Many here love watching AoE2 streams and especially tournaments. What makes the game so fun to watch? Aside from things like nostalgia, habit, playing the game yourself or the Medieval setting.
To me, AoE2 is so much fun to watch mostly for two reasons, especially when compared to other games and RTS:
1) Complexity: while the basics are simple, the game is incredibly complex. It has countless civs, map generations, strategies, builds, tactics, micro tricks, variations. This means it is not really fully "figured out". There is no stale 1 meta which is stangnant for ever. Instead, we have meta shifts from time to time, different civs become stronger, different matchups matter, the map influences everything etc.
2) Slow pace: the game is relatively slow paced. This is IMO due to a few factors: large maps; relatively strong buildings (can't take down a TC before castle mostly); no batch training; no snare. This allows for a lot of options for the players and comeback potential.
Both of these factors IMO differentiate AoE2 from some other games: It is, for the most part, NOT only dominated by the best Build order, the best macro, the best micro, the best timing push. It is not a game in which you will be top1 for a long time merely by playing 100 % meta and having the best mechanics.
Instead, it is all about the following: the "great game", strategies, map awareness and control, incremental advantages, long term plans, comebacks and raiding. Of course you still need amazing mechanics, but as a viewer you feel that great strategies and decision making are often the most important factors. This makes AoE2 feel almost like chess and less like an FPS in the guise of an RTS.
To me, AoE2 is so much fun to watch mostly for two reasons, especially when compared to other games and RTS:
1) Complexity: while the basics are simple, the game is incredibly complex. It has countless civs, map generations, strategies, builds, tactics, micro tricks, variations. This means it is not really fully "figured out". There is no stale 1 meta which is stangnant for ever. Instead, we have meta shifts from time to time, different civs become stronger, different matchups matter, the map influences everything etc.
2) Slow pace: the game is relatively slow paced. This is IMO due to a few factors: large maps; relatively strong buildings (can't take down a TC before castle mostly); no batch training; no snare. This allows for a lot of options for the players and comeback potential.
Both of these factors IMO differentiate AoE2 from some other games: It is, for the most part, NOT only dominated by the best Build order, the best macro, the best micro, the best timing push. It is not a game in which you will be top1 for a long time merely by playing 100 % meta and having the best mechanics.
Instead, it is all about the following: the "great game", strategies, map awareness and control, incremental advantages, long term plans, comebacks and raiding. Of course you still need amazing mechanics, but as a viewer you feel that great strategies and decision making are often the most important factors. This makes AoE2 feel almost like chess and less like an FPS in the guise of an RTS.