to the early stages of this m2. The only way I've been able to upgrade my cities is by capturing French cities that have been upgraded. I love the French, I can now use longbowmen thanks to them:)

[Doug-Thompson]

Hi all,

These results were sent to me by Wikiman. This is from the first few days of the launcher polls.

Hmm. All I can see is "imagehosting.com: Bandwidth limit exceeded."

[Vlad Tzepes]

Hmm. All I can see is "imagehosting.com: Bandwidth limit exceeded."

Me too. Am I missing something?

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Hmm. All I can see is "imagehosting.com: Bandwidth limit exceeded."

MP results are scary.No Wonder no one cares about MP.