http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/08/26/age-of-empires-returns-but-only-on-windows-8
So apparently, Microsoft is releasing a new Age of Empries for 'Windows 8 Devices". Sweet! I think, as I click the link, excited for what I hope might be long awaited Age of Empires 4. Then I read this:
According to the Age of Empires blog, Castle Siege aims to condense the series' strategy gameplay into a fast and simpler touchscreen experience. Progress will be saved to your gamertag, so you can switch between any Windows 8 devices you may own, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones. In-app purchases will be available to "accelerate gameplay."
In. App. Purchases.
In other words, it's a BS, finger tapping, money grab with my beloved Age of Empires look and feel slapped all over it. It's like a double slap in the face: No AoE4, but we're also once again going to turn AoE into something embarrassingly lousy (I was not a fan of the online one they had a while back).
It annoys me when game companies decide they want to make a mobile game, because they take so little time and effort compared to console and PC games and rake in so much easy cash from people dumb enough to make in-app purchases, but they can't just make one and toss it out there because the mobile game market is so freaking full of hundreds and hundreds of the exact same games. So they need a hook to grab that initial audience and give it a popularity surge, so they take a well known game or movie and completely bastardize it to make a quick buck. They did the same thing with Dungeon Keeper.
Not all mobile games are crap, but lets face it, a vast majority of them are prettied up money grabs of the same nature with only small variances in 'gameplay', with only a shallow storyline, if any, at best. They end up either filled with ads to rake in a fortune like Flappy Bird was, or designed to make you spend money to do even the smallest thing in the game via 'in-app purchases'. This isn't game design, it's practically stealing, and a lot of people are dumb enough to fall for this stuff. And it's a shame to see proper game series reduced to 'mobile games'. Blech.
I really wish that if companies want to rake in some easy cash of of impatient phone and tablet users, they'd leave beloved game series out of it...
So apparently, Microsoft is releasing a new Age of Empries for 'Windows 8 Devices". Sweet! I think, as I click the link, excited for what I hope might be long awaited Age of Empires 4. Then I read this:
According to the Age of Empires blog, Castle Siege aims to condense the series' strategy gameplay into a fast and simpler touchscreen experience. Progress will be saved to your gamertag, so you can switch between any Windows 8 devices you may own, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones. In-app purchases will be available to "accelerate gameplay."
In. App. Purchases.
In other words, it's a BS, finger tapping, money grab with my beloved Age of Empires look and feel slapped all over it. It's like a double slap in the face: No AoE4, but we're also once again going to turn AoE into something embarrassingly lousy (I was not a fan of the online one they had a while back).
It annoys me when game companies decide they want to make a mobile game, because they take so little time and effort compared to console and PC games and rake in so much easy cash from people dumb enough to make in-app purchases, but they can't just make one and toss it out there because the mobile game market is so freaking full of hundreds and hundreds of the exact same games. So they need a hook to grab that initial audience and give it a popularity surge, so they take a well known game or movie and completely bastardize it to make a quick buck. They did the same thing with Dungeon Keeper.
Not all mobile games are crap, but lets face it, a vast majority of them are prettied up money grabs of the same nature with only small variances in 'gameplay', with only a shallow storyline, if any, at best. They end up either filled with ads to rake in a fortune like Flappy Bird was, or designed to make you spend money to do even the smallest thing in the game via 'in-app purchases'. This isn't game design, it's practically stealing, and a lot of people are dumb enough to fall for this stuff. And it's a shame to see proper game series reduced to 'mobile games'. Blech.
I really wish that if companies want to rake in some easy cash of of impatient phone and tablet users, they'd leave beloved game series out of it...
