News Microsoft announces Age of Empires Online

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/08/17/microsoft-announces-age-of-empires-online/1

 

Very interesting, especially if it doesn't have a subscription fee.

 

I don't quite understand peoples quarrel with subscription fee's.

You a small fee for a quality product.
Or
you get it free and its bombarded with small transactions, so the richer you are the better game you have.
I for one would rather for monthly.

Minus the GFWL, this does sound quite interesting though.
And is it possible to actually make a game casual and hardcore at the same time? Just look how bad WoW has got in recent years. Some parts have massively been improved whilst other aspects have become a joke and too easy.

 

GFWL, eughhhhhh

 

WOOT!

 

Free to play, but then you purchase jewels to "powerlevel" your town. Ala Lord of Ultima

 

so MS got rid of the studio behind the AoE series, waited for people from the studio to make their own studio
and then hired them anyway,
hmmm, seems a bit silly considering the original studio was successful with its games (or at least i thought it was)

wouldnt surprise me if the same applies to the flight game in the next news post

 

Egyptians should definitly be on this game. That way i can show the entire world that these ba****ds are not only awesome, but have the technology to kill for centuries.... Pfft Romans. I LOL at you

 

True, the Egyptians in AoM were awesome. Resurrecting Osiris and having him lay the smackdown was a moment full of win.

 

Blizzard is doing good... Now! Ctrl+C them!

I miss when AOE was an awesome game, but, wait, did III really happen???

 

would definitely be hoping this emulates the first two more than the third. III was such a let down

loved these games when i was younger, very interesting to see where they go with this

 

The problem with fees is they are essentially charging you an infinite amount of cash for the product. You either pay the fee indefinitely with no limit, or the product you've sunk so much money into becomes useless. In the end you are left with a huge bill and a product that doesn't even work anymore.

Subscription fees also punish those who don't want to invest a super-hardcore amount of time into a game. It doesn't matter whether you're playing 1 hour a day or 8 hours a day, a month is a month. Therefore you feel pressured to play the game constantly so you don't get ripped off.

Personally I'm really looking forward to Guild Wars 2 because not only does it not have a subscription fee, but it looks to be the most innovative MMO we've had in a long time (i.e. not just a WoW clone).

 

Nailed it, can't believe people actually enjoy paying subscription fees somehow.

You really think it makes the game better? I've played millions of games with no subscription fees and guess what they're way ahead of WoW and any other subscription fee games out there.

What if you want to play 2 different games, now your paying $30 a month indefinitely? No thanks.

 

awesome.. evergreen game.

 

Still play AoEII in LAN's sometimes (last month)
Still great, no GFWL ;-)
Still has a knackered LAN connection though

 

awesome xir.