Now that’s what you said. I previously only assumed and my assumption is that they don’t hate but are unfamiliar. You are free to disagree with it.
They likewise promised dev blogs for AoE 2 two years ago after launching the Rome DLC which they have not done so far.
As previously said, bad communication affects all Age games and do I wish MS would take some lessions from the way Paradox communicates with its community.
No. I’m trying to say that the petition, which itself doesn’t rely on the “you hate us” narrative, made its way to WE’s management. Now it’s their turn to make the right decision by picking up AoE 3 again once the 2nd Myth DLC is out.
I am aware, I’m not a native English speaker so some things I say loose their meaning in translation.
Once again, the unfamiliarity excuse with 3DE does not hold up. You cannot be unfamiliar with game you claim love and care about especially one you are directly responsible for overseeing. If you are unfamiliar with a game you are now in charge of, it is your duty to become familiar it in order to put it in thebest postion to suceed. They’ve had 5+ years to do so.
People feel betrayed, let them deal with it.
Lets not act like any other community would act differently. Heck, look at the jealously IV players have for the 2DE update. Look at how 2DE players acted towards IV during last years Redbull.
Often times the golden goose is sheltered from the underlying issues within. Aside from a few hiccups, 2DE and its players have largly been protected, and dare I say coddled at times ( just look at the multiple paragraphs of fluff written for their WotHs)
I think AoE2 was pretty much abandoned by MS for 15 years. If it wasn’t for modders and Forgotten Empires’ mod work around 2010-2013 and over the years, and consistent player support/playing, I wonder if a 2DE would have ever been made, or possibly any of the DEs. I don’t know if AoE3 was similarly abandoned for that long? I think it was, but I didn’t follow as closely, so I’m not sure. I have a feeling 3DE isn’t as moddable as classic AoE games were? If not, I don’t think that will help 3DE’s situation
Maybe over the years things will swing back around to AoE3’s domain again
As for 2DE, specifically, I don’t know if coddled would be the right word … as there are frequent occurrences of little or no communication for long periods, and some issues or perceived ‘simple’ fixes or.improvements that persist for years, but, yeah, I have felt decent support for the game iteration. What is WotHs?
What did they do? I missed this, as I didn’t really pay attention to tournaments until recently
You guys seem to have (maybe intentionally) ignored the fact that when AOE2 was abandoned, literally the entire series was also abandoned (except AOEO) after ES’s disbandment.
And we are not talking about the past. We are talking about the present and future, in the hands of FE, and above it WE. Obviously AOE2 is by far far the most favored child.
And I’m not even blaming them for that. I’m simply pointing out why you guys would never have the sympathy towards the sentiment here: because you are the last one on the list to be guillotined and we all know that. It’s like the big AOE2/4 streamers showed up feeling sorry for the AOE3 DLC cancellation only because “oh it might also impact us”, but the moment they figured out it won’t, they immediately went back cheering and drinking.
This is humanity. It’s nothing wrong and there is no shame admitting it.
You conveniently left off my other line where I wrote, “I
don’t know if AoE3 was similarly abandoned for that long? I think it was…”
I didn’t follow or play AoE3 nearly as much as AoE2 so of course I’m limited in my knowledge of what official support it got or what mods came out for it, if any. Hard to ignore facts you’re unaware of.
Past was given for perspective. It’s not like AoE2 fans don’t know neglect, as implied by some posts above. And, again, you’re conveniently leaving out some of my points (maybe intentionally?). I addressed the present and future by explicitly referring to 2DE, and also saying, “Maybe over the years things will swing back around to AoE3’s domain again”
I never thought 3DE’s fate would befall 2DE, so I wasn’t one of those people peeking in to see if we were next. Just as 1DE’s demise didn’t worry me. Three completely different games. Sadly, for other games in the franchise, AoE2 just has more of a following. Some X-factor that the other two don’t seem to share (yet), unfortunately.
I think you don’t give people enough credit to be able to have sympathy and empathy for people hurt by situations they aren’t a part of or aren’t as affected by. I felt sorry for AoE3 players and the sentiment
The complete exclusion of AoE3 in events and advertising does seem deliberate. It isn’t going to break the budget to put out a single twit or reserve a panel in promotional content like this:
The only explanation I can think of is that WE views promoting their products as a zero sum game. They’re afraid that promoting AoE3 will siphon off players from AoE4. And that’s why they muzzle and kill AoE3.
