WE has been in charge of the Age franchise since its inception in 2019. Things started to go downhill for us when Shannon Loftis “retired”
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Thank you for correcting the error.
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But why though? What could lead someone to hate a rahter neutral, classic video game?
Let’s say if there is a game made by one person, if you hate the author, it can be understandable that you hate the game as well. But AoE3 is the work of several studios and years, so that can’t be the reason.
Another reason could be hate for the theme, but the theme, while unusual in the gaming landscape, is not much special in form and content (soldiers, buildings…). So not a good reason to hate the game.
I know people who hate certain JRPG because they hate lollies or anime-style drawings. AoE3 doesn’t have a very pronounced artstyle either, it’s quite realistic, objectively good-looking, that’s it.
Now about the players. Why wrong have they done? They’re not minecraft kids, just regular RTS and history enjoyers. I see no ‘good’ reason to hate on them.
I doubt WE “hates” AOE3 so much as they consider it a lower priority for new content than AOMR, AOE2, or AOE4. Which, to be honest, does make some sense. AOE3 was always considered the black sheep of the franchise from what I remember.
I do hope they have a change of heart with regards to making new content for AOE3 though. Maybe they’ll get down to it once they’ve gotten the new stuff for the other games out.
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Agreed. I highly doubt that anyone at World’s Edge hates AoE 3. It is more likely, they’re unfamiliar with it, thus don’t really know how to deal with the game.
The AoE 3 community persisting on the narrative that MS/WE “hate” their fav game won’t improve the situation at all, unfortunately.
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You don’t need familiarity to take a few screenshots and post it on twitter like you’ve done for the other games.
You don’t need familiarity to open the game once a week, so that you won’t show 
for an official image about the events.
You don’t need familiarity to hang one additional banner on your office wall.
You don’t need familiarity to apologize once.
Evidences of their hate is leaked sporadically and sneakily. That’s why every now and then someone who didn’t closely follow all of these s**t closely would chime in and say “hey they don’t really hate you don’t overreact”.
Edit: or maybe I think too highly of humanity. Most of the innocent people who come and tell us not to overreact seem to not even play AOE3 at all.
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I am sorry but the examples you listed are not hate but indeed the result of being unfamiliar with the game.
I am saying that as someone who first hated AoE 3 but meanwhile it’s my 2nd favourite game.
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How much familiarity do you need to open the game once a week, or find one person in the office who has done that?
Out of all people in the office, not a single person knows you get that tick for the event if you open the game once a week? Not a single person thinks it would look really ugly if the official image of the official event has zero progress?
Then who designed those events?
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You need a reasonable amount of familiarity to do that.
The events seem to be automated given that they rotate, just as the civ choice for the F2P version.
As said, persisting on the “they hate us” narrative won’t bring you anywhere. At worst, it would turn out into a self fulfilling prophecy.
Edit: it also requires being interested in the game in first place. Not being interested also doesn’t equal “hate”.
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So the ones who made those events have evaporated?
See that’s what I mean people who have no idea what happened chiming in to act cool. Let me tell you what happened:
They made an hotfix about the event. Attached was an image of some WE staff’s progress bar and it had ZERO progress. It only requires you to play the game once a week (instant surrender counts).
If that requires significant familiarity beyond their wits, who fixed the bug?
You don’t even know what happened and what we’re talking about. What gives you the self-confidence to teach us how to react?
I get it. So a minimalistic DLC announcement and a whole year of complete silence ending up with the cancellation of the DLC is also a self fulfilling prophecy.
It’s called reasoning.
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Funny, because I am aware of the hotfix and how development on AoE 3 slowed and died down as soon as AoM Retold was announced because all AoE 3 devs were needed over there.
I am also aware that the second last server maintenance screwed up the progress bar.
Wrong.
Don’t put words into my mouth.
You apparently don’t get it. That’s not a self fulfilling prophecy, that’s bad management and unfortunately all Age games are affected by it with AoE 3 always taking the shortest stick.
