Interesting tid-bits from Masmorra's interview with Will McCahill

[LowEloNobody]

Super cool interview from Masmorra with Will McCahill, the business lead at Forgotten Empires. Studio Business Lead for World's Edge Studio at Microsoft
Highly recommend people watch it: Kings & Plebeians - Episode #11: Will McCahill, Business Lead for the AoE franchise

1. Will is a big nerd like the rest of us. It feels pretty good to have someone who actually games and enjoys and understands gaming influencing and deciding the direction of the franchise
2. Will is an Arena player. Poggers. Is this how we got Bohemians??
3. Will mentioned that AoE1 had a tournament on FB with 160k+ concurrent viewers. Holy crap. I knew the Vietnamese community was big, but that's insane
4. Will is a daily 'Zone lurker :O
5. One of the goals of funding tournaments is to help grow content creators and tourney organizers. So it's a pretty long-game style play
6. ...Awkward scene cut when Masmorra asked about AoE3 not being in RBW6. RIP

Also, Hi Will!

 

[Tempires]

Super cool interview from Masmorra with Will McCahill, the business lead at Forgotten Empires.

*at Microsoft

 

[theArtosisPylon]

Super cool interview from Masmorra with Will McCahill, the business lead at Forgotten Empires.
Highly recommend people watch it: Kings & Plebeians - Episode #11: Will McCahill, Business Lead for the AoE franchise

1. Will is a big nerd like the rest of us. It feels pretty good to have someone who actually games and enjoys and understands gaming influencing and deciding the direction of the franchise
2. Will is an Arena player. Poggers. Is this how we got Bohemians??
3. Will mentioned that AoE1 had a tournament on FB with 160k+ concurrent viewers. Holy crap. I knew the Vietnamese community was big, but that's insane
4. Will is a daily 'Zone lurker :O
5. One of the goals of funding tournaments is to help grow content creators and tourney organizers. So it's a pretty long-game style play
6. ...Awkward scene cut when Masmorra asked about AoE3 not being in RBW6. RIP

Also, Hi Will!

Hi!

 

[MaSmOrRa]

*at Microsoft

at World's Edge*

6. ...Awkward scene cut when Masmorra asked about AoE3 not being in RBW6. RIP

Thanks for the post ermm...Nobody?!

That part was indeed due to a technical issue! My internet connection which is usually very stable was playing games with me on that day and Will couldn't hear my question!

 

[LowEloNobody]

*at Microsoft

fixed

 

[LowEloNobody]

Lurking indeed 11

 

[DracKeN]

Agreed, the interview was great as always, although the most important questions weren't really asked nor answered. Which is not surprising, Masmorra doesn't go to controversial topics too much and when he goes there, he's usually not having hand of counter arguments to get the crucial answers. Afterall, it's youtube interview for his channel, so it's absolutely legit way. In this case I think they also agreed in advance which topics to avoid, as the range of questions felt quite limited given Will's position.

At the same time, it would be nice to actually get valuable (read honest) answers on topics such as:
If AoE IV sales/viewer numbers are making them satisfied and how long will they keep investing more into worse (based on all metrics) game
What's their plan with AoE II now, is the game long term profitable for them if they make new DLC every 8 months. It feels quite straightforward, plan was to get people ready and hyped for AoE IV which was supposed to be the flagship. That failed. What now?
To be fair, if MS stops supporting AoE that means going back many years ago, at least since Viper and T90 moved to FB.

Those are just few examples with this particular interview, I watched every single Masmorra's interviews so far and I liked them. But I'd like to know where the game is heading, which for some reason is kept as secret knowledge between tens of individuals who have the information about tournaments, dlcs and stuff far before anyone else. And for some reason, there isn't even a platform to get some basic answers, because that would be controversial. I'd prefer that info over how the person found out the game when he was 10 though.

 

[IYIyTh]

There was a response regarding what would maintain continued support and after suggesting it was DLC's there was kind of a stunned statement that " there's a lot of people playing this game." I wonder what support was provided/anticipated for the original game if DLC's are a deciding factor of what gets bug fixes implemented.

Also, the mangonel delete quirk isn't exactly new. Seems that bringing the issue(s) up in forums (beit reddit, support, or this forum,) seem to be your best bet on getting them taken care of.

Also, hopefully we don't need 50 civs for pathing to work.