Precisely. I’ve said it many times, including this thread. WE doesn’t have some institutional hatred of AOE3. There are no mustache twirling villains there planning to harm us. WE is just bad at it’s job. In the current environment, where AOM, 2, and 4 are all getting goodies, those communities are generally pleased with WE right now, but the studio has been generally awful to us all over the last year or so. Communication has been between poor and non-existent, DLC, when delivered, was generally bad (V&V anyone?). And AOE3 gets the shortest straw since apparently no one at the studio plays or even knows anything about AOE3 or it’s community, certainly not anyone in a position of power. What’s going on is that, in corporate terms, AOE3 doesn’t have a “champion”. No one in WE is pushing for AOE3, so it just gets left by the wayside, abandoned. I see it all the time at work. The only way to rectify it on our end is to make so much noise that they have to pick it back up.
And yet we’ve been constantly told otherwise for years now. Empty promises and platitudes will start to grate on people over time. As someone said upthread, WE knows how to market, build hype, show enthusiasm, and foster a relationship with a community.
This is their job, and they utterly failed. In fact, and what is even more insulting, is that they never even tried. We’ve extended ourselves plenty. When we riot we’re met with vapid bullshit that a blind squirrel can see past. Talk about a self-fulling prophecy; this is on them, not us, and I don’t think it can be repaired
The fact that CMs were urging us to submit bug reports a week after they nuked support when they had virtually years to track them and pass them along to the proper channels is insulting and tone deaf.
This isn’t directed at any specific person, but what bothers me is the policing some do on how others should feel. There are a million adjectives one could feel towards how they perceive WE has treated the game for a long time now, and all of them are legitimately interconnected and the lines are often blurred. Perceptions of hatred, neglect, contempt, apathy, etc, or a combination of everything is perfectly acceptable to feel at any given moment.
Personally, I’ve tried to carry on but shit happens and I get angry again. When I saw carry on, I mean, feeling a bit of relief that this game no longer has to be on the receiving end of WE bullshit. I love that modders have stepped up to the plate.
I’ve loved and supported this entire franchise since 1999. I feel like WE just spat in my face. 3DE did not deserve this. We’re part of this franchise and I don’t plan on going anywhere just because WE can’t get it’s shit together. I would have loved this 2DE update in better times but all I feel is a sting that won’t go away. It hurts.
And blaming bug reports for being not easily readable to non-developers (which means themselves).
And blaming AOE3 tournament organizers for not reaching out to them.
If they demand the players to figure out how to fix all the bugs, then do the filtering and compilation, then find ways to communicate them to both laymen and programmers, and deal with every detail regarding tournaments, why do we even need them?
I’d rather they directly come out and tell us to F off, and admit that they never had the motivation to do anything for this game, rather than those excuses and hypocrisies.
Edit: to add more salt, this is not how they have dealt with 2 or 4, especially 2. And we are not talking about premium treatment of any kind.
Yeah, same, you didn’t have to be a Nostradamus to see it… they announced the DLC to have something for the Age event in 2024 but nothing ever happened because they were busy with Retold… their budget ran out and since they needed all the hands they could get to get Retold off the ground, they simply cancelled the DLC and pulled the trigger for AoE 3 so they wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore…
Yes, you had AussieDrongo who was a YouTuber from AoE 3 until he moved to AoE 4… now all you have left is SamuraiRevolution…
Yes, I mean I prefer not to rub salt in the wound… they cancelled everything that has to do with the game (and they killed it for the future, in the present it will continue as it is now)… I already swore, I already cried, I already grieved and I simply turned the page and went to Retold… 2DE will still be there receiving DLC that I will play from time to time, the 4th game the same; even if AoEO/Project Celeste announces another civ for 2027 (Carthage) it will have more future than AoE 3DE… and I will stay between those 4 games, Retold being the one that takes the place of 3DE…
I don’t think they’ll go back to AoE 3 after the second Retold DLC… I can see them announcing another pantheon for Retold and then another and so on (I think they’ll focus on AoE 3 until 2030 and if FE still exists they’ll reconsider going back to AoE 3 DE for the 25th anniversary)…
Yes, I mean, you have the Java and DS versions of AoE 2 in 2006, but little else… until 2 HD, AoE 2 was half-abandoned for 13 years… we probably wouldn’t have the DE versions, but simply 2 HD and AoE EE, and that’s it…
