WE should learn from WE on handling its games and communities

[ArrivedLeader22]

@Wolfstack

We should shout the situation in other AOE forums, so other player/influencers support us and the game.

And that’s how you make them think you hate their games XD.

Don’t trust humanity. Those people are happy. If you complain your situation to them, they will only feel you are here to add negativity to their happy lives.

[FiveWind6951746]

I’m reminded of the time when someone on this forum attempted to drum up support from the 2DE crowd to help get 3DE into Redbull.

It went as well as I expected to go.

[TheLiberator236]

You are so wrong.
AOE 4 is a new entry in the series with the same base medieval theme and core mechanics that AOE 2 has, but there are so many AOE 3 mechanics as well, others borrowed from other RTS games, and other completely new to the Series.

[ResultedRex9901]

The problem is that Empire Wars requires its own balancing. So now, not only you have to balance supremacy, team , treaty and , maybe DM, but also EW and team EW. Where is the resource for it? The additionals modes without having a proper team to back up lacks of long terms vision for the game and is also a waste of financial resources.

So first of all you have to ask ‘does aoe3 need empire wars?’ and the answer is naturally a ‘No’.

Because, not only aoe3 is already fast paced, Empire Wars is specifically a multiplayer mode because i don’t think the AI for all civs has been adapted properly. Imagine instead of this mode, we had an entire new campaign or 4 more historical contents which would have benefitted every of aoe3 player.

[KG19991380]

to be fair, there is 3 de content in that intro, but its important to mention its not gameplay, its the final cinematic of act 1:Blood campaign, is that enough? imo they should just put gameplay in like the other 2, and that pattern is consistent with all WE advertisement over last year or 2, you’ll always see just a cinematic of 3, not gameplay

[MatM1996]

@RebelCupid40114

It is absurd to try to recruit Aoe3 players for Aoe4. If that is true then they are wasting their time. I will never play Aoe4 even if they gave it to me as a gift. I simply don’t like it. It is a different era and other mechanics. I never liked Aoe2, much less would I like to play Aoe4.

@ArrivedLeader22

The management seems to care nothing about eras and settings, and see all of them simply as “RTS games”. So if they have two big “RTS games” (even though they have the same setting), there is no need to promote another “RTS game” (with a vastly different setting).

@ArrivedLeader22

Empire Wars was added to AOE2 to skip the long and tedious early game (and it’s still not even a popular mode in AOE2)
AOE3 already has a fast and dynamic early game. So it’s not necessary,

It’s still nice to have a new mode though. But they have been tonedeaf when it comes to this game for a long time. They only have either diehard AOE2 fans, or not-so-diehard AOE2 fans who want people to play there new innovative improved version of AOE2 (they claim) called AOE4.

@TheLiberator236

AOE 4 is a new entry in the series with the same base medieval theme and core mechanics that AOE 2 has, but there are so many AOE 3 mechanics as well, others borrowed from other RTS games, and other completely new to the Series.

@M1kazuki6861

Looking back at things AoE4 really is not needed. It’s just a second AoE2, no my bad, it’s worse.

@ArrivedLeader22

There are many people who just sees all RTS games as pvp games regardless of the setting. Scifi or medieval or fantasy no difference. I think the majority of management for this series see the same. Maybe like:

AOE2: the old classic RTS with a steady playerbase in both sp and pvp so you call always sell sp contents to them
AOE4: the new esports RTS
AOE3: no place for it

That’s true…

@TheLiberator236

I like almost all games in the franchise, but 3 is my favorite due to Modern Era time period.

@SirBarnzy1

I love AoE3 because it’s not medieval!

Of course, I bought the game in 2005 because it had a musketeer on the cover (although I had already tried its demo in early 2005)

@ResultedRex9901

Because, not only aoe3 is already fast paced, Empire Wars is specifically a multiplayer mode because i don’t think the AI for all civs has been adapted properly. Imagine instead of this mode, we had an entire new campaign or 4 more historical contents which would have benefitted every of aoe3 player.

