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Hmmm I thought Age of Empires online would attract alot of players
eddieg50
Member UncommonPosts: 1,809
I figured all RTS players would want to try it but it does not seem like anyone wants to try it?
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I was going to buy this thining it was going to be a box price, but sadly the item shop has scared me away.
The prices are very much on the steep side, and eitists are having hissy fit about the graphics (Which look fine in my mind, nothing wrong with a lighthearted atmosphere)
Graphics does not equal art style, two different things. The people complaining about the art style don't like how "cartoony" and child-like the style is. No one is complaining about the graphics and the requirements necessary to drive them.
Gaming since Avalon Hill was making board games.
Played SWG, EVE, Fallen Earth, LOTRO, Rift, Vanguard, WoW, SWTOR, TSW, Tera
Tried Aoc, Aion, EQII, RoM, Vindictus, Darkfail, DDO, GW, PotBS
Microsoft said that paying players would have an advantage in fights. It may not be pay to win, but it's definitely pay to be competitive.
This isn't terribly surprising though...Microsoft's business model has always been to charge a premium for mediocre stuff that you may not be able to get elsewhere.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Problem for this game is that they try and get new player to play the game, its not aimed at old time rts players at all , its basicly a casual rts clone whit simple gameplay that cost more to play fully then the big highly adv rts games that offer more gameplay and have multiplay asmuch as you like for less cost.
rts gaming is a fairly small market compated to the big fps/rpg markets designing the game for easy accessbut lacking the depth and to a extent realism of modern rts is not going to draw a huge crowd.
Don't like the art style but that is not most important.
Prices (as with most f2p games but in AoE Online it is more clearly visible) are idiotic. Way too high.
Come on 99 $ for "buying" content that will be released in next 6 months? or 20$ for full access to ONE civilization + things in item store ON TOP of all that?
No thank you.
Most rts games you can buy for 50-60$ for FULL game.
I still have AoE 2 box in my home, aoe2 was like 8 civilizations? so 8*20 $ = 160 + item store ON TOP of that.
Well most f2p games are expensive if you play them for real / longer time , but this pricing is lol
I prefer old business models , very rarely f2p is good enough to get me into it. League of Legends have it good f.e. , well anyway I am not going to pay hundreads of dolars for AOE Online to have access to same amount of content I could get for 50-60$ for earlier versions of AoE.
It did attract a lot of players.
Half of them jumped ship when they saw the graphics and read the features list (I didn't btw, I like the art style and don't mind the graphics that much).
40% more tried it out, got to level 10, figured they had to pay to be able to have any fun or be competitive and dropped out as soon as they saw the ridiculous prices.
9% kept on going but got bored after level 20, realizing there's really nothing to the PvE other than build up and zerg CPU.
The other 1% are the people still in this game, throwing their money away at it.
This game is the biggest scam in history. A pay2win model with outrageous prices, going so far as to charge 7 euros for trees or statues in your city. Notice the or in that sentence. Want both trees and statues? That's 14 euros.
It's failing quite hard right now. English servers (4 of them) have 2000ish players online at any given time. Other servers (I think there are 8 or so) have half that. That's 12k players online at any given time, with all servers at low pop, less than a month after release.
I hate to hate on games but this is the first game in my entire life where I really hope it fails spectacularly because of it's pricing model. Everything costs at least 50% too much and the game all but tells free players to fuck off elsewhere. Way to fuck up a title with a lot of promise.
Honestly I don't know what they were thinking. Prices like this are too high for any game. If a game like Starcraft 2 did this, people would be up in arms, and that's a triple A title with way more features. I read a quote somewhere that sums it up perfectly: "Age of Empires online is the most expensive mediocre RTS ever made"
Just to end it with an image I saw on the official forums:
RTS with items? Crafting? Serious RTS gamers would never care for such silly features. I tried it, was too easy and casual and got boring really fast (yes I was level 40).
The "Disney Style stock toothy grins no3" from advertisements drove me off. They reek of cheerful kiddie commercialisation. Pass. This is not the Age of Empires we're looking for.
I might have looked more into the mechanics and all but really it's the mangy disney kiddie psyops graphics style that sent me off screaming into the woods. The only thing missing is the mischevious one eyebrow raised. Ugh....
Oh yes, and the whole F2P + competetive disaster combo... Jeez.. they'd do much better with B2P for 15-20$ + cosmetic shop thing. It's a shame. I can imagine it being a quite an interesting game if it werent for these dumbcrap moves (toothy grins + cash shop = makes me think of used car salesmen)
They chamged this game from an aweoms pvp game to a pve game. Some things are cool but mostly noone participates in pvp.
I really hope that this kind of games keep going out - then maybe some people will have knack some sense into their heads , that not always f2p is the best solution and that item shops aren't always best idea.
Market need both p2p (with not item shops) and f2p and b2p games.
Oh I hope AoE Online will fail hard , well seems I don't have to hope as it is failling.
