UNLESS the game SELLS expansions or microtransactions AFTER the intial game release; THEN “PLAYER RETENTION” IS IRRELEVANT. 
OK. GIVE ME $100 MILLION DOLLARS!!! THEN I WILL!!!
Have you NEVER heard of the 1 in 10,000 RULE? It states that 1 complaint, is EQUAL to 10,000 customers who ahd a negative experience.
MOST people, who DO NOT like a product, NEVER bother to even leave a negative review. Therefore, if a game is mediocre, it CAN STILL have ONLY POSITIVE REVIEWS.
I forget the specific “fallacy” category it falls under. But it is basically similar to a youtube video i saw, about how the “army” determined “where” to reinforce plans, “by inspecting them, once they returned from a battle”.
The thing about it, is that a plan that DOES NOT return from battle is NOT counted. Whereas, ONLY the planes that “survived”, had bullets holes. THerefore, should you reinforce the plane where the MOST bullet holes are?
The answer is NO. Because those planes “survived”. It is the planes that DID NOT make it back, that you NEED to think about.
Because, it is the places that were NOT shot, that were MORE vulnerable, and subsequently, led to the plane “crashing or being destroyed”.
So thinknig in terms of “who is talknig” is NOT what you should be doing. You should be thinknig in terms of “who is NOT talking”.
just to be clear, there ARE methods of analyses and mathematical models for a distribution analyses to find the approximate probability of those who DO NOT talk or make NEGATIVE criticism. Not to mention that this forum attracts NOT the “casual” players (who also play AoE games), BUT, instead, ONLY the “FANS, willing to go out of their way” to get AoE franchise content. Which is, in fact, a sampling bias. (Because more people are likely to ignore the faults of the newest game or anything in the franchise BECAUSE they are “fans”).
So even if you have LESS players, reporting NEGATIVE criticism, which might be a LOWER proportion compared to the rest of the players in THESE forums, it probably, in fact, is a HIGHER percentage of the “casual” players, and more boradly, the OVERALL community.
THEY HAVE ALREADY GIVEN THIS INFORMATION. Did you NOT see the ACTUAL preview?
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I know you think that you sound really smart but I’m not really sure that you can use this model for AoE4. Just so you know I saw the video on YouTube as well.
Sure there are a lot of people that weren’t giving any reviews but if you look at the likes and dislikes on the YouTube trailers the mood of people is overall quite positive.
As with everything the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think we can all accept that there were still aspects during the gameplay trailer that could need improvements. There are people in this forum that say everything is perfect as well as people saying the game is a train wreck. Both of them are extremes and both of them are probably wrong.
You also have to keep in mind that what we saw from the game was still work in progress. So improvements are sure to be made.
Lastly there is no need to belittle others on this forum. My advice to you would be after seeing your other comments is that you should maybe try to be a bit more understanding towards the others. You are entitled to your own opinion and so is everyone else. Noone is right or wrong it’s all just opinions.
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where the heck does that rule come from? 
From the industry in general, and modern time, its actually more of the other way around although not in this scale.
You know the saying that negative opinions are always voiced the loudest? and that satisfied customers are less likely to post about their satisfaction, than unhappy customers?
THAT is the reality of modern times. YOu can see it in forums and youtube comments, or basically anywhere else. It also makes sense. If you dislike something, you complain. But if you like it, you keep enjoying it, most ppl wont bother stating anywhere that they like that 
regardning your army example- while this was indeed a very interesting happenstance, it has nothing to do with modern game development, or not that much, i Think.
I wonder if graphics are important regarding game sales. And it seems tehy are not, at all. Look at the list of the top selling games the last month or even years.
You will see most of these games do not hae outstanding graphics. Most of them are either indie or based on an already exiting IP. Age is the latter. so there is not a real need to get customers to buy with fanyc hraphics. Because while they may be a reason for NOT buying games, the gameplay is certainly why ppl buy games.
Or did you ever think “Wow, that game loooks SO good. I really dont like the gameplay I saw, but i wil buy it. Because it looks good”? No.
And the other way around, ppl more often think “Woah that game is UGLY. but I LOVE the gameplay. I will get it”.
At least thats from my expertise with ppl.
And myself. best example is the game loop hero. Its ultra basic, I found it ugly and decided I w ouldnt get it. then I saw gameplay and immediately bought it 
Neither will Aoe4.
Yes. No one is going to buy a game they won’t like, to think so is stupid
Entirely true
How the heck do you know what they are expecting? 1-2 million sales would be pretty good for an RTS game nowadays
So you are a fan of cash grabs? Why are you even here?
Why? So you can make some crappy game that no one wants to play because gameplay sucks…but at least the graphics are up to date.
Never heard of it so it can’t be a very reliable rule
With this logic, Aoe2 DE is a medicore game because if you multiply all of the people by 10 then you would outnumber the positive replies by A LOT
Youtube videos, reddit, forums, all of these add up to thousands of players.