That’s true…AoE 3 would be more popular if they included more historical content…I think that a campaign-only DLC like Suleiman, Gustavus Adolphus and Napoleon would be a great midfield goal…AoE 2 has almost 40 campaigns including those of TMR, AoE 3 only 8 since 2007…

@ArrivedLeader22

They did. We now have AOE4 clips in the intro and a pop-up ad for AOE4 when you open AOE3.

@KG19991380

to be fair, there is 3 de content in that intro, but its important to mention its not gameplay, its the final cinematic of act 1:Blood campaign, is that enough? imo they should just put gameplay in like the other 2, and that pattern is consistent with all WE advertisement over last year or 2, you’ll always see just a cinematic of 3, not gameplay

Sure, at least they kept the intro of the original game now remastered… but WE should promote the gameplay of AoE 3 more with new dlcs…

[Moonshadow7475]

@ArrivedLeader22

Well that intro is more for AOE4 especially its esports.

To be fair, most gaming companies do cross game promotion. Just open blizzard’s battlenet and you will see CoD adverts in every single game. Even in overwatch lol. So now that microsoft owns blizzard, you will see CoD in AoE3, it is just a matter of time.

@ArrivedLeader22

AOE2: the old classic RTS with a steady playerbase in both sp and pvp so you call always sell sp contents to them
AOE4: the new esports RTS
AOE3: no place for it

Part of the problem lies with the community. There is simply too much hate between the AoE communities, and the attention will go to the game with the most players, this is inevitable.

The reality is, AoE3DE got its run, I never expected this to happen. In a way this is one of the best things that happened in my life. But all things inevitably come to an end. I don’t think they will be supporting AoE2 with new content for too long either. Old games are hard to maintain.
And the content we got for 3DE is of much higher quality than what the others got. That must have been expensive.

It is indeed true that they could communicate better. But at this point I think they are afraid Aoe2 and 3 will cannibalize 4. Aoe2 did cannibalize 3 before. This is some weird particularity that the age of empires community has.

The economic situation is unfortunately not the best right now either. So there is bound to be some harder periods.

[ArrivedLeader22]

@Moonshadow7475

There is simply too much hate between the AoE communities

I don’t want much from them, or how should I say it, I’ve been so disappointed over the years that I stopped expecting the tiniest effort from them.
But they could at least try to alleviate that hate, or at least do nothing about it (see how low the standard has become).

However what they’ve been doing is adding fire to that hate. Comparing AOE3 to AOE2’s popularity in its own promotion. Forever talking about how AOE4 resembles 2 in every way and the only mention of 3 is “some players even want the deck system (surprised)”. Almost omitting the game in almost every event including the series’ 25th anniversary except “cannon galleon”. Obvious differential treatments in update schedules, promotions and communications. Etc etc etc.

Everything they do is telling AOE3 players you’re not important, and AOE2/4 players that 3 is the game that you can freely s**t on.
Every time you mention anything positive from AOE3, or request any feature from it, you’ll be confronted with hordes of oppositions because “3 fails”. And who is the one that started doing that? The one that first brings torches to the series as an improvement of 4 over 2.

We could, but they cannot call the hate a problem. They created it. If that hate hinders their business decisions it’s because they deserve it.

@Moonshadow7475

And the content we got for 3DE is of much higher quality than what the others got. That must have been expensive.

This is what enrages me the most.
The devs did a brilliant work. Did they get any credit? No.
We receive huge free updates. Huger than any patch other games receive, and for free. They do feel like a lot of efforts. Now has the company ever tried in the slightest to make them pay off? No.

Instead all the huge free updates only got brief mentions like “here is the patch note”, buried underneath announcements of announcements for the other games. The community itself needed to discover the tons of new models in the PUP that were not mentioned in the patch notes and never appeared on social media. And that very hyped update was ruined by the long delay with almost no communication. Then they let the F2P momentum (the only true promotion in years btw) slide with even poorer support, communication and promotion.

