Old Ironguards

**Askthepizzaguy** · 02-15-2011, 09:08

My guess is that it was the Medieval II Total War wut done brought in a big wave of peoples. It's why I came here originally.

**pevergreen** · 02-15-2011, 10:10

Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy

My guess is that it was the Medieval II Total War wut done brought in a big wave of peoples. It's why I came here originally.

Same here.

I remember watching the faction preview videos and just drooling.

**Zim** · 02-15-2011, 17:51

I actually came here after buying both RTW and MTW1. Hadn't even seen an ad for MTW2 (which came out months after either of us joined the .Org), although no doubt the game was already being hyped and I was just too busy reading aars to take notice of the discussion about it.

Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy

My guess is that it was the Medieval II Total War wut done brought in a big wave of peoples. It's why I came here originally.

**Togakure** · 02-15-2011, 18:44

Originally Posted by Askthepizzaguy

My guess is that it was the Medieval II Total War wut done brought in a big wave of peoples. It's why I came here originally.

When I arrived in 2003, the Org was a dynamic and thriving place. The community was large, diverse and very active, and the emphasis was on the game, STW; everyone was looking forward to MTW with high hopes. Threads and posts were rich with content, and people were contributing right and left with tools, maps, stat patches, AARs, fictional prose, and helpful information for newcomers. It was a very different place. To use a variation on the word of the month, there seemed to be more 'substance' and less inanity. There was the .com, the character of which paled in comparison, but the now-deceased .net and the TWC didn't even exist yet. When it came to TW, aside from the active clan sites for MPers, the Org was the place to be.

Perhaps there was an upsurge in population during the later games, particularly Rome, but in my opinion the character and quality never matched the STW and MTW days. Of course, many will shout "geezer" and dismiss this. But that's fine; how would they know? They weren't here.

**Zim** · 02-17-2011, 05:30

I certainly won't shout "Geezer" (especially as I near the ripe old age of 30)

In fact, I can admit to having a similar view of when I joined (during the RTW era). There were guides being written every day and tons of aars and succession games in the Throne Room. Vanilla RTW became a little dull after a while, but it seemed there were always mods coming out for it (I've probably put more hours in EB more than any other game or mod I've ever tried). Then MTW2 came out, and brought with it more great mods, hotseats, and the first PBM rpg I joined.

The Org never had great mod support, but the people and the discussion impressed me a lot over other game forums (especially in the aforementioned Throne Room). I'd browse the mod forums at twcenter, then come here. The only real exception was that there was a small group of longer time players who always posted about how terrible whatever game was current was, even in what started as completely different topics in the main RTW and MTW2 forums. After a while I just stopped frequenting those areas.

Things became even worse when ETW came out (and I was among those who found it disappointing, despite improvements in some areas). Even worse, ETW seemed to bring a shift towards being as hard to mod as the older games, while not providing the challenge and atmosphere they had. If I had joined sometime in the last couple years, I'd probably not last long due to all the negativity, and lack of interest in what's been the current TW game.

Even now with activity having dropped, I still come here primarily for the people here and haven't seen a decline in poster quality (perhaps I should note that the frontroom has about the same level of seriousness versus inanity in quality as when I joined, and the backroom slightly better now).

I suppose I should add some small sliver of credibility by mentioning that I started with MTW, not RTW, at least to stave off anyone saying that people who started with RTW won't be aware as much of how things declined with that game. I know full well, and found MTW on normal difficulty a more interesting challenge than any of the subsequent games (unmodded) on the highest difficulties. I just ended up involved very early in the roleplaying aspect of pbms and later hotseats, where I thought the two games between MTW and ETW shined, and in all the mods that game out for RTW and MTW2. I just hope STW2 ends up being more engaging. I already see potential in it for rps and other Throne Room games.

Originally Posted by Togakure

When I arrived in 2003, the Org was a dynamic and thriving place. The community was large, diverse and very active, and the emphasis was on the game, STW; everyone was looking forward to MTW with high hopes. Threads and posts were rich with content, and people were contributing right and left with tools, maps, stat patches, AARs, fictional prose, and helpful information for newcomers. It was a very different place. To use a variation on the word of the month, there seemed to be more 'substance' and less inanity. There was the .com, the character of which paled in comparison, but the now-deceased .net and the TWC didn't even exist yet. When it came to TW, aside from the active clan sites for MPers, the Org was the place to be.

Perhaps there was an upsurge in population during the later games, particularly Rome, but in my opinion the character and quality never matched the STW and MTW days. Of course, many will shout "geezer" and dismiss this. But that's fine; how would they know? They weren't here.