Away from the tournaments, there was also a lot of other exciting developments. In the absence of being able to categorise all of them, here are some miscellaneous highlights…
Escape Gaming
Manchester added another landmark to rival Old Trafford and Coronation Street as EscapeAoE christened their HQ in the town of Leigh at the start of 2019. Amongst much fanfare and no shortage of speculation and anticipation the team provided a solid, if unspectacular, production of a light-hearted tournament including several innovative features that I can confidently predict we will never see again (Guess Who or Chess AoE anyone?). Six months later, we were welcomed back to the warehouse with open arms for the ECL LAN finals. Learning from their earlier experience, Escape Gaming put together a slick event and showed the potential for AoE competitive events in the future. Alas, it wasn’t enough. While some were quick to criticise and hand out retrospective ‘told-you-so’s’, the team must be commended for daring to dream, taking a risk and turning that dream into reality – even if only for a beautifully fleeting moment.
Capture_Age
For a 20 year old game to remain popular, you need to balance nostalgia and innovation. The team behind Capture Age are bringing AoE spectating into a bold new frontier. With more features than a swiss army knife, it inevitably took lots of refinement and modification to get right, both from the (outstanding) development team and casters. Capture Age is an incredible tool for improving the viewing experience, and it’s absence from the Definitive Edition has only reinforced how reliant spectators have become in such a short-period. Hopefully, DE will integrate Capture Age soon so we can satisfy our addition and continue to understand and navigating the full features of the system to maximise its potential.
Fixed Player Positions
Admittedly not a new innovation but used in competitive tournaments for the first time; signalling an end to Britain pockets, and guaranteeing Frank v Indian late game wars for the foreseeable future. Removing this element of RNG certainly eliminates the potential for mismatches and civ-wins which come as huge relief to players and (most) spectators alike.
Mixer
What to say here. Last year I wrote about the monies pumped into the game by the companies co-founder and this year I’m writing about how the game’s biggest name has permanently left the world’s largest streaming platform in favour of Mixer. You can make an argument that the Microsoft connection is an attractive proposition for an AoE player but without speculating about balance-sheet incentives, it’s difficult to see how ‘Viper the brand’ will have increased exposure on the new platform. At the time of writing, no other big name streamers have made the jump, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 12 months.
$1million Prize Money
This year, our little corner of the video games industry passed the $1million mark for (recorded) payments to players as prizemoney. That might be less than Lionel Messi makes on a Tuesday morning, but it’s a symbolic milestone shows the rich history of AoE2 and the future potential. It currently sits 51st on the list of most rewarding esports for players and with a promising line-up of tournaments for early 2020 and the release of DE, maybe Messi will be customising his hotkeys once he hangs up his boots.
AoE2: DE
Arguably the biggest event in the AoE community of 2019. A drip feed of jigsaw puzzles, beta tests and show-matches created an atmosphere that mixed excitement with anxiety. Could Microsoft defy the odds and not make a complete car-crash of re-releasing our beloved RTS? In November (14/11) we got our answer… No! In those first few hours, people who’d bought the game complained of snail like frame rates, whirling wheels of death and more drops than the England cricket team. But gradually, things started to improve. And to the credit of all involved, DE is beginning to look like the game we all hoped it would be. The first patch has moved things in the right direction and let’s all hope the momentum continues into next year.
Finally, don’t forget to sell all your wood in 2020 and utilise those extra 40 Mangudais to annihilate your naïve trading opponents.
Happy new year everyone.
x
Escape Gaming
Manchester added another landmark to rival Old Trafford and Coronation Street as EscapeAoE christened their HQ in the town of Leigh at the start of 2019. Amongst much fanfare and no shortage of speculation and anticipation the team provided a solid, if unspectacular, production of a light-hearted tournament including several innovative features that I can confidently predict we will never see again (Guess Who or Chess AoE anyone?). Six months later, we were welcomed back to the warehouse with open arms for the ECL LAN finals. Learning from their earlier experience, Escape Gaming put together a slick event and showed the potential for AoE competitive events in the future. Alas, it wasn’t enough. While some were quick to criticise and hand out retrospective ‘told-you-so’s’, the team must be commended for daring to dream, taking a risk and turning that dream into reality – even if only for a beautifully fleeting moment.
Capture_Age
For a 20 year old game to remain popular, you need to balance nostalgia and innovation. The team behind Capture Age are bringing AoE spectating into a bold new frontier. With more features than a swiss army knife, it inevitably took lots of refinement and modification to get right, both from the (outstanding) development team and casters. Capture Age is an incredible tool for improving the viewing experience, and it’s absence from the Definitive Edition has only reinforced how reliant spectators have become in such a short-period. Hopefully, DE will integrate Capture Age soon so we can satisfy our addition and continue to understand and navigating the full features of the system to maximise its potential.
Fixed Player Positions
Admittedly not a new innovation but used in competitive tournaments for the first time; signalling an end to Britain pockets, and guaranteeing Frank v Indian late game wars for the foreseeable future. Removing this element of RNG certainly eliminates the potential for mismatches and civ-wins which come as huge relief to players and (most) spectators alike.
Mixer
What to say here. Last year I wrote about the monies pumped into the game by the companies co-founder and this year I’m writing about how the game’s biggest name has permanently left the world’s largest streaming platform in favour of Mixer. You can make an argument that the Microsoft connection is an attractive proposition for an AoE player but without speculating about balance-sheet incentives, it’s difficult to see how ‘Viper the brand’ will have increased exposure on the new platform. At the time of writing, no other big name streamers have made the jump, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 12 months.
$1million Prize Money
This year, our little corner of the video games industry passed the $1million mark for (recorded) payments to players as prizemoney. That might be less than Lionel Messi makes on a Tuesday morning, but it’s a symbolic milestone shows the rich history of AoE2 and the future potential. It currently sits 51st on the list of most rewarding esports for players and with a promising line-up of tournaments for early 2020 and the release of DE, maybe Messi will be customising his hotkeys once he hangs up his boots.
AoE2: DE
Arguably the biggest event in the AoE community of 2019. A drip feed of jigsaw puzzles, beta tests and show-matches created an atmosphere that mixed excitement with anxiety. Could Microsoft defy the odds and not make a complete car-crash of re-releasing our beloved RTS? In November (14/11) we got our answer… No! In those first few hours, people who’d bought the game complained of snail like frame rates, whirling wheels of death and more drops than the England cricket team. But gradually, things started to improve. And to the credit of all involved, DE is beginning to look like the game we all hoped it would be. The first patch has moved things in the right direction and let’s all hope the momentum continues into next year.
Finally, don’t forget to sell all your wood in 2020 and utilise those extra 40 Mangudais to annihilate your naïve trading opponents.
Happy new year everyone.
x