Age of Empires 4 brought me back to playing an rts game for an extended amount of time. I really like the multiplayer despite its flaws.
However, given the ressources and know how are available for Microsoft and Relic a lot of the decisions are hard to understand.
The game itself:
- Bugs: I myself at least understand some basics about programming. Thus, it is really hard to understand why it takes so long to fix some simple bugs. Are there issues with the documentation of the code?
- UX design: When talking with other players in my group we often have to complain about the UX design regarding menu and in game. So many psychological principles are not correctly applied. The following book might give you an idea of the flaws: Book | Laws of UX.
- Campaign & ranked mode: As the campaigns are at least in my opinion very boring I rarely play them. But the multiplayer with its great potential is for me the core of the game. Why is the actual ranked mode still not integrated in the game?
- Advanced tutorials: As I consider the multiplayer to be the most important part of the game: Why aren’t there any advanced build order tutorials available? Without YouTube you are lost in multiplayer games.
- Bots: The bots are way to weak. Even I with my approximately 1000 elo need two very strong bots for proper training on open maps.
AoE2 and 4 esports:
- General: Viewership in AoE, especially AoE2, given it is more kinda a niche community is amazing. Also the kind of viewership is really interesting. Many people are above 25 and obtaining a good income. Compared to tactical shooters or fantasy games selling advertising spots should be comparatively easy. AoE 2 and AoE 4 are seen as „history games“. Of course, therefore you would need proper B2B marketing as well as top notch sales.
- Production quality: As I love to watch esports like for example CS Go, Valorant and at times even Dota 2 as well as LoL it is sometimes hard to swallow the production quality which has a lot of upside. I think that the current producers may need more know how as was well as ressources.
- Integrating esports in the game: If better produced wouldn’t it be possible to add an esports section within the game: videos, live streams of major tournaments, tutorials by the best pros, interviews etc.