Expansions are usually really exciting as everyone is figuring out how to play the new civs, how to play them optimally, etc. I was originally super hyped for this expansion.
But with streamers getting months to practice the civs, and then a week to stream them, it killed all of the fun “Discovery” aspect of the expansion.
Before the expansion even launches, there are highly detailed build order guides available, and players have had a week to see pro players demonstrate how to correctly play the new civilizations in various matchups.
Usually in a new expansion you can come up with dumb strats and they work due to everyone being a noob at new civs, but given that there’s so much information already, that won’t be possible. If you’re of a decent rank and dare try to experiment with the new civs and make your own build order, you’re going to get destroyed by people that just copy whatever they saw their favorite streamer do, because those build orders were tested over the course of months.
PLEASE with the next expansion, don’t give streamers early access! It ruins the entire fun of new expansions. I would’ve cancelled my preorder if it wasn’t so cheap.
I disagree.
I like having transparency because that allows me to make a better purchase decision.
It’s always a very bad sign if journalists and content creators don’t get early access to a game or expansion before release. That usually only happens if the game is unfinished/buggy and they don’t want people to know.
I agree but from a passion point of view, you lose all the desire to discover, given that without wanting to, there are videos on YouTube that recommend this content to you and if you were watching a streamer, you can’t watch anymore to avoid spoilers, should be given to allow him to play it, but without being able to give him the possibility to reveal the contents until the release of the dlc, in order to give him time to be able to record their contents and upload them immediately on YouTube as soon as the embargo ends, but not while all the players wait, allowing them to load the contents first, all the Hype vanishes leaving civilizations that no longer leave the desire you had before playing them. it should also be said that if you want to remain in the dark, if you frequent Reddit or the AOE4 forum it is very complicated to do so, given that everyone is talking about it.
to make a better purchase you can also not pre-order and on the day the dlc comes out inform yourself before buying it, I don’t think there is a real function in thinking like this. journalists-streamers-youtubers can always have the DLC first, but without being able to upload content before the release or even a few hours in advance but not days, a few hours in advance, I mean not to let them play it, they can play it even days before, but there should be an embargo that allows you to upload the contents of the DLC only a few hours before, in order to allow him to record and upload the contents, but without causing spoilers and lowering the Hype of the entire community.
Remarkably, I find myself having to agree with your point, I haven’t bought it yet I think because I haven’t been playing it for some time now because of how crap mulitplayer is because of those cheating players from other regions. I sort of realise now after reading your post that the excitement and indeed the mystery of it is gone now because I have seen some streams already and heard some people already saying that the DLC civs are not great vs the original civs.
That whole new feeling of exploring each civ is gone…I am not sure now whether I am even going to start up the game this weekend, I might just watch some streams instead.
Microsoft has been doing this early access for all Age games for years now and as someone who took part in some of them myself (AoE 4’s launch two years ago as well as three DLCs for AoE 2 with Dynasties of India, Return of Rome and Mountain Royals), let me tell you that streamers and misc. content creators really only get to see and play the civs the moment they get the key which is roughly around the time the preview is announced, so ~1 week in advance.
90% of people want good knowledge of what they are getting, only a few people care about getting soiled for a mulitplayer title.
The earlier the public gets hands on new content the more we can sure that it’s actually good and not broken and I think that is a lot more important compared to having like a day of a little more fun discovering things.
There are pros and cons to this, as written by others.
I myself had to make the choice between watching the previews or isolate and wait for the release to explore things myself. I opted for the former.
Regarding build orders being out in advance… You can take a week or so to try yours out with the AI before going PvP. It’s a workaround even though others will be able to practice the first BOs and better ones could come out in the meantime. Content creators are always fast to put things out though.
just dont watch the videos. if you don´t wanna get spoiled, don´t watch the spoiler. i have seen nothing about the campaign right now, nothing about the new wall mechanic, because i just don´t watch the videos.
A week is not a lot of time to do anything like solving the meta. Besides the meta in Conquerer+ is drastically different than in lower elos when it comes to builds etc.
Combined with the fact that there have been VERY few games between the old civs and new, if there is an old civ in the game, it’s not like they have matchup knowledge even if they have been watching all the new content.
If you are conqueror+, sure you might be at a moderate disadvantage if you haven’t paid any attention to build orders, but there would be some posted day 1 anyways even if pros didn’t have access, just the nature of these things.
Noone forces you to watch the content creator’s videos and streams.
Keyword: Impulse control.
If you can’t stop yourself from opening the gifts under the christmas tree, who’s to blame?
You parents for putting them there, a few hours before christmas eve?
Dude…
And for unfairness about elo advantages:
Anyone lower than mid/high diamond anyways won’t be affected by this.
For conqueror level, maybe!
If streamers and content creators, tournament players had months access already, that would be a little unfair.
But just towards other TOURNAMENT LEVEL players who don’t get early access.
Again, for people under high diamond, it does not make ANY difference.
We got a whole season to learn the new stuff/balancing and the meta anyways keeps shifting, especially after balance/content patches for quite a while until the process slows down.
Nothing is. Even if everyone started at the same time, some people have better reflexes. Others better short-term memory. And so on, and so forth. Some folks are just straight-up younger than me. What do I do, refuse to ever play a game again?
I get it, it makes it “more” uneven. But in that case, just watch the content.
You’re quibbling about data you yourself have access to. If you don’t want to access that data because it ruins the “surprise”, then that’s fair enough, but that’s a different argument to “it’s not an even playing field”. If you want to be good at a game, learn about it. If it’s good, it’ll be good regardless of you being surprised about it or not.
(and don’t worry, just watching pro players play doesn’t make anyone a pro player)
You don’t need to watch those though and to be honest I think that this is a great marketing tactic to increase the hype level as well as letting people see a bit how the expansion is for an easier pre-order decision.
Who says they’ve all figured it out. We’re years in and there are even new ideas on the basic civs. Don’t worry too much. There is always more to figure out and strategies to form.