Self fulfilling prophecy is insiting that you get hated. You don’t. The management simply is absolutely unfamiliar with your game because their mainly played Age games are AoE 2 or 4 and maybe AoM instead leading into them not giving AoE 3 a serious try in first place. And the reasons for that are much deeper and more complex.
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And you are still avoiding the real question. That is how much familiarity do you need to know your official event requires you to play one game per week, and how much familiarity do you need to do that
Premise: someone in the office made those events. One can take five minutes to ask those people.
People have been saying the DLC is messed up for a year. They were also called self-fulfilling prophecy or overreacting. And it came.
If they don’t know what contents to release or how to advertise the game, I will buy what you are saying here.
Fact is they don’t even want to do the most basic things that their other games get.
You just cannot hide your outsider perspective.
That’s why you cannot feel it. Lucky for you. You know and we all know you are the last one WE will ever stop catering to, even after all their other products have blown up. When they mess up “your game” they will quickly write long love letters and work over the hours to compensate, instead of leaving a “sorry” “we understand” and disappear. You never have those worries. I envy you.
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As said, you need a reasonable amount of familiarity which on the other hand requires being interested in the game.
I am one of them because it was teased in the weirdest way possible with just two flags and Tilanus during an ESOC cast talking about the history of the civs.
If with “outsider perspective” you mean that I am mainly an AoE 2 player who over time fell in love with AoE 3 as well, then yes. However, I lurked and read my way through several AoE 3 community places the last couple of years and also compare it to the way the AoE 2 community behaves. And somehow, I always have the impression that the AoE 3 community deeply lacks a calm voice like Viper.
And let me tell you, AoE 2 was also at a point where MS didn’t care for it at all when they shut down Gaming Zone in 2006. It was people playing on Gameranger and Voobly that kept the game alive. And to my knowledge, AoE 3 was at a very similar point with ESOC and their patch prior to DE.
Edit: I’d also like to refer to a comment I made earlier in this thread:
It’s not as if I’m unfamiliar with the problems surrounding AoE 3, I just think going like “ugh they hate us” is the wrong way to go.
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How can they be unfamiliar with a game they claim to love? because we’ve heard that many times from CMs claiming those within WE love AoE3.
You need to find another excuse because that one ain’t holding up.
If I’m not mistaken, it was mainly Inferno and Vumie (when she still was at WE) saying that they love AoE 3, no? Feel free to correct me if I misremember it.
Answer this:
Where are the people who planned and made this events?
WE had sufficient familiarity right within their office.
That is totally irrelevant. We are not talking about the players but the company. And it’s not the same company as 2006.
I mean even if they later killed AOM, and then AOE4 in the future, you still have a place to return to and receive royal service.
I don’t. I have lost interest in their other games. Some other people here too.
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And they also said many within WE are rooting for 3DE and love the game.
If that is the truth, they sure have an odd way of showing it.
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As I’m just a volunteer mod, I really don’t know and can only assume, just like you.
It still has some relevance. And partly, it is the same company as MS shut down Ensemble Studios in firstplace.
I am aware, especially those of you who have AoE 3 as their main game.
Personally, I still keep my hopes up that they shift resources back to AoE 3 once they delivered the 2nd AoM DLC.
The issue with AoM is, unlike AoE 3, people already preordered the AoM DLCs if they bought the Premium Edition and should they cancel it, they have to refund it as per Valve’s guidelines.
Also, in case you’re not on Discord, one of WE’s CMs confirmed that the Petition made its way to the management:
Hmm, good point.
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Yet you just spent 10 replies trying to “correct” me.
I doubt how much control MS has over the twitter and the screenshot button of the WE staff.
They also said on discord they will improve communication and that has been more than a year ago already.
And what are you trying to show here? They really LOVE the game and really care about it?
I don’t think that was your point a minute ago.
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Not only that, but I used to DM a particular CM on the regular who gave the same empty promises. When people feel they’re getting placated and their concerns are being thrown in the trash bin along with bug reports, trust withers and resentment rises. This isn’t rocket science.
The 3DE community went out of its way to help WE improve things, but in the end, all we got out of it is vapid corpo speak, canceled DLC, and support abruptly ending.
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