After two decades of charting new worlds, building mighty empires, and seeking adventure, thank you for making *AoE III* and *AoE III: Definitive Edition* your gateway to exploration and history. Set sail and relive your favorite campaigns again!
Celebrate *AoE III* ’s 20th and *DE* ’s 5th Anniversary by trying out *AoE III: DE* on Steam!
After two decades of charting new worlds, building mighty empires, and seeking adventure, thank you for making AoE III and AoE III: Definitive Edition your gateway to exploration and history. Set sail and relive your favorite campaigns again!
Celebrate AoE III ’s 20th and DE ’s 5th Anniversary by trying out AoE III: DE on Steam!
An abandoned Baltic DLC. No marketing during releases. No representation in Red Bull tournament. No campaigns. A eSports montage that only features AOE3 campaigns that wasn’t foisted in any other game. A half-baked and poorly planned F2P mode. A final state of the game riddled with over 100 bugs documented by players. A final balance that features an Ottoman civ so broken they are chosen 12% of the time. Abandoned maps that Vivid almost finished. Abandoned explorer packs that were largely complete. A civ rotation schedule that isn’t updated. A explorer skin unlock rotation that wasn’t updated for 2 years and is now broken. A studio that cared so little about the game and us that they called monitors “cannon galleons", misrepresented an event in the French Revolution as occuring in AOE2, and when sharing screenshots didn’t even notice it displayed they hadn’t opened the game in 3 weeks.
No. The good doesn’t wipe away the bad. The good folks at FE and Tantalus were able to balance out the ignorance incompetence, and ambivalence at Worlds Edge for a while but that only worked while EW was under Shannon Loftis. All we have received from the studio for the last three years has been constant disrespect.
I will not pretend like this is somehow acceptable. The very studio that stabbed us in the back 9 months ago is now trying to fake appreciation by saying “Thank You.” I will not return the false face. And based on the social media reactions, most other AOE3 fans aren’t going to pretend either.
People want a balanced game, with a clean user interface where they can see who’s online/offline, and a game without bugs, exploits, or errors.
They want new campaigns, new civilizations, new maps, and new game modes.
They want respect and fair treatment for the game and the community. It’s more than evident that they deliberately try to ignore its existence as much as possible.
There were many good things, there’s no doubt about that, such as the fact that it was the only game with revamped cinematics, and great work with the DLC, and polished and reworked civilizations and other aspects of the game, but this is what they’re expected to do. These are welcome things, but they’re not favors, because that’s what you buy the game for.
Players are asking for things they’re willing to pay for. Being conformist is not healthy for the game..
I forgive them, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to trust them again. Trust is earned, if they wanted to earn a lot back, fixing the game would be a great start. I’m not even saying I definitely won’t buy AoE5, but I don’t expect to buy it at release, and I am going to have to seriously consider whether the game (which is currently an unknown quantity) merits further support of a studio that was willing to string us along for over a year.
Edit: for reference I believe I purchased AoE2 DE, AoE3 DE and AoE 4 all around release. I even considered buying AoMR shortly after its release in part to support the series. I didn’t end up getting AoMR, which I’m glad about given that it’s association to AoE3 would have been a significant factor in the decision.
Ah yes ! Two decades of continued support, dedication from the brand. I can’t wait for the next patch and DLC, renewing that commitment to a franchise beloved by an astonishing number of people despite its age. It’s been a while.
To good business practices, reciprocity, and sane management ! Cheers !