Post
by Comadevil » Fri Jan 04, 2013 10:52 am
Almost no studio announces a game when they begin to develop it.
I also don't think that the PvP section put much pressure on the server since the clients exchanged much infos between themselves (X player could not connect to Y player).
The whole business model for the game right form the beginning was questionable: Making more and more missions/campaigns which cost a lot of money producing, mix it with some MMO elements and hoping that people will buy that on and on. The idea behind that was only a small percentage of the players of the AOE franchise played PvP, many just bought the game, played the campaign and then were done with the game. So they told themselves: Let us see if we can get the 90% paying all the time.
U could see that at the prices for everything at release. 20 € per civ. wth? everybody asked.
Only that many of those 90% aren't interesting in paying all the time and playing missions. They want a campaign where they get immersed and which tells a story and not a whole bunch of missions playing one after another, even if they had some diversity. Playing the missions in AOEO was fun for me, but i never felt, that i get a story told. The SC2 campaign was much more immersive.
The F2P model was just a try to save the game from utter financial failure but that was mere an illusion cause u need more (expensive) content to keep the players. And the F2P model was quite appealing to some. It was one of the reason, why i began to play AOEO so intense. In the end i paid as much as for another game (around 30 €)
The rudimental or totally missing PvP features at the beginning(replay, observer modus, champion mode) just back up my opinion.
They simply forgot, though PvP players are only a small percentage of the people who bought the game, they keep the game in forums alive just by telling how good it is how much fun it is etc. That is also a reason why Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 were big commercial successes. But most AOE PvP veterans stayed away form AOEO cause of the above stated reasons.
And now that LoL, DotA2, and SC2 can fill halls with thousands just watching pro games there, and Blizzard making revenue even with that, they realize what big mistake they made with the AOE franchise from a business perspective. If i am not mistaken AOE2 has still more players than AOEO though there is no official multiplayer platform for AOE2 anymore.
ANd u just have to make a really good multiplayer plattform and make balance patches after release but u don't have to pay an expensive content team like in AOEO.
And 16 player is a bit overdone. Many computers will not handle it and the netwrk problems will be thousand fold. But to have a 4v4 mode for many clan fun games would be really cool
