Do you want there to be microtransactions/battlepass in AOE4?
Yes
No
0voters
I’ve seen some people theorising that the current level system could be tied in to some kind of future battlepass/micro transaction system. I’ve even seen some people saying they wouldn’t mind it.
There is 0 reasoning for them to add such things for money when they could add them for free instead and make you earn them via in game achievements. Why would you voluntarily encourage/want them to add paid rewards that could instead be earned for no money? It makes 0 sense? It is not as though this game will struggle financially if relying solely on game/expansion sales. So you can’t even use the “supporting the developers” argument.
There is 0 rational reason to be in support of it. Microsoft is a multibillion dollar company. I can understand the mindset that it may be inevitable but this is very different from actively liking it. Let’s show the developers/Microsoft our dislike of such practices.
So far the AOE franchise has done a good job of avoiding these things. Even with the recent AOE1, 2 and 3 Definitive edition remasters. There has been 0 microtransactions only expansion packs. If they have done this the last few years there’s no reason for them to change their business model for AOE4.
It’s nice to have a franchise that behaves a little differently than most others in the modern day right? The game industry may be ‘changing’ but so far the AOE franchise has remained above that and I hope it continues to do so. There is no reason for AOE to sully the prestige they’ve acquired over the last 20+ years with these ‘business practices’.
“AoE: Castle Siege” had micro-transactions “AoE: Online” had micro-transactions
I far prefer expansion packs for additional content, though. I don’t know that I’ve ever bought premium content through micro-transactions for any game before; and don’t know that I ever will. If I did, it was probably only once or twice on Playstation 3 for some small, low budget, inexpensive or free, independent game. I either usually don’t buy the game, or just play the base game and be done with it
For AoE4, I don’t know enough of the context to know what you’re referring to, or what it might mean. Hopefully they don’t do micro-transactions for it, as that’d turn me off from buying, for sure. I don’t know that there would be “0” reasoning for it, though, as most businesses aren’t in business to be charities. They have bills to pay, too.
And just because they’re a ‘multi-billion dollar company’ doesn’t mean they give stuff for free. Haven’t Amazon, Apple, and Tesla hovered around the trillion dollar company level? And I don’t remember the last time I got a free GoPro, iPhone, or Tesla. Maybe there are some out there who are?
UPDATE (Nov 2021): My opinion has evolved on this. If the micro-transactions bring cosmetic graphics packs and audio packs, I could see this potentially being a good thing... allowing me, the player, to get things for random maps that I wouldn't get possibly any other way.
Yeah those 2 are a bit of an outlier being mobile game/ free to play mmo.
When I said “0 reason” I meant from the player’s perspective there’s no reason to support it. Obviously a company can have a financial reason but hopefully they agree to keep going as they have and keep their playerbase happy rather than trying to get ‘all’ the money.
Please no microtransactions
1- they are terrible to the game and have no place in aoe
2- we already payed sixty dollars for the game or more if you bought the deluxe edition
I voted ‘Yes’ thinking that the question is “Do you want to keep AOE battlepass free?” $60 and a battlepass, hell no. Paid expansions with great content, hell yeah.
I actually like “micro transactions” as long as it is not gating content like powerful factions or gives someone a pay to win. Like I said in another post, I would gladly pay 15$ for a HRE skin overhaul to make everything Teutonic knight themed. Now paying 15$ for 15 games where I can use a powerful teutonic unit to give me an advantage, I wouldn’t like that.
The only thing I am willing to pay for is legit DLC civs
IE for a 19.99 dlc I would expect at least 3 or 4 civs. With that DLC I would expect some type of update for all players (even those that do not buy a CIV) such as a new map type, game mode etc.
Skins, monuments, etc that crap belongs somewhere else.
If modding is to be a thing… Skin microtransactions cannot be a thing.
For random map matches, if I could buy weather fx pack for a few dollars, I would. Or lighting/mood/time of day pack. Or audio variety pack. Or classic sounds, taunts, and soundtrack pack for 99 cents. Or gaia pack. Or environment/landscape pack (waterfalls, ponds, flowers, rocks, gold and stone mine variations that are more beautiful, etc.). Or water pack. Or fx dynamics pack. Etc.
I would probably far prefer these onesy-twosey things than a ‘2 new civs’ or ‘3 new civs and 1 campaign’ full-on expansion pack which may lock new graphics and sounds down to the new civs or new maps because the new things are highly specific to those civs or campaign. Same for AoE2. I think expansion packs are great, but I’m personally somewhat tired of new civs and feel there’s a lot that could still be done with the game that maybe is being somewhat overlooked. AoE2:DE has definitely been good at enhancing things, but I think more could probably be done in regards to new things that can be used on any map or any civ
Sure, I’d prefer these to just be added for free to the base game, but I don’t foresee that happening
For AoE4, specifically, I know there is a fairly limited number of civs, but I think it’s quite fine for a good while. No need to rush new civs, imo; as there’s a ton more work to do that (civ research, civ balance, campaign videos/story/plot, new tech considerations, etc.) than some of the things I outlined above. There’s a lot of other stuff to work on first before new civs, too… but whether or not my ‘packs’ above are microtransaction DLCs or free is another story. ‘Included with the purchase’ is always far preferred, of course; at least for the first year or so
Battle pass would be peak cringe, some unit skins or flag customisation options as microtransactions would be fine. Obv there’ll be civilization dlc which is fine.
Cosmetic micro-transactions are fine. Maybe unit reskins and building art skins and the like. People want to pay for a banner or a monument? Fine by me.
I won’t begrudge MS for creating something some people may want.
“But it will take dev time away from more important things” I hear the peanut gallery saying. Maybe, but maybe they just hire a few extra staff to handle it.
Either way, as long as it doesn’t effect a players ability to win I couldn’t care less.
As for a potential Battlepass, who can judge without seeing what they might have in mind. Players who invest into monthly passes are more likely to stay engaged in the game on a daily basis, and I’m sure there are ways that they could make it worth the cost for some people.
I wouldn’t say there is no reason, cosmetic mtx enable games to have a less fractured player base, as you don’t have gated gameplay relevant content.
The problem with cosmetics for me is, that they can’t be disabled for others to sell. People into that also like crazy stuff, evidently rainbow over the top cosmetics sell the best. And I just don’t want to see the base design screwed over.
The good thing is, that this bites extremely with modding support. So it’s not really an viable option here and I also think AoE is in a favourable position to have civs behind pay walls without fracturing the player base.
Of course they can do it like SC2, but afaik, that never sold enough to cover the cost, even with the very popular coop mode. So having “overpriced” DLCs is probably beeing a thing, to warrant ongoing support. But they probably only need it for the first year to fix and smooth out everything, after that a skeleton crew for balancing will probably do and this can maybe covered by export sponsorship. We’ll see.
I really don’t understand the pushback vs this. I mean its not a lootbox (random chance based content). The items will be released to everyone else eventually as a normal paid skin in a shop (assuming its like the sc system). Also the initial release of content will have free items for those who don’t want to buy the actual pass. Not to mention it helps support the game and foster official esports. A battle pass for rts games is not greedy on the level of a lootbox or “surprise mechanics” nor is it consisting of cut content.
I would feel kind of ■■■■■■ since the base game has the highest price they could possibly ask and it’s an unfinished product with all the bugs and just sloppy wrong tooltips/information. After this to transition into micro payments or subscription would be ridiculous and would probably cause me to turn my back to this company forever.
“AoE: Castle Siege” had micro-transactions
$60 and a battlepass, hell no. Paid expansions with great content, hell yeah.