1.  You made a great game.

2.  You listen.

3.  We ran most of the trolls off.

Hello toad lad...let me try to put this in words. You guys are really responsible for this.

Number one you hired kael.....really big deal to those of us who have lost years playing FFh. He does have rather a superstar status and we would hate to hurt his feelings.

Number two yourself. Do you really miss how unusual it is for a developer to actually take an active role in discussions and seem to give a shit about what we say? Your constant input and neverending sense of humour has done loads for the company image.

Number three everyone else from the company that has taken time to post here. not remembering names but whenever one of your other guys posts here it is ALWAYS helpful. Without fail it has been info or answer to questions that got us closer to where we all want to be... PLAYING a great game. {I was given a special version of the exe just so i could see my sov--thats not customer service-- that goes way up the ladder toward friendship}

Number Four- Pony- yep that is a huge deal. We ran that joke into the ground in WOW and here it is again and we have a pony that is strange color but we all know it is a gift straight from Stardock as a family to all of us. Not a free game which we kinda deserved after the last turkey but just a family gift to the little retarded brother.

And that is the secret..you guys have made us feel like a part of the family not just customers. We know your names and faces and we are happy that we do.

So as the little retarded brother and hell raiser I would like to say THANKS and to convince you that we couldnt act any other way toward members of our family---Merry Christmas and thanks for all your hard work and know that lots of us will be trying to get ponies for xmas.

We are gamers with finer tastes in games. We're super dedicated to the 4x "niche" and want FE to keep improving and succeeding.

What is the opposite of a troll post?  A pixie post?      

We are a very sophisticated, good-looking group of gamers who at the same time are extremely modest and a little embarrassed  that you would spotlight our general awesome-ness in a post like this.  So get back to work on 1.1 and let us pat ourselves on the back in the privacy of our own homes!   j/k

You guys are great, your customer service unparalleled, and the games you make are for those of us who like to stretch our brains.  Birds of a feather and all that...

1.  You encourage discourse and allow the natural conversation to occur. This means that even when you don't directly respond to virtually everything, there is a notion that there is "a ghost in the machine" telling stardock what players are doing, are wanting, using, complaining about, what they enjoy, don't enjoy, why they enjoy, good suggestions, suggestions similar to internal proposals, etc.  This feeling of attention causes people to have better behavior imo.

2.  You made a good game, and like some MMO forums from older MMO days, there is a community built around some of the names in the franchise. In some cases, player agitation becomes aggression, creating a forum cesspool. However, when the community has faith in the upside (opposed to faith in the downside) the people in the community want to see the hope come to fruition.

3.  Most players are aware of forum toxicity, and there is something about the players you have brought into your audience. I have seen some older, mature mmo's reduced to a juvenile, terrible place within months of a new audience emerging. There is something about the mentality of one who prefers reading a book while listening to classical music, and one who wants to rage at a skate park listening to death metal. You seem to have attracted a crowd similar to that of old school tibia or ultima online, rather than the crowd of Darkfall.

two simple factors:

1. You are small. Stardock may be growing, but it's still a fairly minor player in the grand scheme of things. Rates of disruptive behaviour in forums are generally proportional to their traffic level. For a small developer, your limited fanbase means that those who do come to post here, really care. whereas in a larger forum, you get people trolling because they have a vast audience.

2. The genre. Strategy games, and especially non-competitive turn-based strategy games, are a niche market with a generally older, more mature audience. Many younger people find this sort of game to be overly complex, and mind numbingly boring. There's no explosions every 2 seconds.

there may be other factors, but i think these two are the biggest ones

The genre tends to attract more mature posters, a smaller forum attracts fewer trolls,  and most of your long-time customers, who tend to make the bulk of a long-time forum, have been well-satisfied over the years.

Also, your detractors have their own personal forum, so those folks go there and not here. 

I agree with most of the other posts. I'll add one more though: Modding. As modable as FE is it is really in our own interests to support the game to keep it and as such and we can have discussions about actually important topics beyond "X is OP!!!!111!1!!1" and "You nerfed X I'm gonna quit and demand a refund!!!!11!11!"

As a recent member I'll share my pov.

1. Strategy game single player. A complex game, with many features, strategies, different ways to play it... A forum is a perfect place to learn new tactics, details, mods, etc from other people. As said, the user profile is someone who wants to be informed. Can you imagine a forum for, let's say, counterstrike? I like that game, but I would never go to a CS forum. No need to.

2. The community. The people wanting to learn about the game, that find many people helping and sharing information. That encouraged me to be an active member too, to receive help and to share when I'm able to.

3. The developers. Showing interest in many different aspects, like this post, loving to improve the game, asking for feedback to do so, answering too (I really like to see Kael posting that "Fixed, thanks" ...). That makes the line between user and developer fades away...

So, mixing it all, you get a forum where you can talk, discuss, ask and receive answers, share ideas, and Devs you are here checking wich ones may be good to quickly implement them (I'm wishing to try those new Juggernauts).

And as stated before, it seems that there is a Despair spell for trolls...they just disappear

I think this is fitting:

Has nothing to do with SP vs MP.  Or Elves, Dwarfs. Orcs vs 5 human races with little difference between them.

or if people want shallow TC as opposed to a more fun and detailed TC (tactical combat experiance)

It pretty much boils down to two things.

1) Turn-based game which attrachs a more mature crowd (both MP and SP TB people) unfortunatly is a dying concept.

2) You guys actully respond to chat. Your more approchable than other Devs

A lot comes down to attention span, communication, the game, and the audience.  TBS players tend to take a long range view, so any changes are usually not viewed as life-or-death.  Compare to an MMO, where a buff/nerf on a class or skill tends to lead to, "OMG, class X will now pwn/be pwnd!!1!"  The fact the developers are on the forums, communicating with the players, makes a huge difference.  Even if we all don't agree with every change, just the process of communication, rather than months/years of silence makes people feel better.  The fact that this is a single-player game also makes a difference; I sometimes think that multiplayer games tend to draw the worst elements to their forums.

Anyway, keep doing what you're doing, and thank you to both the developers and the players who post here for making this a good place for useful information and assistance.