You have the Java version of The Asian Dynasties in 2010, but nothing more… and yes, AoE 3 DE is less moddable than the classic Age games (unless you know the Bang engine well), but you have some good mods like Age of the World, the Pirates of the Caribbean mod, and the mod that lets you play with the civs from the campaigns…
Let’s wait and see, but I find it difficult. I feel like the AoE 3 train passed between 2021 and 2022 and they didn’t know how to sell it well enough to reach the number of players of at least AoE 4… AoM still has a slight chance of recovering this year and reaching the number of AoE 4 by 2026 with the second pantheon…
AoE 2 nostalgics would go to AoE 4 streams and say they found the game boring and fell asleep or that it was a mobile game for one-handed people, and that would generate heated arguments with AoE 4 players, and World Edge and Red Bull would simply wash their hands of the issue, allowing AoE 2 players to bully AoE 4 players…
Not necessarily… because after the closure of ES in 2009, you had The Asian Dynasties Mobile in 2010 and during the existence of AoEO (2011-2014) you had the AoE 2 HD in 2013 with The Forgotten expansion, the AoM EE in 2014 and after the closure of AoEO in 2014, you had Castle Siege in 2014 and World Domination in 2015 and in 2015 and 2016 you had The African Kingdoms and Rise of the Rajas for the 2 HD and Tale of the Dragon for AoM EE and already in 2017 the DE and 4 were announced… the saga was never abandoned but between 2011 and 2018 it went through a “Dark Age” to have its second Golden Age again (2018-present)…
Yes, the phrase “I didn’t worry about the abandonment of AoE 1 DE because I didn’t play AoE 1 DE, I didn’t worry about the abandonment of AoE 3 DE because I didn’t play AoE 3 DE, I didn’t worry about the abandonment of AoMR and AoE 4 because I didn’t play those games either, now they’re going to abandon AoE 2 DE and there’s no one who cares about it because the rest of the communities left the series” would apply there…
Yes, they know…it’s either simple ignorance or simple malice…
It’s not hard to guess… AoE 2 has a more polished gameplay than AoE 1, which makes it mechanically better than AoE 1 and the Middle Ages are more popular than the colonial period, that’s why AoE 3 lives in its shadow since 2005… and I say this as a die-hard fan of AoE 3, but I’m aware that we have to dance with the ugliest…
Yes, it’s not the fault of AoE 2 DE or its community… but MS and WE never knew how to sell AoE 3 DE well (Ensemble Studios did have more respect for AoE 3, MS and WE simply kicked it like an unwanted child and would have preferred to abort it)… they never promoted it on social media except when it came out with the 1812 sonata video and the civs videos, nor in RBW (the straw that broke the camel’s back was the “armored galleon” when the monitor came out in that celebration video or the 1795 galleons post), add to that the fact that neither the launch game nor the expansions brought campaigns (it cost them nothing to make a remake in AoE 3 of Pachacuti, Moctezuma and Almeida), people asked for campaigns and only received 3 historical battles and that was it…
Yes, I think that current AoE 4 players (many coming from SC2 and WC3R) will be future AoE 3 and Retold players at some point, since 1DE has no players and 2DE players will die in that game like Templars in Jerusalem…
You have Tilanus, but I doubt they gave him much attention…
Yes, we 3DE players don’t ask for premium treatment either, but we also don’t want to be treated with kicks and disinterest… a middle ground between all the releases… does it seem fair to you that in the 2024 event they included 1 hour and a half of a scenario for 2DE, while in Retold they didn’t even show any images of the game, for 4 the announcement of a season, for Mobile a 5 minute promotional video without gameplay and for 3DE 2 measly PNGs in less than 5 seconds?..
Yes, and I would tell you in 2023 when they didn’t announce anything in May and July… while the 2 DE continued to receive DLCs like Rome and then the Caucasus and AoE 4 The Sultans Ascends in the middle of the year (obviously there it was already noticeable that the 3 DE team had already migrated to 4)… and already in 2024 it was a joke even for the 2 DE with VaV and they half saved the potatoes with Chronicles, although before they ruined it again with the delay of the Baltic DLC… and now in 2025 what do you have left for the 20th anniversary of AoE 3? … the Baltic DLC canceled and the 3 DE dead while the 2 DE receives the biggest DLC since The Forgotten in 2013; Retold, the Chinese plus another pantheon this year or next and AoE 4 not even civs, but variants (some French Templars copied from the Maltese from AoE 3) and the Lancasters (who are simple English with more UUs and tecs)…
… as there are frequent occurrences of little or no communication for long periods, and some issues or perceived ‘simple’ fixes or.improvements that persist for years, but, yeah, I have felt decent support for the game iteration. What is WotHs?
