Wow, so little activity

[ReluctantSamurai]

Casual games don't want a casual game that is mixed with strategy, because it is not casual enough. Serious gamers don't want a strategy game that is mixed with casual gaming bull because it is too casual. CA is shooting itself in the foot with what it is doing, and the state of these forums is proof of that

Probably true enough, but I would guess their marketing gurus have statistics at the ready to show who is likely to buy their games. I'm not sure though, that you can draw the conclusion that interest in this forum has suffered as a result of CA's marketing strategy.

I still contend that weak multi-player support, and downgrading the ability to mod their games in a significant way in favor of DLC lies at the root. Back in the day of S1/M1, there was a huge following at the .org of folks that craved the challenges of multi-player. Playing other humans is always more challenging/fun than playing vs the AI. Spending hours and hours slogging through a campaign wasn't necessary...you fought a single battle, whether 1vs1, 2vs2, etc., and you moved on to another battle.

Through my own personal experiences, and what I've seen from other game developers, being able to significantly modify a game keeps interest fresh, and modders happy. Some of my favorite NWN games were done by modders (some of which were extensive 4 or 5 part series). Bioware actually encouraged modding by hosting competitions The venerable Baldurs Gate still has a significant following (as evidenced by the activity at the G3 Forum) more than 15 years after its' initial release because of the extensive mods and character development.

Just my 2cents....

[Nelson]

Back in the day of S1/M1, there was a huge following at the .org of folks that craved the challenges of multi-player.

I must disagree. There has never been a huge MP following for any Total War game. Never. I've been here since the first acorn fell, and this story of a Golden Age of Total War multiplayer nirvana is a myth. There were a couple of dozen (at best) very vocal MP players on this site who generated enough smoke to simulate a mighty conflagration from what amounted to a little campfire.

Perhaps MP was more popular relatively speaking in at some point in the past, but it was a sideshow, and a wee tiny one at that.

[ReluctantSamurai]

There has never been a huge MP following for any Total War game. Never.

There were a couple of dozen (at best) very vocal MP players on this site who generated enough smoke to simulate a mighty conflagration from what amounted to a little campfire.

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 threads and 1,335 posts.

Perhaps MP was more popular relatively speaking in at some point in the past, but it was a sideshow, and a wee tiny one at that.

Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

[Nelson]

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 posts and 1,335 threads.



Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

Fair enough. I still don't believe that the numbers represent "a huge following" in any meaningful sense, though. Regardless of how much posting went on, only a small percentage of purchasers bothered with MP. Certainly the activity then was greater than our traffic now. This is an Org problem, of course, not a CA/Total War issue. When Rome arrived, so did TWC where the game was received with far greater interest than here at the Org. This was the beginning of the Org's decline, IMO. Prior to TWC, the Org was it for no holds bared game critique/discussion. It was the publishers site or us, pretty much.

BTW, your response represents something that for sure was huge around here, and that is class. It represents exactly the sort of thing that put us on the map and kept us viable for so long.

[ReluctantSamurai]

When Rome arrived, so did TWC where the game was received with far greater interest than here at the Org. This was the beginning of the Org's decline, IMO.

A very valid point. I am not contending that MP and modding are the only reasons for the .org's decline. It may indeed be the rise of TWC, or it may be as easytarget has suggested that the TW series has run it's course, or both, and players have moved on to other games

[Slaists]

Perhaps...perhaps not. The numbers tell a different story.

STW/MTW MP together here at the .org combined for more threads (2,008) and posts (34,870) than all the rest of the TW MP games combined (1,725 threads---28,855 posts). Rome2 and Attila, while granting that they don't have the benefit of time to add to their numbers, have a paltry 13 MP threads, and 262 MP posts.

So in roughly a 4-5 year period, STW/MTW generated more forum MP traffic than all other TW titles did in a 12 year period starting with R1's release in 2004.

A couple of dozen very vocal MP players indeed!

Posts in the Modding sub-forums tell a similar story. STW/MTW has 3,628 threads and 48,938 posts; R2/M2 has 8,306 threads and 67,249 posts; every other title combined has 262 threads and 1,335 posts.



Whether you wish to call MP a "wee tiny" contributor or not, the fact remains that the number of folks here posting about their MP experiences has fallen steadily since the STW/MTW era, and is almost now non-existent. The same trend exists in the modding forums, where the fall-off in the number of posts is even more severe.

Both trends, while certainly not the only reasons, have contributed to the decline in the number of active members.

Could it be that new players mostly go to .com, steam forums and reddit nowadays? Looking at the sales figures, total war series is far from dying. Warhammer has broken sales record for the franchise?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Could be If that's the case, then it's the fault of The ORG for not doing something to attract those players to come here. I would certainly not point fingers at anyone, as I realize that ORG staffers have real lives to deal with, and hosting a MP server takes lots of time and probably cash along with it...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

As companies have got wise to the internet and online communities there has been a trend away from large fan-sites to boards administered by the company itself.

Take a Look at the Paradox Interactive boards for an example.

A big draw for the Org in the early years was that the Devs posted here, now they basically don't.

We're just obsolete, is all.

[Axalon]

I might as well say it here… I'll try to be brief...

To me, it looks like its primarily the Org-administration self who has - unintentionally, yet decisively - made this site obsolete and severely crippled. This more significantly and more persistently then anything else that comes to mind in regards to all this. It is things like the administration losing focus and not standing firm on what the site is actually about and was originally about, and what it should be about. It is how the core-values and fundamental priorities have been changed, screwed up and skewed to a fault. Its how these newer priorities were formed, the supposed grounds for it, the reasons for it - and the often strange and backwards logic behind it. Its the too many bad choices made, the too many poor practices used, the too many stupid doctrines and policies stubbornly enforced, the too many bad actions and destructive changes allowed. Its the continuous presence of wishful thinking and screwed up ideas and notions – being left unchecked and unquestioned. Or what happened if scrutiny and healthy perspectives was even attempted, and how it was then ignored and overruled by the administration (unless it was favourable) – this time and time again. Ever playing the trusty "admin-wins" card, as soon as their arguments ran out or was clearly lacking, or simply fell apart. And all of this, for far too long (several years), and with far to too little reversal, if any at all. That's my take...

Yes, it is possible that I could be wrong or even unfair on some note or detail in all this, but I doubt it. Its also possible I forgot to mention some vital part. Regardless, I can totally imagine that this post will not sit well with site-management, that is, assuming they actually bother to ever read it, but I doubt that too. They have showed little or no interest and desire to actually listen to me or others like me, on all this, if they had, they would have done so long time ago… They have not (with little exception)… Anyhow, I expect that the local “party-faithfuls” will try their best to scramble and screw up the overall message here or the general idea of this post. Hating it for all the wrong reasons… Utterly squandering the intended point of it all. This I don’t doubt, or at least I would not be surprised.

All the same, how exactly is this site to ever somehow improve if we can’t even begin openly
recognize, examine and discuss the problem? Or what is causing it? It isn’t RTW2 (or some
other sorry game), you can all be sure about that.

- A