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Gaius Baltar

A New Beginning

Rating: 2 votes, 5.00 average.
PT I

As a new member, back in ancient times (2006), I was overwhelmed with the amount of material that could be found at TWC. Mods, graphics, forums for art, music, history. This place seemed more like a library than a BBS (forum) as we referred to them back then. I was here for the modifications so I spent most of my time in the Total War (TW) areas. It wasn't until later on that I began to spend more time in the Common Community (CC) sections.

My activity was fairly frequent back then, but by the Spring of 2010 I began to look for other avenues to fill my interests. Empire Total War was not the success that MTW2 was, and my gaming experience there fell flat. I became a less frequent visitor. Even though, at that time the board was showing signs of decline. Reduced activity levels in key areas of the board was noticeable. For my own part, by the Fall of 2011 I visited only on a rare occasion.

I was somewhat excited about the release of Rome Total War 2, even pre-purchasing the offering. And we all know how that went. Almost immediately I had problems with the software and was deeply disappointed in the game engine advances (or lack of them). I shelved the product and moved on.

The years went by quickly. From 2013 to 2017 I was an infrequent visitor to the board. On occasion I did fire up a MTW2 mod (Stainless Steel), but for the most part TWC was in the rear view mirror.

In the Spring of 2018 I came across and advertisement for the new release, Thrones of Britannia. This was a period piece that I have a substantial interest in. Despite the poor performance of some of the recent offerings, I decided to try it. I returned to TWC to see who or what was still around. I was somewhat shocked.

Only a couple of individuals I recognized, and many new faces. Most of all was the severe lack of overall board activity. On a Saturday night I counted 36 members and only a few hundred guests. Compare that to TWC in its heyday with hundreds of members and thousands of guests.

I browsed the forums. It was like walking through one of the old abandoned mansions on the north shore of Long Island. Empty subforums everywhere, and many without activity for several years. Somewhat encouraging was the continued activity in the POTW forums, which were not group together with the UESW and the new GPOTW in the as graphic competitions. I also noticed it was placed several levels down from the main forum index, which was a struggle of mine so many years ago. I had written several amendments to have the competition recognized in the TWC publications, initiated a medal reward system, etc. Still, at least it was alive!

It occurred to me that TWC is in a watershed time-period, for without a substantial increase in member activity, this board will soon be almost abandoned. The forum software is outdated, the forum structure is bulky and slow, and most of all it seems most of the active members are not really interested in the Total War series but are here for the discussion areas of the board.

To be continued in PT II ................

Updated March 31, 2020 at 07:38 PM by Gaius Baltar

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Comments

  1. Inkie's Avatar
    I made a [URL="http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?751667-How-are-you-enjoying-the-slow-death-of-TWC"]thread[/URL] of a very similar nature to this last year, except if you left in fall 2011, that's just when I properly started to participate. TBH I'd imagine that the vast majority of old vBulletin forums are struggling these days.

    You might want to check the discussion out, it brought back a lot of older members with their perspectives on the situation:

    [URL]http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?751667-How-are-you-enjoying-the-slow-death-of-TWC[/URL]
  2. Gaius Baltar's Avatar
    Thanks Inkie. In fact is was your linked thread that gave me the idea for this blog.