A petition to Creative Assembly from their loyal modding community

[sulan666]

sign me up!

[Chyeaaaa111]

Great post! I'm sure they'll read it, but doubt they actually write in this thread.

[madosopia]

I'll sign it, of course.

[koultouras]

CA- you are a leader, and as a leader you must act on behalf of those who support you. To do otherwise is to invite disaster!

couldnt agree more with that..... I Sign it!

[ray243]

Except that marketing alone can influence many idiots to follow them.

[helmersen]

You know what song really withs in with this thread?

[magpie]

Sign me up MCM One of the great strengths of the TW series was the ability to mod and shape the game to cater for all tastes.It kept the games alive and sales continuing many years after their release.
regards, magpie

[Aerrol]

While not a skilled modder myself, I must say that I really, really hope that CA takes heed of this petition. If Napoleon is as moddable as Empire is...I probably won't be buying it. (And like many of you, I have bought every Total War game since Rome).

[LEGIO_Desaix]

Signed.

[Musthavename]

Completely agree. Signed.

As it stands right now, i'm not going to be buying NTW unless modability is improved.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I have, as have many many others here, invested in the Total War Series since the inception of the product line. The Modding community thru it's dedication & sheer force of will have diversified and enhanced the base TW product line. This investment has bore fruit in extended sales of released games and established a loyal following for the Total War series.

Greater moddability of the TW product line could only but increase the strong symbiotic relationship that currently exists between game producer and end line consumer.

Mega Tortas

[Halie Satanus]

I have a feeling someone at CA has a very good understanding of the relentless power of modding. In fact I feel it's because of this understanding CA hold back tools and utilities that would offer the modding community the power to brush CA aside in the race to perfect a mod and jump ahead.

Imagine if MTW2 had come fully working with tools, utilities and documents on how things worked. By now we would have a fully working all dancing ancient era mod that CA would have to beat hands down with RTW2. CA aren't going to put that kind of pressure on themselves especially when they have to appease Sega with forecast sales figures.

CA wouldn't risk losing one sale because the fans can play eg; EB2, especially if early reports said RTW2 was good, but it's buggy and EB2 is way better. (lets face it, RTW2 is going to have to be mind blowing just to compete with RS and RTR (GC) )) ..

In my opinion the TW franchise is trapped by it's own success, it will have to continuously move from one era to the next, from Rome to Napoleon to guarantee continued sales, and all the time they will have the modding community breathing down their necks with almost unlimited man power and a drive that paid employees simply can't match.

I went on one of those testing days (for MTW2 I was probably the worst person to invite) .. The CA people were all really nice guys and chatted openly about the future and what they wanted to do, it was all very sincere, but it was all hyperbole.

I imagine the big decisions are made by directors with one eye on sales targets and another on retirement by the age of 50(ish), and good luck to them.

This is probably the 4-5th petition or similar plea to CA in the last 5 years, none of the others had any effect and I fear this will fall on equally deaf ears. Not out of malice or ignorance, but plain simple economic necessity.

Signed

Halie Satanus.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Love,

Pøntifex

(PS, I would pay $100 for RTW2)

[Shiloh]

Well thought out and presented...signed.

[Gorrrrrn]

Without the hard work done by modding teams and individuals I doubt that few of us would still bother these games.

The capitalist business model requires we keep spending money on new products to keep business as usual going.

The modding community, however would rather pay once and mod often.

We want to be active in the development of new games not passive consumers of what the corporates dream up for us.

And contrary to the O/P

I think it is safe to say now, some ten years hence, that the modding community is not a pack of anarchists,

I think in many ways the modding community with its community spirit, mutual aid, creativity, its desire for self-improvement and helping others and freely given time and energy is the epitome of a pack of anarchists.
A well-organised and articulate and generally respectful pack of anarchists.

I'll sign as a show of solidarity with the modding community, but I doubt we'll get any modding tools from CA/SEGA for ETW/NTW until they've squeezed as much money as they can out of them.

[mcwally]

I am no modder, but I support modders... I love the mods and constantly download them... I buy games for 3 things: multiplayer-potency (L4D2), story (eg Dragon Age) and maturity/modability (eg ARMA2 and TW series). That said, I totally agree with this... but I doubt it will be implemented basing from Kieran's, the PR guy, comments.

With the probability of losing the TW we love (appeasing the masses), I have a suggestion which I am uncertain of the probability.

Why not make a separate game? Pooling the modders. I know nothing about software programming but I see a lot of talents from the modders' themselves. I want to see these potentials bloom and not get constricted by the monopoly of CA's hybrid genre. I will gladly support it... I was hoping to see a real competitor I guess.

[uanime5]

Signed.

Even if they don't release modding tools can CA at least provide us with documentation telling us how to make mods.

[Acco]

Signed.

If CA reply to this I'll eat La♔De♔Da♔Brigadier Graham's hat.

[Chesh]

I lost my MTW copy years ago, but re bought it a year or two later.

The only reason I re bought it was so that I could play the Big Mod. If it hadn't been for that mod that opened the game up so more I wouldn't have bothered I think.

So the mod = an extra sale!

One of my biggest disapointments with ETW was that the campaign map has not been modable I saw so much potential with that and the possibilty of the game last years to come.

Mods are part of the TW games now, you look forward to the new release of your chosen mod as much as the game release itself at points now.

[Devils_Advocate]

Can there be a better way to extend the PLC of a product than involving costumers in its evolution? Hardly.
Those are it who find themselfs together sharing a dream about a self-costumized computer game due ongoing commercial dissapointments who keep the product alive. Can it be better, moders, advertising, promoting, demonstrating the ability of this wonderful game engines and creating not "merely" new potential but even sustainable costumers, for free?!
These sustainable fans are among of those most important factors which bear the ongoing success of the medieval series.
In the end it is a symbiosis we both, CA and fans profit from.