After reading the review on the RTSguru website I decided to stay far far away from this game. Pay2win is like kryptonite to Superman when it comes down to it.
i honestly like the game but i wont buy it untill the celtics make appereance, the free to play model is quite wrong in my opinion because its mostly a Demo of the game, but the game generally is pretty good, waiting to end of nations to see how they do.
YOu hope it fails, LOL, you sound bitter or something, the game is a breath of fresh air from elvs and such, I am having a fun time , there are so many things to do in the game and for $20 you can create a powerfull nation and hav fun playing PvP, its to bad you are ;missing out
The RTS portion of the game is good, but I'm not a fan of all the other junk the stuck in between the fighting. I don't want a capital city, trading, crafting, quests, etc.
Im not really interested in it and I really like Age of Empires.
I actually know very little of the game, but I guess I was immediately turned off because it looks cartoony. Thats not really what Im used too in regards to the franchise. Plus you could always play the Age of Empires game online anyways, so Im still struggling to see the point of this.
Id rather just play Age of Empires 3. I kind of see Age of Empires Online as kind of pointless, and Im still trying to figure out why they even made it.
I felt the same as this last poster,when i saw it was browser based and very cheap looking,i was not giving it a minute of my time.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
It has? Like where else?
I've been playing a lot of AOE 3 lately, but I just play skirmish mode with the computer. I'm not so sure I'd like playing against another human being. Also, pay to win is not my cup of tea. Infact none of the p2p games appeal to me really. The whole nickle and dime thing is obnoxious. If a game is worth it, I'll pay the box price...and if the first month is good I sub. But constantly getting hit up for money turns me off.
I am looking forward to AOE 4 though, if that ever happens. Actually, I'm waiting for Stronghold 3. Release already damnit!
Yeah, those are some good points too. I think AOE 3 maxed out looks better than this game, which has a cartoony style. And as you say, AOE 3 has online and LAN play (which I never use).
I agree with the points about pay2win.
99$ for 6 months worth of content, and you have no idea what this content will be? Give me a break.
Lets see.. a "normal" mmo runs about 15$ a month...
15x6...well, thats 90, so I suppose it is kinda on par with a MMO...kinda...
Any game that a player can spend real cash and have that much of an advantage over me, I will stear clear of.
Too bad too, it looked decent.
As far as the graphics, it reminds me of when they ported Civilization over to xbox from the computer. The graphics took on a lot more cartoony look. Wonder if it is just cheaper/easier to go that route, I mean look at WoW :-P.
Yes I had to jab at WoW, wanna fight about it? lol just kidding
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.
big fan of aoe series.
Im very suprised at the comments i read, i understand the art style is not for everyone, but none here seem to even give it a chance. Its a pretty solid game, they merged the rpg and rts together quite well. You can do prety much everything Free, no level cap on free to play players. If you are hardcore pvp'er i would recomend go to a premium civilization wich is ONLY 19.99, not 80+. You pay per civ so if you like egypt and have no desire to be roman then only pay for egypt. The 80 dollar price tag gets you premium for both present civs plus the 2 that they are realeasing this year and any other content they realease in the next 6 months. I agree little on the steep side but if this was reatail how much would it go for??? I tried it out, addicted to it and spent the measly 20 dollars on my egyptian civ, and im lovin it. Still the prem really dosnt kick in until the high lvls on pvp not a huge advantage there. If people would try it , give it a chance, you could have a lot of fun for 20 bucks.
In my opinion they could have done a huge Expantion to AOE2 updated the graphics and added a few new features, Then put some servers up for Multiplayer and bam you have a heap of the old school RTS players back. The new style graphics and the cash shop has turned me off my Fav RTS game series ever.
Okay so like Ive already said I dont know a whole lot about the game.
Since you've said you're a fan of the series Im going to assume you've played at least some of the past games if not all. So in a short description could you tell me what benefits there may be to playing this game instead of say.....Age of Empires 3 ? Honest question.
They marketed it very wrong.
It's not really a cash shop in which you buy power, it should be advertised as a freemium game though. One payment for a civilization and you're fully competitive with it though since there's no consumables or anything like that for real money... yet (another insecurity of cash shops, you never know what they might come up for sale next).
The cash shop is very simple right now, and feels more like a free core limited game with DLCs.
You have the premium unlock for each civilization for $20 each and the Defense of Crete which is an area with defend for X waves type of quests for another $20 I think. The release sale is getting both civs and the defense of crete for $40 (which I think is the retail price this game deserved instead of doing the "free to play" marketing, with subsequent civs being sold as expansion packs). And then there's the aesthethic unlock packs, which unlock certain appearance structures to build on your city (unlimited times).
Instead, they threw the "free" hype at RTS veterans along with a kind of non-GPU intensive art style, the result was not very good at least at catering the Age of Empires fans (pretty much a 180° direction). I did support it though, bought a premium civilization and play it casually.
Oh, and the $100 season purchase pack did get extremely controversial. Keep in mind that the price includes the aesthethic packs which represent zero content for you except for making your city look prettier, and at least two more civs plus whatever they develop until then. It's really an extremely unnecessary purchase unless you really want to support the game. A $20 purchase is all that is needed to fully enjoy the game and the $40 release sale includes all the content in the game.