 

[IYIyTh]

Those are just few examples with this particular interview, I watched every single Masmorra's interviews so far and I liked them. But I'd like to know where the game is heading, which for some reason is kept as secret knowledge between tens of individuals who have the information about tournaments, dlcs and stuff far before anyone else. And for some reason, there isn't even a platform to get some basic answers, because that would be controversial. I'd prefer that info over how the person found out the game when he was 10 though.

Have you considered that there isn't a master plan? AOE2 is a niche video game that while we all believe has potential to them represents a less appetizing opportunity?

I don't think it's as complicated as occasionally the usual top pro's are offered $ to compete in events occasionally and minimal effort to advertise aoe2. Everything else is gravy. I just have a hard time believing they think it's a long term play.

The interview touches on that the competitive community is a very small subset of the target base.

 

[LowEloNobody]

Have you considered that there isn't a master plan? AOE2 is a niche video game that while we all believe has potential to them represents a less appetizing opportunity?

I don't think it's as complicated as occasionally the usual top pro's are offered $ to compete in events occasionally and minimal effort to advertise aoe2. Everything else is gravy. I just have a hard time believing they think it's a long term play.

The interview touches on that the competitive community is a very small subset of the target base.

Well it's at least a long enough play that they were considering Definitive Editions as a pre-cursor to AoE4, so you're talking 3-5 year plan at least
I'm just not sure they knew how popular DE would be, or how much it would explode on twitch etc

 

[SouFire]

He said twice that dlc's aren't really important to keep microsoft's support, but holding the players playing the game is their main objective(player retention), so next time you hear anyone claiming you need to buy dlc's to give longer support to the game that is blatant lie.

Another interesting thing he said is that they are willing to support communities by giving some cash to support their events and i think in that regard nili hasn't had enough reach to some communities.

TG match making, tg ladder and forced settings+awful maps should be the 1 priority, re match is good but...not as important as the previous issues as those actually have an effect on player's retention, a re match only helps active players and not the casuals.

 

[DracKeN]

Have you considered that there isn't a master plan? AOE2 is a niche video game that while we all believe has potential to them represents a less appetizing opportunity?

I'm not talking about Master plan, the crucial part is whether AoE II will keep being supported long term and what are the criterias for it and how much of the AoE franchise support will go to AoE IV if the state of the games (regarding players, viewers, competition) will be similar. But again, that's just part of this interview that I'd prefer to have included, main point was that it would be nice to get overall more information and transparency - some of them being quite basic (tournament calendar - yeah, can't happen cause of whatever reason) and having a platform for it.

 

[Potkeny]

Another interesting thing he said is that they are willing to support communities by giving some cash to support their events and i think in that regard nili hasn't had enough reach to some communities.

I was thinking about what he said about this, and I somehow got the feeling it was more about "growing their channel" than "supporting communities", so if a community is not based around a (close to) fulltime streamer, they will have a harder time getting tournament-money.

Which is ofc somewhat understandable, the resources are used more "efficiently" if its about viewers, unless the tournament they do gets casted by the big-boiz, its hard to argue that the tournament is "worth" money from MS pov, but that gives me the feeling that its more about trying to help aoe2-streamers (twitch/etc. is still an awesome tool for marketing your game) than truly "supporting communities".

Especially when there is no transparent way of getting additional support for your tournament with a prizepool already, it's still up to Nili to decide.

 

[Lankbouv]

The interview was disappointing in that he obfuscated the role of Nili and didn't give a straight answer about many things.

 

[oozkan]

Waiting for timestamps since I don't have 1 hour or 40 mins in 1.5 speed but I already have a question at first minute?

@theArtosisPylon who is your dentist, pm me the number? You would compete with Jordan on likeability with those teeth.

 

[MaSmOrRa]

Waiting for timestamps since I don't have 1 hour or 40 mins in 1.5 speed but I already have a question at first minute?

@theArtosisPylon who is your dentist, pm me the number? You would compete with Jordan on likeability with those teeth.

It's definitely timestamped! but I heard for some people its not working unfortunately...

 

[IYIyTh]

I'm not talking about Master plan, the crucial part is whether AoE II will keep being supported long term and what are the criterias for it and how much of the AoE franchise support will go to AoE IV if the state of the games (regarding players, viewers, competition) will be similar. But again, that's just part of this interview that I'd prefer to have included, main point was that it would be nice to get overall more information and transparency - some of them being quite basic (tournament calendar - yeah, can't happen cause of whatever reason) and having a platform for it.

