Age of Empires Online

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Along with the MS Flight announcement, there was this:

“Age of Empires” for a New Era

With more than 20 million copies sold worldwide, the “Age of Empires” series redefined real-time strategy games for Windows-based PC players. Now, the timeless franchise once again invites players to experience its rich storyline in new ways. Developed by Robot Entertainment, “Age of Empires Online” will invite players to create a living, growing online world, shared with friends and friendly rivals around the globe. Begin the journey with your own Greek civilization, and watch as it progresses from a village to an empire. Embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and immerse yourself in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy. Together with the Games for Windows – LIVE service, “Age of Empires Online” delivers a rich, social experience that lets you play however you want — anywhere, anytime.

Marrying fresh features with iconic gameplay, “Age of Empires Online” offers something for long-time fans, newcomers and everyone in between. “Age of Empires Online” will feature:
 •  A persistent online capital city that lives and grows even when you’re offline
 •  Cooperative multiplayer quests, trading and a level-based system that lets you progress at your own pace
 •  Fun, approachable style and storylines
 •  Free-to-play experiences via Games for Windows – LIVE

More information, news and chances to join the beta program are available at http://www.ageofempiresonline.com.

Coming from Robot Entertainment, some of the ex-Ensemble staff who reformed after MS fired them.

I <3 free-to-play.

That said, I've barely touched CoHO.

Not sure about this, but signed up for the beta anyway...

Could be interesting.

signed-up for the beta

I signed up as well. I've always been a fan of the Age of Empires series. If this is going to be the new way to play Age of Empires, then I want to give it a shot.

I was all :hump:, then I read as far as

Embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and immerse yourself in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy.

Now I'm all

When you sign up for the beta, they ask if you've played FarmVille (among other games, but FV was the only one that was WTF?)

Signed up!

General Crespin wrote:

When you sign up for the beta, they ask if you've played FarmVille (among other games, but FV was the only one that was WTF?)

Yeah...

This is the game made by the people who were fired from the studio that that had a franchise that MS didn't see value in, brought to the 'modern age' of microtransactions and farmville-style audiences.

As i said at RPS: The mind boggles.

I liked Age of Mythology best... i doubt i'll be playing this even if it is true to it's roots - which, being an online game, i think it will not. It'll be more like Farmville/that space game where you sign up, get put in a quandrant of space/land and then have to branch out (though you're protected for the first 24 hours from harm) by queuing build orders and waiting for them to complete before you can do something else (or by sending out your amassed armies to fight someone else). Oh, also research trees.

I think it's funny that Civony/Evony stole AoE2 graphics, and now it might be coming full circle as MS could make something similar to Evony gameplay.

Mildly interested, so I signed up too.

I wanna try! So I signed up.

Bleuch...sounds ghastly. Pass.

It'd be funny if they borrow Evony's marketing strategy as well...

I dunno -I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. Signed up for the beta...

I'm pretty excited. Honestly, I liked the Age of Empires series more than Starcraft back in the day. I have my doubts that AOE Online will be anywhere near as polished as Starcraft 2, but I still think it's going to be a great game. I'm also looking forward to the hybrid RTS-MMO idea.

One thing that's in the back of my mind, which is more general than just AoEO:

Is this how Microsoft sees PC gaming?

Their announcements at GC which is in Germany, a stronghold of PC gaming, are:
-A PC port of Fable 3, a console game. I think it's a reasonably strong point that Fable is a console based series.
-A refocussed, rebranded flight sim. I would guess that it's taking steps away from where Flight Sim of old used to be, I'm not sure how well GFWL copes with custom content, if it's allowed at all on the Live system as they have such an emphasis on security. I can see this fitting in with their Bing maps, saving them the duplicated effort of mapping the whole world, instead augmenting it with airport information.
-A social F2P online AoE. AoE3 had some elements of persistence (I think), but was more match based. This seems to me like an entirely different game, but borrowing an established brand name.

Just ranting I guess, but it does seem like for a company that every so often claims it's taking PC gaming seriously, it's just lip service. Oh well, back to ignoring them and paying attention to Valve.

I can't help but wonder if it'll do all the things I hated in Ikariam.

Scratched wrote:

Just ranting I guess, but it does seem like for a company that every so often claims it's taking PC gaming seriously, it's just lip service. Oh well, back to ignoring them and paying attention to Valve.

So... MS says that they're going to release 3 new PC games, and they're not taking it seriously? Doesn't make any sense.

If they didn't care, why would they even bother to do anything?

So... MS says that they're going to release 3 new PC games, and they're not taking it seriously? Doesn't make any sense.
If they didn't care, why would they even bother to do anything?

I have to agree with this. These are some big title announcements, and if MS had completely abandoned the PC gaming space they wouldn't be doing more cross-platform versions. After all, Fable II never came out on PC.

I'm super happy that Fable 3 is coming to PC (albeit delayed, I'm sure, for entirely legitimate reasons and not that they don't want it to cannibalise initial 360 sales) and another Flight Sim game is good news, for those that like that sort of thing.

THIS though...I have to agree, sounds like someone's lusting after some of that farmville money and figured they might as well slap a known brand on it just for giggles. Even the art style just reeks of cheap Facebook "Micro-transactioned to hell and back" MMO.

i sgined up for the beta. i'm glad its free to play model. ive been playing COH Online in the beta and i really like it. its also free to play. i'm glad developers keep supporting and developing RTS games. its natural that they move to an online persistent model.

If nothing else, the art direction for this game is fantastic. I was big into AoE back in the day and the idea of a persistent world is something I always kind of wanted, so i'm pretty interested in seeing how this plays out.

But I wonder how they'll combat the problem of the new fish being easy prey to the long-playing gangs.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

But I wonder how they'll combat the problem of the new fish being easy prey to the long-playing gangs.

What you really have to wonder is exactly how combat and the like will play out if this is a persistant world. If it's something along the lines of quests in MMOs, where it's instanced off, then new fish shouldn't have much of a problem, especially if they make sure to stick them in smaller ponds before moving them up with the big boys.

That isn't Age of Empires.

Thin_J wrote:

That isn't your fathers Age of Empires.

Asz wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

That isn't your father's Age of Empires.

FTFY

/Grammar Nazi

Also, i remembered what the space game is that i reckon the gameplay mechanics will work in a similar manner to - Ogame. Had a brief dalliance with it in Spanish a couple of years ago.... Unfortunately, my Spanish is only very low-level and wasn't really good enough to get a good grasp of the complex ideas being put forward..... i also got bored of having to wait and maintain everything in the game. Too much hassle for me.

I just got excepted into beta anybody playing this? I like to maybe check out some later coop missions.

Slytin wrote:

I just got excepted into beta anybody playing this? I like to maybe check out some later coop missions.

I haven't gotten around to playing it yet. I'm going to have to install it now.

Dimmerswitch wrote:

I was all :hump:, then I read as far as

Embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and immerse yourself in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy.

Now I'm all :-?

Agreed, I'd rather not that AoE becomes a cartoon.

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