How Do You Turn This On - Issue #11

Alright! So, for those who couldn’t guess the game from the screenshot in my tweet, we’re talking about Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings!

The William Wallace Campaign in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

It’s not a blockchain game. In fact, it’s a game that predates the advent of blockchain by quite a few years. Turning 23 this year, The Age of Kings was released in September 1999, and it exceeded Microsoft’s sales estimates by a massive amount, selling millions when they expected to sell a few hundred thousand.

So why am I writing about it? Because it’s an extremely important game from a historical perspective. AoE 2 is also an amazing example of how a passionate community of players can not only save a game, but make it thrive!

A Demo & A Trip to CompUSA

It all began in 2000, when I went to visit my brother in Au. From what I can remember, we went to Barnes and Noble & he got me an issue of PC gamer which had a playable demo of Age of Empires 2. Soon after, we landed in CompUSA & I walked out with this.

It's definitely not an exaggeration when I say the game changed my life. It was pretty all I played for the next several years. The Conquerors Expansion with its new civilizations, campaigns and quality of life improvements made AoE 2. I went from spending a ton of time running through historical campaigns with cobra cars to 1 v 3'ing the hardest AI on the Arena map.

I’m sure I was not the only one who was expecting a lot more expansions after The Conquerors, instead we got Age of Empires III. What we didn’t know at the time was the expansions would come, just a lot later than any of us expected.

The Wilderness

The Conquerors was released a little under a year after Age of Kings. Then there was nothing. Despite Age of Empires III being released in October 2005, the AoE 2 community continued to thrive, messing around with mods, discussing possible expansions, creating art, etc. There was no attempt, as far as I am aware, from Microsoft to keep Age of Empires II alive, especially after the shutting down of Ensemble Studios.

Forgotten Empires, a community driven team of modders were working on an AoE 2 mod by the same name since 2011. This mod was released on December 28, 2012, titled Age of Empires II: Forgotten Empires (AoF). The mod was a huge success and ultimately led to Forgotten Empires Studios becoming the successors to Ensemble Studios, carrying Age of Empires II forward.

Development update from the Forgotten Empires site regarding the mod

During this time Microsoft was working on Age of Empires II: HD which was ultimately released in 2013. It was a high-definition remaster with a number of quality of life improvements, and probably the biggest thing being supporting steam workshop mods.

Although the Forgotten Empires team was working on their mod since before Age of Empires II: HD was announced, after conversations with Microsoft, Forgotten Empires became the first official expansion for Age of Empires II: HD. It was rebranded, there were some changes and it was released as Age of Empires II: The Forgotten.

A Whole New World

The rest, as they say, is history. It is truly remarkable what an amazing impact Forgotten Empires Studios has had on the Age of Empires II community. Not only breathing life back into a game for which there were no concrete future plans, but instead making it thrive and keeping it relevant even now, 23 years after its initial release.

HD + The Forgotten + The African Kingdoms + Rise of the Rajas, and no signs of slowing down!

In 2019, when the Age of Empires II Definitive Edition (this is where the naming gets really confusing. HD then DE which was a combination of the three expansions released for HD + a new expansion “The Last Khans”) launched on Steam for the 20th anniversary of AoE 2, there were already 4 official expansions + a fifth that was part of DE, and things were not going to slow down!

In January 2021, the first expansion for DE - Lords of West was released. 2 more civilizations, 3 more campaigns, a number of new achievements.

Less than 10 months later, August 2021, the second expansion for DE - Dawn of the Dukes. 2 more civilization, 3 more campaigns!

April 2022, another expansion! Dynasties of India with four new civilizations!

The latest one! Return of Rome came out on May 2023, less than a month ago. It brings content from Age of Empires into Age of Empires II - another example of how popular and passionate the community around AoE 2 is!

In Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, the reason for writing this article was primarily my love for the game, but I also feel it is a remarkable example of a game that has not only stood the test of time, but actually grown and thrived. The main reason? Community.

This is not the only game that’s been revived due to community but as far as I know, none have been so successful.

It’s also an example of some of the best games coming from unofficial game designers - DOTA from Warcraft 3, AutoChess from DOTA 2, countless mods, etc.

Lastly, let’s talk about Age of Empires IV. It’s a great game. One I haven’t played more than probably an hour so far. It is more modern than Age of Empires II. The graphics are definitely better, but depending on who you ask they might (like myself) prefer AoE 2’s art, which in my humble opinion is timeless! So even in the modern world there is more than enough space for older games, indie games, as long as the gameplay is good. Ultimately, all that matters in games is the gameplay.

These are all good lessons for us as we embark on our journey to make web3 native IP. The future looks bright!

Age of Empires Links

Age of Empires Franchise - Official Web Site

Forgotten Empires | Game Development Studio | Age of Empires series - Forgotten Empires

DISCLAIMER

None for this one really, other than that I’m a huge AoE 2 fan :) and I’m looking forward to Age of Empires Mobile!