@Moonshadow7475

But at this point I think they are afraid Aoe2 and 3 will cannibalize 4.

I don’t think they particularly fear 2 would cannibalize 4. That’s the problem.

If they really see the games as some internal competition (I hope not), then it’s the “biggest contender” that poses the great thread. There is no reason to add to the biggest one the most frequently while draining the already smaller one.

[Moonshadow7475]

They clearly try to steer aoe4 from a 3D copy of aoe2 which was the original intention to esports game. They tried to leech aoe2, failed the same way they did with 3 and now they position 4 in a competitive game that’s got nothing to do with 2.

[MatM1996]

@Moonshadow7475

Part of the problem lies with the community. There is simply too much hate between the AoE communities, and the attention will go to the game with the most players, this is inevitable.

The reality is, AoE3DE got its run, I never expected this to happen. In a way this is one of the best things that happened in my life. But all things inevitably come to an end. I don’t think they will be supporting AoE2 with new content for too long either. Old games are hard to maintain.
And the content we got for 3DE is of much higher quality than what the others got. That must have been expensive.

It is indeed true that they could communicate better. But at this point I think they are afraid Aoe2 and 3 will cannibalize 4. Aoe2 did cannibalize 3 before. This is some weird particularity that the age of empires community has.

@ArrivedLeader22

However what they’ve been doing is adding fire to that hate. Comparing AOE3 to AOE2’s popularity in its own promotion. Forever talking about how AOE4 resembles 2 in every way and the only mention of 3 is “some players even want the deck system (surprised)”. Almost omitting the game in almost every event including the series’ 25th anniversary except “cannon galleon”. Obvious differential treatments in update schedules, promotions and communications. Etc etc etc.

Everything they do is telling AOE3 players you’re not important, and AOE2/4 players that 3 is the game that you can freely s**t on.
Every time you mention anything positive from AOE3, or request any feature from it, you’ll be confronted with hordes of oppositions because “3 fails”. And who is the one that started doing that? The one that first brings torches to the series as an improvement of 4 over 2.

We could, but they cannot call the hate a problem. They created it. If that hate hinders their business decisions it’s because they deserve it.

@ArrivedLeader22

This is what enrages me the most.
The devs did a brilliant work. Did they get any credit? No.
We receive huge free updates. Huger than any patch other games receive, and for free. They do feel like a lot of efforts. Now has the company ever tried in the slightest to make them pay off? No.

Instead all the huge free updates only got brief mentions like “here is the patch note”, buried underneath announcements of announcements for the other games. The community itself needed to discover the tons of new models in the PUP that were not mentioned in the patch notes and never appeared on social media. And that very hyped update was ruined by the long delay with almost no communication. Then they let the F2P momentum (the only true promotion in years btw) slide with even poorer support, communication and promotion.

@ArrivedLeader22

I don’t think they particularly fear 2 would cannibalize 4. That’s the problem.

If they really see the games as some internal competition (I hope not), then it’s the “biggest contender” that poses the great thread. There is no reason to add to the biggest one the most frequently while draining the already smaller one.

@Moonshadow7475

They clearly try to steer aoe4 from a 3D copy of aoe2 which was the original intention to esports game. They tried to leech aoe2, failed the same way they did with 3 and now they position 4 in a competitive game that’s got nothing to do with 2.

That’s true…in the end our divisions cause the saga to decline…let’s all move forward and try to buy the entire saga…

[TheLiberator236]

You have a doom aproach buddy.
So pesimistic and negative way of thinking!
I think we must wait until something great they can deliver to us!

[ArrivedLeader22]

Guess what: I was super optimistic before the July patch. I was ultra optimistic right after the F2P, which lasted for one month. What happened? Who knows.

This obvious despise from both the community of this series and the company as well has always been there. It was somewhat covered by a decent support earlier. Even during that time they have been finding 100 different ways to remind us “you’re the odd one out in the series”. Now that support has gone to zero or even negative, you cannot pretend it does not exist anymore, even though it has never gone.