I have bought a fair number of AoE2 DLCs so far over the years. If I feel the DLC suits my personal playstyles and gaming needs, I sometimes buy. I haven’t agreed with every new DLC, and this upcoming one has its pros and cons, but I have a feeling it will be good. Plus, it is supporting the developers to keep making content in the future. There are more ways to raise concern to the devs than to “not buy,” imo.
Plus, as with many games these days, if the launched product isn’t hitting on all cylinders in the community, the developer often continues working on it and fine-tuning things post-launch to try and make more players happy. (Remember “No Man’s Sky”?)
If you feel similarly to this, then buy this DLC. That’s a good way to show support for a game, developers, and a franchise you love. And if the DLC is not 100% to your liking or you want things changed, then by all means, seek a refund within two hours of gameplay (or whatever the return policy is), post in the forums, send emails, and fill out AoE surveys when they come around. Be vocal about it in a constructive and passionate way, and those in charge of the DLC will likely take your words to heart and possibly implement changes, or will at least be more careful in the next rounds of DLCs. But at the end of the day, you’re helping to fuel more official development in a franchise and game that I assume you love because you’re here in the forum!
Oh, you’re that passionate about this masterpiece? Maybe you should buy a few copies and do a giveaway. After all, if it’s so worth it, you wouldn’t mind sharing the joy, right?
Asking others to spend money on a poorly developed product doesn’t really help your case.
No, I haven’t, but I’m sure there are counter-examples to everything. We don’t live in a vacuum with every idea or recipe having a 100% success rate.
I bet there are probably far more examples of companies and franchises going out of business or stopping all work due to lack of sales or toxic public sentiment than there are ones staying in business from all that. And there are probably far more examples of them staying in business and learning lessons along the way through decent sales couple with vocal constructive critiques and criticisms along the way that they can fix mistakes and shape future work from
This isnt a “toxic public sentiment”. This DLC has “development issues” written all over it and the choices are very bad. We havent gotten a FE campaign since Mountain Royals and the new ones seem to be made by Capture Age.
You shouldnt use your “instinct” as an argument. And we have way more examples of companies getting worse without any backlash than of companies getting better without any backlash. Just look at the gaming industry.
Well… some of the comments are pretty toxic, heh. Regardless, do you plan to buy the DLC if they make the requested changes, to reward their listening to the community?
And I’m unaware of any business staying in business as a charity. Businesses are in business to make money. Without sales to make up for expenses or to justify their existence, they tend to shutter down. That’s not ‘instinct’. It’s just business
You reversed “Join me in not buying” to “Join me in buying”, and “Game will die soon” to “Game will do very well soon” but did you treat the root cause of all these negativity?
Did you reverse “Developers are mute and ignore all complaints” to “Developers have acknowledged the mistake and promise to bring change”?
The masterpiece. The golden goose. The legend. The only one in the franchise worth updating. The sole game that keeps this franchise alive. The one that survives several bad DLCs. The one managed by cold blooded and well calculated businessman sharper than anyone else. The one with hundreds and thousands of hidden players who never spoke a single word outnumbering 5 or 6 vocal minorities.
——Desperately needs one passionate corporate fanboy to urge one of the vocal minorities to buy its one DLC
Lol, no I didn’t reverse those. I’ve stated multiple times they should.
Since I’m in the community as a player, and not a dev, I can only speak from my perspective and see if there are any like-minded players. So far, pretty much crickets, so I wouldn’t worry… your boycott protest route is more popular. Either that, or people who plan to buy are being quiet to avoid all the ad hominems that the vocal majority can’t seem to avoid for some reason
Not only did I not do that for the above reasons I previously replied with, but I’ve actively and constructively tried to help make a better conduit between player and dev by suggesting there be in-game feedback and survey mechanisms:
I was also one of the ones proposing and advocating for a dev newsletter that eventually launched and became the Trebuchet Tribune for the Insider Program. It didn’t quite hit all the marks of what I was hoping for, but it was nice. Sadly, that died out a few years ago. I’m betting several people proposed it, so I won’t take credit for it. But when I mentioned it, I certainly hadn’t personally seen it asked for before
What suggestions have you come up with that are constructive and productive to the issue at hand?
Yeah, that’s fair. I actually need to look into No Man’s Sky to see what all has changed for the better since launch. I’m not a huge fan of procedurally generated things that forget you were there just a minute ago, so if they’ve mitigated that, I might like. And also should see if Star Citizen is doing any good lately, and if regular people who weren’t project backers can play it. Is it still in Alpha or Beta, too