Sorry, but that whole explanation made no sense. Sounds like a bunch of crap someone would make up to make their point right
Only half of the civ names been released, graphics are months old and we can only “see” gameplay, can’t feel and experience it
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Yup, don’t know if they have a sales target but it won’t be a ridiculously high one, MS has left the blockbuster tactic behind (Sony can have it) and is playing the long game instead. Meaning they favor long lasting games over great selling games. It’s the same reason why they made Flight Simulator 2020 and made the new Halo a infinite one.
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Games that have a long retention tend to make more money due to DLCs, sooo, imo it is the better strategy
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It is just that AGe of Empires 2 is a timeless masterpiece and so are the expectations. They already released two Age Games, that arent nearly as good as The second game. Now its 20 years later and we are all worried about if the producer of the game know what they are doing. It never happened that a game reached up to the second game in 21 years and so why should it now. But from what I have seen yet it is exactly the Game I wanted since 7 years. AoE 2 was a little bit like chess with the ground and maybe that is why its great. Simply no one knows for 100000% sure what makes Age of Empires 2 to the best real time strategy game ever. So maybe it´s just everything and there may not be a way to make a better game. I´m very into this topic right now and can only hope for it to be the best sequel I always wanted. And maybe I can even participate in the beta and help improve the Game.
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The fact is, MORE people, who are MORE likely, to give psotivie reivews, and OVERLOOK, any fault in a franchise, are MORE LIKELY to be “watching” those types of videos. AoE both original and HD (NOT DE) sold 10 MILLION copies each. Only the “super fans” follow those types of channels. There follow zealously, and therefore MORE likely to “BE FORGIVING” of any flaws or faults in a particular entry to a franchise.
There is NO such thing as an opinion. There is only statistical analysis and that which is factually accurate and that which is factually “inaccuarate”.
Truth has nothing to do with any type of sliding scale.
You fundamentally misundestand everthing that was stated. When did anyone criticize the FINALY product of the game. What was being COMMENTED ON, was specifically referencing the “PREVIEW”.
The like to dislike ratio can be correlated to the comment ratio, and DOES NOT support, as evidence, what you CLAIM it supports. Those who submit a like or dislike, are in the same “group” as those who watch the video.
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You mean due to MICROTRANSACTIONS.
“try to be thankful”
Why?
If people have opinions, they’re entitled to them.
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No, to DLCs. Doesn’t take much to understand that
No. It won’t. Stronghold Warlords costs $40, $20 cheaper than your estimate. Most RTS games don’t sell at the same price as a standard Triple A game (unless they are a Total War game.
Iron Harvest, $50
Steel Division 2 $40
Ancestors Legacy $35
? tens of millions of players say you are wrong, the servers were shut down like a year ago and we still have people buying it and picking it up. Servers are full, barely any wait time for a match.
For all your numbers and reasoning you have forgotten one thing. Development expenses. You are making up all these numbers without knowing how much development cost.
Well duh.
No, I am trying to understand the rambling that you have posted
You just spout off a bunch of numbers with quite a few things missing and claim I’m the one who doesn’t understand basic economics
I had never heard of it before. Looked it up, nothing came up, so obviously, it isn’t very reliable. And did I say it doesn’t exist? No. Please type slower and spell correctly, btw
Yours is no more accurate than mine
There is a reason why people still play through the stories of games that focus on stories. Because it is a great story that feels like it came out of a movie and playing it multiple times is like watching your favorite movie, over and over again. Graphics are not the only thing that sells games, if you truly believe that than you haven’t really paid attention to the gaming industry
Lol, ignore my comment because it points out the flaw in your all-powerful rule
Sounds like someone just keeps spouting off random nothingness to prove a point
This right here tells me everything I need to know about you. Pretty sad actually…
Nope
The only gameplay we know of is walk on walls, forest ambush, and it will follow the core Age gameplay. Not much to take from
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@ChancierPrism63 no offense to you, but the way you present your arguments with extensive usage of CAPS! and smiley emoji feels a bit insulting and frustrating to read which make me take it less seriously.
so could you please write your arguments in proper way?
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He is just a troll. No need to argue with him.
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The other guy is not much better. Unfortunately also a toxic guy, who seeks attention 
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The only thing I agree is the light, the X019 light is way better XD
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Thank you for your feedback. But you read it wrong, for me the lightning view are in 2019 worse than now, but the color saturation was better. Overall, the graphics deteriorated compared to the 2019 view. But yes, i am excited, how the graphic will look like, when it is published and whether they will take earnestly the community warnings or not^^
thats obviously a quite personal choice - becase I like the generally more colorful ones of the preview better. But then again devs also said how we wil be able to change stuff like that (I think) in the settings, so we will probably both be happy with that 
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“he” may be in other topics, but in this comment chain I would say they are on the more reasonable argument side