TL;DR: you cannot shun “player expectations” only when you underdeliver
Expectations
Expectation led people buying a new title under a renowned franchise. They buy the game and also its DLCs because they have a positive perception of the direction it is going and believe it will deliver at least the same quality of experience in the future.
Expectation made players linger because they see something of value in the future. SC2 still holds the most matured RTS, yet it is on steady decline when support reduced significantly.
Expectation initiated all the necessary player engagement that the product needed to sustain. The AOE3 bug report section effectively evaporated the moment they cut support.
These are all expectations. They are like oxygen. Companies and franchises thrive on them. Without expectations, the player could hardly last a year. They could scatter into small self-sustaining communities but all on the slow decline and no way to thrive.
The modern PR TM
Yet over the years companies have been manipulating hype and cut corners on things that everyone knows that are expected but not written in stone, then gaslighting the customers for too many expectations. Nothing is written in stone. You’re always on the wrong expectation. Your fault.
For example, Civ 7 delivered extremely overpriced DLCs with unique units reusing models. Hey no one ever said since Civ 3 that UUs need to have unique models. Why are you expecting so much? Your fault
They think it is sly. They did fool a lot of people at the beginning. They didn’t know they are smashing the very expectation that sustained the community for decades.
World’s Edge’s game
In terms of WE, they had been playing with their playerbase’s expectations and consensus on the definition of civ, campaign, now even the setting of the game, to cut corners and find all small cracks to fit in something out of the scope. Hype things up riding long expectations, deliver something entirely different, tell you to buy it anyway without blinking, then gaslight you if you don’t
And their apologists would be like “hey none of them were written in conventions!”
Yes. None. AOE2 never said it had been and would remain medieval historical RTS game in the first place. They can literally do anything they want. So after some time people just stopped arguing and simply left.
This thread summarizes it nicely already:
When there was solid stuff that lives up to everyone’s expectations, they don’t need vague and empty marketing. They just showcase it. People will be naturally hyped.
When they are “experimenting” (read: fewer efforts and higher price), they call it surprise, unprecedented, bold, hanging-on-the-Christmas-tree, mind-melting, world-changing, reality-shaping, quantum-shattering blahblahblah. Teases and showcases became vague. But it just sits on the borderline so finely that it both stirs the right amount of community hype and leaves backdoors for alternative explanations (something even their biggest fanboys would not think of before it is revealed)
Case study
For example, 3K: they teased the regular “bread and butter DLC” (regular medieval civs + regular campaigns) for years, then they said they are taking notes on Dynasties of India. Then they teased FIVE new civs, not splitting China, images of Jurchen and Tanguts.
I think most normal people who had been in the discussion would think like: they are adding five civs related to China. And since they always added campaigns to legacy civs when they updated the region, maybe Chinese, Koreans or Japanese will finally get their campaign?
What it really turns out to be: three of the civs are short-lived Chinese factions in antiquity. But hey Chinese is still there so no splitting
Did it meet all of their advertising? Yes.
Was it anything people wanted? No. By no means. It sits on the borderline on every part of their hype building
And it is a strategy. They are a company overseen by another company. Every word they speak is marketing. To create hype. To boost sales. To foster expectations.
Don’t act like they are or we are toddlers. We know what they want to achieve. They know too. You know too. We all have lived in the capitalism world for long enough. There is no use playing dumb.
What they don’t know (or pretend they don’t)
The sad part is, expectation is not built in a day. It took labor, integrity, sincerity to slowly build up. It took more than two decades, several studios, tons of hardworking people, infinite amount of work, to build up the basic sustainable reputation. That’s why FE as a mod was hyped and everyone was spreading it like an official support. That’s why it really became official support. That’s why the DEs were praised (and Warcraft 3 reforged was trashed) and the hyoe eventually culminated in AOE4 having 60k+ peak at launch.
However most companies take it for granted, drain it, let it erode. And eventually when they cannot steer things in their direction, they yell: “why are you expecting too much from me?”