Have you considered that there is no plan to grow a competitive scene?

You keep asking for more information about tournaments/transparency, what if the simple answer is that there isn't any to be provided and very little planning is involved in tournaments outside of allowing tournament hosts flexibility. Probably why there isn't a roadmap -- it simply isn't a priority.

It was touched on that from a business standpoint that while a very small subset of fans make a lot of noise regarding continuous game support that single player folks are a much greater target audience.

They probably only have so much of a budget to support sponsorship and it's highly unlikely there is going to be any transparency as to who gets it because boosting aoe 2's competitive scene is more likely an ancillary benefit to the running of any number of DE support team(s), and not necessarily a priority.

While that information might be important to you (tournament calendar), it's very unimportant to most people outside of what aoezone and other ancillary information sites already provide. Even then, those watching tournaments are still a very small subset of those who play the game, let alone can qualify for the tournaments you're seeking info for.

 

[Hera_]

Havent seen the interview but on the topic of long term aoe2 i wanted to ask what is the potential for yet another release of aoe2?

Is doesnt even have to be a new game that u buy on steam but just a massive patch that overhauls the main menu/lobby system/friends system and completely addresses the whole TG setup.

I think aoe2 gameplay wise and balance wise is in such a good state right now but going forward player retention feels alot more about community and features rather than gameplay itself.

I had this idea that an Aoe2 ‘Final addition’ as a new game on steam addressing all these issues can really breathe life into the scene and attract new players, whilw also addressing all the issues the current players (both casual, competitive and all in between) have been complaining about. If thats not viable simply a massive patch advertised through the youtube channel and during a big tourney can have a similar effect.

Its ambitious and a big ask for sure but i just remember how the release of DE really snowballed viewership and playerbase despite so many flaws upon release. Is this viable or am i simply coping too much?

 

[oozkan]

It's definitely timestamped! but I heard for some people its not working unfortunately...

I just opened video in incognito and you are right, even when I log off from my account, it works.

It is interesting though, searched through google forums but I can't find anything, they seem to be care about content creators rather than viewers when it comes to timestamp.

 

[IYIyTh]

Havent seen the interview but on the topic of long term aoe2 i wanted to ask what is the potential for yet another release of aoe2?

Is doesnt even have to be a new game that u buy on steam but just a massive patch that overhauls the main menu/lobby system/friends system and completely addresses the whole TG setup.

I think aoe2 gameplay wise and balance wise is in such a good state right now but going forward player retention feels alot more about community and features rather than gameplay itself.

I had this idea that an Aoe2 ‘Final addition’ as a new game on steam addressing all these issues can really breathe life into the scene and attract new players, whilw also addressing all the issues the current players (both casual, competitive and all in between) have been complaining about. If thats not viable simply a massive patch advertised through the youtube channel and during a big tourney can have a similar effect.

Its ambitious and a big ask for sure but i just remember how the release of DE really snowballed viewership and playerbase despite so many flaws upon release. Is this viable or am i simply coping too much?

AOE2 "HD" DE?

Could have several DLC's.

Pathing edition -- have a campaign that takes you through the stages of pathing in DE -- from initial release cuman steppe lancers walking through walls to now.

 

[oozkan]

After watching video, my two cents, I think @MaSmOrRa should have bet more than a beer.

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

4. Will is a daily 'Zone lurker :O

They had to see my ideas somewhere

 

[thepitzaboy]

Nelson as usual awesome job, good to hear Will's perspective..

Suggestion: It might be a good idea to do a poll and select top 5 q's for these videos..

 

[SuperskinnyBLS]

Jokes aside
Did you guys get inspired by my post about Vietnamese eco bonus? @theArtosisPylon I even gave an explanation as of why the wood thing would do better than free blacksmith upgrades, I have to admit that was one of my few very rare quality comments on aoezone.

1 more thing, have you heard of Viper's dynasty?

 

[TopperHarley]

Great interview, very well done!

Actually interesting to find out Nili put his own line manager into his ‚most influential people‘ list (or whatever it was called).

Just shows how much Nili is sucking up to his own boss. (Apologies, but I do despise this kind of behavior)