...that you didn't release KnC.

GPG talked about microtransactions which we now see in AoEo. If the microtransactions in KnC were planned to be only half as annoying as in AOEO that game would have been a major fail.

GPG, if you ever decide to go back to serious grown up strategy game development and leave the children cartoon section behind, PLEASE dont spoil this game by offering countless overpriced DLC or any other smaller content update for which you demand way too much money in AOEO. Stick to the classic Add-On system, that will avoid a lot of people going emo and ranting about it.

Butwe all know that you will not listen to one lost forum user as long as there are enough fanboys around that advocate every ripoff decision the gaming industry makes and buy your dlcs..

You do realize GPG took over AoEO from another Developer when it was like 90% done right?

Mike

Might I also note that I actually like the textures for AoEO. You can actually tell what is what when there is a huge furball...

Also the decision regarding microtransactions was not GPGs to make. Microsoft said "take this nearly completed game and make content for it that we can sell as microtransactions". That was microsoft's business decision, not GPGs. If you are to judge GPG, judge them on the quality of the game content, not the decision to have game content be sold the way it is.

That being said, I still personally prefer the model of buying a complete game rather than getting an incomplete free game and buying chunks of a game to realize its full potential. I already have a bunch of "free" games already in the sense I have previously purchased them and can play whenever I want. So just because something is free does not mean I will be particularly enticed to play it. As much as I love Forged Alliance, if it had been done using this microtransaction model that is being used to AoEO, I could very well never have got it.

CT already said in an interview that he's not going back to the old payment system. He likes the Free to Play model and probably will stick to it from now on.

Here's the interview at PC Gamer.

To you old folks who still want the old method of buying games: the reality is that PC gaming is changing. The casual, online gaming segment is much larger than it was only 5 years ago. Zynga is evaluated as being larger than EA in market cap. There was another CT interview where he said that PC gaming was larger than ever, but the games that make up PC gaming are changing. I don't know much about the games played in China, but most of them that I've seen are free-to-play, online games like WoW or AoEO. We concern ourselves with the Western market, but China is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and in the future, their gaming tastes will become much more important to game developers and publishers. And that will be the market going forward. The tech industry is driven by growth, and the traditional PC game is no longer an area of growth. The models that fuel Angry Birds and CityVille are the new business models.

Yeah, the old guard, who were raised in the games of the 90's, won't want to change. But this is not the 90's anymore.

I don't think that GPG is responsible for AoEO's problems. Things like pathfinding or AI were produced by Robot and we all know that GPG could have done them a hundred times better. Many other problems lead back to design decisions made before GPG even came aboard. Pricing models, PvP, GfWL...

You guys realize that CT himself announced that there will be microtransactions for KnC? HEnce my criticism...

And if GPG really follows this f2p path then I won't even play them. I don't want a game handled in bit by bit. The worst thing is if you buy all bits you quickly are at several hundred Euros/Dollars for a single game (see aoeo). I mean 20 Euros for a new civilization?

And I don't care about aoeo's former developers, GPG could have put in their weight and shape the game the way they want it to be.

Not really, GPG did what Microsoft wants, considering they were brought on just to finish, then work on DLC I doubt they got to weight in on much, and in the end it's still Microsoft's decision.

And like many other things in life, Micro Transactions aren't intrinsically evil, it's all about how it's employed. After all, technically Expansions are a type of Micro Transaction.

Mike

What do you think Micro$oft's Penny-Pincher Kleitos will say if GPG would ask them to change the pricing model?

You can feel the Xbox Live touch all over the game when it comes to prices. M$ has no idea how to pull off a successful F2P model on PC. They have dealt too long with the Xbox sheep who will pay any price for Halo 5000 and then extra for using Xbox Live - LOL!